It appears that the WC for Jamie Baker in Carson this week was part of an exchange as the LTA have stated that the WC's for Nottingham are going to be Goodall, Smethurst, James Ward and Ryan Harrison. Link: http://www.lta.org.uk/News/All-news-items/2010-05-24/Wild-Cards-awarded-for-AEGON-Trophy/

Well he is entered for Nottingham, although down at about 27th alternate when I last checked so it seems unlikely that he will get into the main draw, would he be allowed to withdraw from Nottingham to play Ojai? I'm not clear on what the rules are in this sort of circumstance.

Count Zero wrote:

---

Hmm, so i assume baker swapped his own WC almost as surely he'd have got one. Do we know if he is playing Ojai next week? would make sense.

Nottingham is strong so it could prove a good move from him points wise, although he wont get grass practice.

shame though to 'give' 1 away here.

---

Yes, it's pretty clear that Harrison got the WC Jamie would have got for Nottingham (how could you doubt OEM, Count? ), so I'm happy my 'cynicism' wasn't well placed and if Jamie beats Polansky today, it's going to seem like quite an inspired trade. Though like you say if he does get a Wimbledon WC, you'd think he could have done with some match practice on grass.

Then again, he must be a candidate for Queen's and/or Eastbourne too - I'm certainly in favour of Wimbledon MD WCs getting Eastbourne WCs because if other players get them, there's a good chance they'll have to miss Wimbledon qualifying.

Edit: Just thought, this still comes across as a bit of a waste of a Nottingham WC if it's true that if Jamie had entered Carson in the first place he wouldn't have needed one ...

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 26th of May 2010 05:00:59 PM

revised LTA targets:

BBC Sport understands that official targets, circulated internally at the LTA, are for one man and four women to be inside the top 100 by September 2012.

With Andy Murray a fixture inside the top 10, a forecast that says the world number four will not be joined by another Briton is a stark illustration of the dearth of talent in British men's tennis.

But by September 2016, the projections change dramatically. The aim is to have four British men in the ATP top 100, four women in the WTA top 100, and places in the World Group of both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.

The LTA has defended its decision to set "realistic" targets.

"The general principle of goal setting is that you should neither aim too low and neither too high," says LTA player director Steven Martens.

"We don't have too many [male] players aged 22 or 23 at the moment. We've got a few, and they do have a shot in the next two years to make the top 100.

"But I think it's tough. It's going to be a strong challenge for them, not impossible but no guarantee.

"That's why we have to give them the motivation as well as the financial backing in the right way."

Former head of men's tennis Mark Petchey, who walked out of the LTA in 2006, has a different view.

"It's a very negative message," he says. "It makes you question their strategy in terms of what they've done for the players. If you don't really believe that they're going to become top-100 players then why are you helping them?"

Those British male players closest to breaking into the elite are Alex Bogdanovic (ranked 160), Jamie Baker at number 257, Josh Goodhall, ranked 306, with Daniel Evans at number 337.

Martens believes that without support from the governing body, many of the current crop of British players would be forced to retire, such are the costs of professional tennis.

At the end of 2009, Britain had four top-100 singles players - Murray, Katie O'Brien, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong.

The latest figures, seen by BBC Sport, detail the steady progression the LTA intends to make in terms of average rankings, top-100 players and levels of the Davis Cup.

The target for September 2010 is to have three top-100 players (one man, two women) and an average top-five ranking of 160 for men, 113 for women.

For 2011, the estimate is four top-100 players (one man, three women) with an average top-five rankings of 150 and 103.

Five top-100 players is the target for September 2012 (still only one man, four women) with the top-five ranking averaging at 140 for men, 93 for women.

If four British men are to break into the ATP top 100, the hopes of the LTA could be resting heavily on the likes of Ashley Hewitt and Oliver Golding.

Hewitt, an 18-year-old from Warrington, reached the second round of the French Open boys' singles tournament on Monday, while Golding, a 16-year-old from London, has reached the same stage at Roland Garros and plays on Tuesday.

In terms of projections for the Olympic Games, also contained in the figures we have seen, Britain plans to deliver two tennis medals in London 2012 and two more in Rio 2016.

The projections are made to demonstrate a "performance pathway" under terms of UK Sport funding.

Two years ago UK Sport asked all Olympic sports to sign up to "Mission 2012" to ensure accountability for the investment in high-performance.

Edit - link to the above article http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8714857.stm


-- Edited by Madeline on Tuesday 1st of June 2010 12:01:57 PM

OEM's article about Queen's today is entitled "Alex Bogdanovic out to make organisers squirm" http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/tennis/article2543610.ece 

As one of the people guilty of taking this line, I do hope for Boggo's sake this isn't being built up too much, but there you go, it's what virtually all of us here want, and even if Dimitrov somehow manages to play an Eaton-esque 'once in every couple of years when I can be bothered' blinder, it wouldn't change the fact that the Dimitrov WC is virtually indefensible based on what's happened over the last 12 months.

Neil also says this: "It is understood that Bogdanovic has rejected the chance to play in the Davis Cup for Britain against Turkey at Eastbourne the week after Wimbledon and being bloody-minded clearly suits him."

If this is true, I think it's a pity, particularly if Muzza isn't playing. Why? Because in that case he'd play as our no. 1, get the Turkish no. 2 on day 1 and then (assuming he, Ilhan and Flemski are the winners on the first two days) have a chance to be the hero against Ilhan in the 4th rubber (with little to lose, since the no. 2 will be the one expected to beat a weak Turkish no, 2 in the 5th rubber), instead of having to take the poisoned chalice of playing the no. 1 on day 1 and then a high pressure 5th rubber on day 3.

However, if he has turned the 'chance' down because he thinks it's a very important part of the season for him, which clearly it is, and (with the clock ticking on his ambitions to get into the top 100) he doesn't want to be derailed by a DC tie yet again, who can blame him after the number of times he's been shafted, scapegoated and generally hung out to dry by the LTA and/or former captains over DC in the past? Clearly those who let it be thought that he was neverr going to be picked again didn't consider the possibility that one day they might be desperate for him to play ...

Indeed, if losing most of his funding this year has made him take more charge of his own career and has made him feel freer to stand up to the LTA instead of feeling that he has to toe the line, then I think that evidence that maybe he is putting his ranking first can only be a good thing. There are signs that it might be translating into a harder attitude on court as well, which is surely good from everyone's point of view (except his opponents ), including the LTA's in the longer term, and if he manages to get his funding back at some point, I hope he'll continue to realise that getting the right results is more important than toeing the line just for the sake of it.

If he has turned down a DC place against Turkey and has given sensible well-thought out reasons for doing so, then I really hope that's not affecting whether he gets WCs, because when he's such a clear GB no. 2 and doing his best to give us another player inthe top 100, that would be beyond petty.

Neil finishes by saying, intriguingly: "It is understood that a meeting has been called tonight of all the full-time players in Britain, to discuss the state of the game and how they think it can be improved.

It is for the players ears only and no one from the sports administration has been invited either to speak or listen. There is enough disquiet over the organisation of the game, its constant changes of personnel, direction and targets, for the voices of those most affected to be heard."

Not really any of our business, I don't think, but I wonder how many of them will turn up and what's going to be discussed ...

Also in the Times, fighting talk from Nigel Sears at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/tennis/article2543571.ece and a comment from Sarah Borwell to the effect that The difference with the men is that they have Andy Murray, who is so far ahead of everyone else that the boys have nobody to look up to, (as opposed to the women who can identify with players like Bally and Anne and feel like what Brits like that are achieving is relevant to them too) which I'm sure is absolutely spot on.

I think maybe you need to register and login. I wasn't charged for accessing those articles.