Australian Open Entry List & Qualifying Draw - Women

seagull · Hall of fame

Australian Open Entry List & Qualifying Draw - Women

wolf · Tennis legend

RE: Australian Open Entry List - Women

DavidC · Tennis legend

I doubt whether 5 will withdraw before qualifying starts. Mel's unlucky that 4 players have entered with their protected rankings - more than usual.

wolf · Tennis legend

Have faith...Mattek out..only 4 to go.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

So close. Maybe being a top seed in quallies will be a good thing to get Mel on a run before the MD, unless she gets a good result in Brisbane

wolf · Tennis legend

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/17/sports/TEN-Davenport-Pregnant.php

Looks like Lindsay Davenport is pregnant again, so Mel only 3 away now. Sad that it comes at the expense of a multiple Grand Slam winner though, who will now surely end her career?

sd51rby · Lower Club Player

Apparently Petrova is a doubt for the aussie open having contracted meningitis and has already pulled out of Auckland.

wolf · Tennis legend

Srebotnik now withdrawn so Mel 2 out now...Na Li is rumoured to be pulling out as well and Petrova is still struggling.

Georgie is 8 out of qualifying.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

I'll be very pissed off is Petrova and Na Li end up withdrawing as the quallies tournament is on.

I highly doubt either will make Aus open based on their injuries/illnesses.

steven · Tennis legend

Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the AO (various news report in AUS, but it's on her site too so must be correct) which is rather sad cry

since it's always good to have all the best players at the slams and she's the defending champion, but it does mean that Mel's in the main draw biggrin

the first time we have had two women direct acceptances in a slam main draw since err (I'll get back to you on that one, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time this century that two GB girls have got into a slam main draw on ranking alone!) ...

Of course, she'll need to win a round to get more points than she's likely to have got in qualifying, since she'd have been the top seed there, and she'll have to count the AO now whatever happens (so it may be bad for her ranking if she gets an unwinnable draw), but somehow I doubt she'll be too concerned about that right now.

-- Edited by steven at 06:10, 2009-01-11

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Fantastic! A lovely piece of news to wake up to this morning. A Shame that some of the top players won't be there but can't say I'm too disappointed when this is the result. Obviously have to wait and see what the draw is like - lets hope they don't draw each other after all that!

gjr · Club Coach

I'll try and get to see the Brits play and give them some support.

I think though that this will be my last AO for a while if not ever so it will depend on who is on Rod Laver at the time. This maybe my last chance to see the top men play for some time and as a fan mainly of mens tennis i may have to make some tough decisions.

steven · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
the first time we have had two women direct acceptances in a slam main draw since err (I'll get back to you on that one, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time this century that two GB girls have got into a slam main draw on ranking alone!) ...

Getting back to you as promised ...

This is the first time two GB girls have got into the main draw of a slam without a WC in over 15 years - the last time it happened was when Jo Durie and Clare Wood were both DAs at the 1993 US Open.

In the 60 slams since then, with the exception of loads of Wimby WCs and an AO WC for Elena Baltacha in 2003 (the time the LTA did a WC exchange), just 8 GB girls have made it into 19 slam main draws, 12 times as DAs and 7 times as qualifiers:

1994 AO DA/R1 Clare Wood
1994 RG DA/R2 Clare Wood
1994 Wm DA/R1 Clare Wood
1994 UO DA/R1 Clare Wood

1995 Wm Qu/R1 Amanda Wainwright

1996 AO Qu/R1 Clare Wood
1996 Wm DA/R1 Clare Wood

1997 Wm Qu/R3 Karen Cross
1997 UO Qu/R2 Sam Smith

1998 UO DA/R1 Sam Smith

1999 AO DA/R2 Sam Smith
1999 RG DA/R1 Sam Smith
1999 Wm DA/R1 Sam Smith

2000 AO Qu/R2 Julie Pullin

2001 AO DA/R1 Louise Latimer
2001 Wm Qu/R2 Karen Cross

2005 AO Qu/R3 Elena Baltacha

2008 Wm DA/R2 Anne Keothavong
2008 UO DA/R3 Anne Keothavong

2009 AO DA/?? Anne Keothavong
2009 AO DA/?? Melanie South

E&OE!

-- Edited by steven at 13:57, 2009-01-11

Happycynic · Pro player

Great for Mel. It could well damage her ranking (with the idiocy of 40 points for a Q1 win that she may well miss out on) but will massively help her bank balance, and this actually also impinges on progress as well - where you feel you can play, how much you have to play to meet the bills etc.

S&V · Club Coach

This is wonderful, let's hope for a good draw and a couple of wis for each of them.