On the basis that she is British #6, i dont really care if she is 24, as she has missed so much time due to injuries which means you can knock a fair bit off that since she hasnt been playing successive full tours and is therefore a lot ''fresher'' than a lot of 24 year olds. British players mature later anyway so I dont see her age as a problem. If you turned your back on 24 year old players, you would have missed Annes huge improvement and climb up the ranking so that cant really be a factor.
Tbh if her only highlight is winnin a 10k and she is still #6, you cant argue that the people below her really need it more, as they should be higher ranked than her if she is such a poor player.
Plus, she missed 6 months in 02, had an operation and then played injury free for nearly to years and was just outside the 250 mark, which is a bloody good effort in under 24 months IMO, during which time she made R2 of Wimb losing 8-6 in the 3rd, to #31 seed Amy Frazier. She has almost been like Bally in the sense that her career has been very stop-start.
Finally, I think she is pretty hot :) So yeh, give her the bloody WC :p
-- Edited by murray_2k9 on Tuesday 2nd of June 2009 09:11:29 AM
Fair points (though Anne had won a hell of a lot more than one 10k before she turned 24), but we have to select on current form and she doesn't have very much - if she is deserving she will get through the pre-qualies anyway, right? We can't just give WCs out of pity, and there are already 5 players who merit the 4 QWCs on this year's form, given their relative age (all but Naomi C at career highs, and I assume NC is a much better player than EWS) - she'd be my number 6.
Yeh Anne had a better ITF career, for sure, and I dont agree with sympathy WCs, but I think EWS has only had one MD WC before in the past, so for me its not asking to much to giv her one more considering all her hard work. If she bombs out in the first then ok, next year she will need to do the pre-qualies, but as the #6 she deserves it in my eyes.
The younger girls will do well to fight for their spot. We need them to be hungry and appreciate what it means to get a WC early in their career so they dont take them for granted or waste them in the future.
Im happy whoever gets one tbh, I just think you're being hasty with your judgement of EWS.
Very true - though of course exceptions can be made for age/good recent performances, so we'll see what the LTA do - a pure rankings-based choice seems silly to me, that's all.
I want to see some of the youngsters in the MD since Ive never seen some of them, like Naomi B, shes the only one of the possible WCs I wont have ever seen play I think. I have only ever seen Jocelyn, Tara, and a couple of others in the girls doubles, I will deffo be watchin them this year if the main draw matches arent too good.
Mel is 2 spots or something out of the Birmingham MD. Fingers crossed she makes it! Then that will free up a WC, so there would be 5 WCs? Looking unlikely that a top 10 player is coming so then that could be Bally, Katie, Georgie, Naomi B or C, and then one for the next in, which would prolly be mel anyway if she didnt make the MD.
-- Edited by Tutu on Thursday 4th of June 2009 07:58:34 PM
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Anne Keothavong - Heather Watson - Naomi Cavaday - Laura Robson - Elena Baltacha - Everyone else!
I would have given Moore and Rae wild cards. Tara is only 16 and ranked top 500 which is surely deserving and Rae would surely be ranked a lot higher if it wasn't for injury. I would then do a 3rd placed play-off in the wild card play-off so three players go through from there.
Yes, I am making it up as I go along but that's no worse than what the LTA do!!
I do worry about Katie in the main draw, possibly being stuck with a 5-point mandatory for the rest of the year when she needs the points to make top 100 and succeed on her preferred surfaces. If I was Georgie I would probably just go for qualies too to be honest, but I guess the paycheque is a temptation. I guess you never know what the draw might bring or what they can pull out of the bag though.
Really glad Cav is in qualies not MD - I wonder if that was her choice? You'd put good money on her getting through in any case. Can't argue with Glatch either. Would like to have seen Tara get the QWC though, which would give Jos a free run through the wildcard tournament (hopefully) since they're scheduled to meet there. I reckon the AELTC will make sure both are in qualies anyway though.