In the past any spare WCs for qualifying have usually gone to players beaten in the final stages of pre-qualifying, either in ranking order or via a further play-off, or to players not involved in the play-offs, so I can recall no precedent in the last 13 years for someone beaten in an early round being given a WC. Hence I think Tara has no chance of one now.
Ouch, tight match for Liz there, but well done to her and Amanda for winning through. I do think it's a shame that Joss and Tara will be denied, but if they can't beat their compatriots then I guess that's that. Hopefully this'll be the catalyst for something better from Amanda.
Great to see Amanda actually winning matches again. Hopefully she can win a round or two in qualies and start to get her confidence back. Liz is a solid player so it's not a surprise to see her in the final, though it would have been great for one of the younger players to take a spot.
Remember she has recorded a top 100 win on grass over Harkleroad, and has a good game for this surface.
You can only beat who is on the other side of the court, its not her fault Tara and Joss were in the same half, and in any event Tara blew it by losing to to Steph. I'm pleased for her, she works damn hard, gets no funding and deserves her moment out there. She had a good go at Karatancheva last year, and with a kinder draw I genuinely think coudl win a round on this surface.
The only travesty is that when she really needed to step-up Joss failed to do so, which is why she didn't make it.
People are always moaning about our players not having the killer instinct, or not wanting it enough - well that's what makes the play-off so great. If you don't play to your best, if you don't fight for every point, you are going home. Liz and Amanda showed true spirit to come through, the other girls have noone to blame but themselves.
Wildcards were awarded based pretty much exclusively on ranking in accordance with the criteria. Everyone else knew the drill - if your ranking ain't gotta enough you have to prove yourself against your comparables in the play-offs. I think its fair, and ok Joss has had some good showings last 2 weeks, and Tara did ok at Nottingham, and its a shame they won't be there this year, but you knwo what? I bet they are hurting right now, and this should give them the drive to work hard and get their rankings up so next year they aren't in the same position.
There is 1 QWC left however, and i would expect it to be between Joss and Yaz as the losing semi finalists.
-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 12th of June 2009 09:08:43 AM
-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 12th of June 2009 09:11:41 AM
No disrespect as I'm sure she works bloody hard but Liz Thomas has a lightweight game and has little or no chance of being a top 300 player. Although Joc is young and inexperienced, she is far more likely to pull off a couple of good wins in qualifying. Tara has been pretty inconsistent over the past year so nothing is guaranteed there. Same with Steph who goes up and down on an almost weekly basis. Amanda's been in shocking form and should get back to futures level and start winning matches
Josh Milton deserves a wild card if there are any left. For a small guy, moves well on a grass court and groundstrokes zip through better than they usually do.
I thought there were 2QWCs left? Tara and Joss can still play the juniors, lol, but I bet they will be dissapointed. I would like one of them to get a WC anyway.