R3

(12) Daneika Borthwick (GBR) d. (8) Emily Fanning (NZL) 6-4 6-0

QF

(14) Xiaorong Dong (CHN) v (12) Daneika Borthwick (GBR)

Daneika and Alex progressed to the doubles QF

SF

(6) Risa Ozaki (JPN) d. (12) Daneika Borthwick (GBR) 3-6 6-2 6-1

looknorth wrote:

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Yes that may be however when Alex arrived in Australia to sign in 'someone' had withdrawn her from the tournament. Not only that, they had the audacity to ask for confirmation of withdrawal to a British email address and then emailed again asking for confirmation that even if she arrived in Oz she would not be allowed to play!! It beggars belief that someone could stoop so low. So yes it was a poor result however preparation was not good , her mental state was not at 100% and she is finding it hard to stomach why someone who do this.

She can still play in week 2 so lets wish her better luck eh?

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This sounds really appalling  but two things I don't understand - are there no clues from email address that the spurious withdrawl was sent from, and shwouldn't the tournament have got a bit suspicious when asked "for confirmation that even if she arrived in Oz she would not be allowed to play"

That's an awful thing to happen. I'd noticed at one point when I checked the acceptance lists on Tennis Australia that Alex was down has having withdrawn on Jun 30, the same day as she played her Wimbledon second round match, and before a local paper ran the story of her going to Australia next, so I assumed there had been an administrative ****-up (that wouldn't be the first time!). I hope that the outcome is an improvement in the system for dealing with withdrawals, so that it cannot happen again.

Good luck to both Alex and Daneika for the second week.

steven wrote:

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Don't juniors have to have password-protected IPINs these days? If so, you would have thought they could implement a system to stop stuff like this happening based on that. I wonder how often this happens - you'd think (hope) it would be pretty rare ...

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Since last year all juniors do indeed need to have IPINs to enter tournaments. AFAICS there is an important difference between the Junior and Pro Circuit though when it comes to withdrawals. With Women's ITF events all players have to enter and withdraw using standard forms, entering their IPIN number, which are then processed by the ITF. With Junior events entries and withdrawals are handled by tournament directors, and although most if not all require IPIN numbers for entry, withdrawals are often allowed by fax or email to the tournament with no requirement to give IPIN numbers (though some do require that the withdrawal be signed by a representative of the relevant Tennis Association, or at least have someone official named as a contact).  Darwin, like many, merely requires that withdrawals are made in writing and faxed or emailed.

I don't know how often this abuse has happened, but you would hope that just this one would be sufficient to cause the ITF to tighten the system.