I suspect Laura's entry into the Traralgon makes any outside chance she would get a wildcard entry for either qualifying/ main draw for Aussie open a more remote prospect.

Andrew Bettles, Lewis Burton, Richard Gabb and Ashley Hewitt have all withdrawn, and except for Andrew are now down for the Grade 2 event in the Slovak Republic (and presumably the Grade 1 in the Czech Republic) along with Tom Farquharson, Stefan Sterland-Markovic and Liam Broady (James and Chris are still down for both, and will have to opt for Australia or Europe). That's probably a pragmatic assessment that they would be unlikely to win many points in the Australian events, being unseeded in qualifying, whilst they will be direct entries to the weaker European ones.

I agree that Jess's absence is surprising, given that her father told Philwrig that making the junior slams is a key goal for 2010. The Rens are down for a couple of big tournaments at the start of the year (Casablanca / Coffee Bowl) and perhaps feel that these offer more chance of progressing up the rankings, and don't want to undertake a third major trip in a short period of time.

http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/tournaments/tournamentacceptancelist.asp?tournament=1100020759&event=1100116121&order=Position&gender=Boys

http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/tournaments/tournamentacceptancelist.asp?tournament=1100020759&event=1100116123&order=Position&gender=Girls

Laura doesn't have the 2nd highest ranking if the rankings on the acceptence list are at the date they will use to determine seeding (are they?)

Pliskova (222), McHale (232) & Holland (328) all beat Laura's (402) professional ranking and will all be seeded above her as a WTA ranking of 350 beats a junior ranking of 21 and Laura is only 25th. That pushes her down to 17th position in the entry list, and thus will be unseeded unless there is a withdrawal from the top 16. Therefore, she could play heather in the first round


EDIT: As an aside, it looks like there will effectively be a 5th Junior slam this year with the first ever Youth Olympic Games being held in August in Singapore. There are singles/doubles junior tennis (no mixed doubles though!) with the same points as a grand slam. Bizarely, no matter how high her ranking is, Laura won't be elligible because she's too young (1/1/92-31/12/93 only) but Heather could play.


-- Edited by RBBOT on Friday 1st of January 2010 08:13:35 PM

Ah good! I should have checked the entry list, over looked some juniors there totally! Laura has some defending to do, though I dont think rank particularly bothers her.

RBBOT wrote:

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Laura doesn't have the 2nd highest ranking if the rankings on the acceptence list are at the date they will use to determine seeding (are they?)

Pliskova (222), McHale (232) & Holland (328) all beat Laura's (402) professional ranking and will all be seeded above her as a WTA ranking of 350 beats a junior ranking of 21 and Laura is only 25th. That pushes her down to 17th position in the entry list, and thus will be unseeded unless there is a withdrawal from the top 16. Therefore, she could play heather in the first round


EDIT: As an aside, it looks like there will effectively be a 5th Junior slam this year with the first ever Youth Olympic Games being held in August in Singapore. There are singles/doubles junior tennis (no mixed doubles though!) with the same points as a grand slam. Bizarely, no matter how high her ranking is, Laura won't be elligible because she's too young (1/1/92-31/12/93 only) but Heather could play.


-- Edited by RBBOT on Friday 1st of January 2010 08:13:35 PM

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Thanks for the information about the Youth Olympics - I wasn't aware of it being offered Grade A points.

Regarding Aus Open seeding, the rankings at the time of the draw are used, so in the unlikely event that anyone (eg Isabella Holland) does well enough to move into the WTA top 175 then Heather will drop down in the seeding.

Regardless of whether Laura is seeded, she will be in the opposite half of the draw to Heather. The rules are:

"If there are two ranked players from the same National Association competing, they shall be drawn in different halves of the draw.
If three or four ranked players from the same National Association are competing, the first and second ranked shall be drawn as above and the third and fourth ranked players drawn into the quarters which do not already contain one of that National Associations players.
This principle of separation of ITF ranked players shall extend to cover all players in
the draw. Therefore, the top eight players from a country shall be drawn in separate eighths and so on. Any remaining competitors from the same National Association shall be drawn by lot but, wherever possible, should not be drawn against each other in the first round. "