Thanks for the response. I agree that Ancic fulfils all the criteria for an overseas WC and it's a real pity he's still beset by health problems. Tomic should also attract a boisterous crowd given the strong Aussie presence you tend to get at Queen's (and at Wimbledon for that matter) and I wouldn't mind Harrison if the LTA have got a deal out of it for more than just the Carson WC that was swapped for Nottingham.

Indeed, if the LTA feel they have few good main draw WC candidates among the GB men at the moment, going for swaps would be quite an imaginative and constructive thing to do.

I don't agree, though, that Jamie Baker (or any of the other top few Brits) isn't a decent attraction for a tournament of this prestige. You've spent a lot more time at this kind of tournament than me, obviously, but in my experience at Wimbledon and Queen's, the courts where GB WCs are playing are always packed out compared to the courts where non-GB WCs are playing, unless the latter are really big names, by which I mean names at least as big as Ancic.

Obviously the whole WC system is inherently unfair (e.g. to those countries that don't hold slams) and it wouldn't bother me if it was scrapped worldwide, but if the rationale for having them is to increase spectator interest, that implies to me giving the WCs to home players except where very big names need them for a good reason (which does not include forgetting to enter), and if virtually every other country in the world uses most of their WCs to help give a leg up to their own up and coming players (or to get something back from another federation in return), why don't we?

Finally, I haven't majored on a comparison between Smethurst and Dimitrov up to now because I didn't know if Dan was healthy, but he's in Queen's qualifying so hopefully he is. Dan is just a few months older than Grigor, higher-ranked (and up 85 places this year) and has picked up more ATP points since the turn of the year. It's all quite close between them, admittedly, but you'd think that Dan being a home player would tip the balance, in any normal tennis-playing country anyway.

Having said that, if there had been just one more WC to give to a Brit, I'd have given it to Boggo, who's done ok at Queen's in the past, is ranked far higher thanany of the other contenders and has beaten probably more top 100 players in his career than the rest of the Brits bar Murray put together.

Enjoy your last weekend in Paris

It's an interesting one.  The LTA have put themselves in a slight corner by their 250 thing and only exception being younger players ( and I agree none of them are yet good enough ).

So, do they get flak for just Boggo ( and clearly other doubts have been raised re him, not least by the LTA ) though I think I read a suggestion that Jamie B may have scraped into the top 250 with other movements, or do they get flak for shifting the goalposts ?

Well, anyway I hope they don't decide based on what will be least flak for themselves ( though that would probably not be untypical ) and just broaden the criteria so that more Brits get WCs.

I guess they could stick to their guns and the All England Club ( possibly with LTA background agreement ) could pick more Brits.   

Boggo, Baker, Evans, Wardy, Goodall, Smethurst, Eaton and Wardinator  ? 

Dinnae think 8's ever going to happen and I do agree with having some for deserving foreign players, just not blooming Dimitrov please    

steven wrote:

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What the LTA need to realise (Pashanski, Berlocq, Mello ...) is the way to maximise the chances of getting one of more GB WCs through to R2 at Wimby is to give WCs to every Brit who would have a decent chance if they got a South American clay-courter (or equivalent grass court muppet like Pashanski) ranked outside the top 80. Why?

Because that's the way you maximise the chances of at least one of them getting such a draw.

It's not rocket science, just the most basic probability theory - but I guess it's hard to see the wood for the trees when their first priority is to assuage the media, which (big secret here) they won't manage to do anyway!!

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Well said, Steven.   Doubt the LTA decision-makers ever bother to descend from their ivory towers to "test the water" in the real world or even attempt to discover what British tennis fans want, though! 

 

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Sunday 6th of June 2010 01:01:26 PM

To be fair to the LTA, not many of the Brits have produced the efforts this year to particularly stand out for a wild card, and the likes of Alex Ward, whose run in Nottingham perhaps deserved a wild card, came too late and I guess they had already given them out before he beat Dent.

Tomic and Harrison look like they will be promising players and giving them a wild card now means that they will be more likely to return if they ever make it big, and I suppose it could be part of a deal with TA and the USTA in regards to get something in return for Grand Slam qualies or something else.

Dimitrov is the only one that is a bit disappointing as he has not done a lot this year, but again, they are probably thinking of the future with him. I personally wouldn't have given him one as he hasn't had the results to deserve it though.

Boggo could well have been given a wild card here, but if the LTA aren't going to recommend him for a Wimbledon wild card, then they would look ridiculous to give him one here. And given that he has qualified anyway, it has worked out better that they didn't as he gets more points and more match practice.

Boggo has drawn Dimitrov, if he beats Grigor convincingly, he'll have really shot the organizers in the foot.