ENTRIES WEEK 25 - 20/06/2011

seagull · Hall of fame

ENTRIES WEEK 25 - 20/06/2011

British_is_Best · County player

So Wimbledon will decide its wildcards today. Hopefully all the ladies who have met the 250 mark will get in but a bit more tricky on the mens side. James Ward, despite a fairly poor year, should get one as he is ranked well inside the top 250 but will anyone else get one? Personally I think they may relax the rules a bit and give one to Dan Cox who is ranked at a CH of 273 today and is only 16 points away from Acasuso (the WR 250)

Shhh · Challenger level

With only one seemingly to given for the men, I'd suggest Bloomers. He has been out injured on and off through the last 12 months, has won a match here before, and of course made the Newport semi......to me thats enough to justify not just giving it to the next man in the rankings but.....hey, thats just my view!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i bumped into Dan Cox at queens, had a little chat with him, seems like a nice guy. i hope he gets one, he's never had one before and he's only just short of the top 250 mark.

I wonder if they will make the decision before or after his match vs Ward. Can't see much coming bloomers way, if he was in contention then surely he'd have been given one of the Notss one at least. with Gabb further up the pecking order things don't look good. hopefully he'll get a Qualies WC at least. (and don;t forget his criticism of the LTA after newport last year)

-- Edited by Count Zero on Monday 6th of June 2011 09:11:35 AM

Shhh · Challenger level

The thing with Cox/Ward, if James wins then the LTA has no problem in awarding him a WC but if Dan wins, its harder to do that for them, especially if they still do not give one to Dan. Its the LTA we're talking about though!

indiana · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
The thing with Cox/Ward, if James wins then the LTA has no problem in awarding him a WC but if Dan wins, its harder to do that for them, especially if they still do not give one to Dan. Its the LTA we're talking about though!

Just one match surely ! Rightly or wrongly the LTA have as a big part of their criteria set the 52 week long WR 250 target. And even if folk think wrongly, it is still only one match.

James is in on that, so I'd certainly give him a WC.

I totally come and go on should they relax the 250 rule. Thing really is it was pretty stupid in my mind to ever have such a definitive point. Arguably, no bad thing if they accepted that this year and then didn't repeat that so definitely next year !

Dan's a difficult one, he is GB No 3 and not that far from WR 250 but many would maintain that he is certainly not GB's no 3 tennis player, and even more certainly not on grass. Frankly, he's overranked ( though good for him on how he has collected his points ).

All that said, maybe bit more tricky if Dan really thumped James.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 6th of June 2011 02:15:11 PM

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

I agree with you Indy, saying 250 is the be all and end all is just silly. If a player has been making good, consistant progress towards the 250 mark but is short then sod it, give them the WC and if this time next year they are still just short of the target then perhaps reconsider.

Will be interesting to see how the LTA manage to balls up the WCs this year. I for one am at least expecting a few dissapointments.

Jajon · Strong Club Player

when will they announce the wild cards? Really hope Broady (sister) gets one!

DavidC · Tennis legend

Jajon wrote:
when will they announce the wild cards? Really hope Broady (sister) gets one!

The Wildcard Committee always meet on the Monday (today) and the first tranche of wildcards are announced either tonight or tomorrow.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Fran Stephenson tweeted to say she's had some good news. Could that be a QWC?

steven · Tennis legend

I was wondering about that - she'd be a decent choice for one in some years, but it seems unlikely this year given how many potential MD/QD WC receipients we've got on the women's side.

I wonder if she's heard that she's got a WC into Roehampton or Wimbledon juniors or something like that - she'd need one because having concentrated on seniors recently, she hasn't got a high enough junior ranking to get in as a DA.

Alternatively, she might have got one for the QWC playoffs, where there are only 11 DAs, but I doubt it's that because if you take out those likely to get WCs without going through the playoffs and all the players in the GB top 25 who haven't even been playing in Nottingham, she probably wouldn't need one.

Or it could be something completely different, e.g. to do with funding/sponsorship.

indiana · Tennis legend

I don't myself see Fran as a candidate for a recommendation for a Wimbledon Q WC, particularly this year as Steven indicates, and given most of her ranking points both this year and last year have been earned on Bournemouth's clay courts.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 6th of June 2011 11:45:19 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Well, we know one Wimbledon men's main draw wild card today ... and it's not someone under 25 ... but before anyone gets too excited, it's not someone British either:

@arnaudclement « Bonjour à tous. Je viens d'obtenir une Wild Card pour Wimbledon ! C'est un très bonne nouvelle ! »

Count Zero · Tennis legend

well i dont know what to say, is he a crowd puller?

steven · Tennis legend

I wouldn't call it a consensus, but there appears to be a view in the media that Dan Cox may well get a main draw WC, though Dan himself wasn't making any assumptions and probably felt yesterday's performance might swing it or not, which may in turn have made him more nervous than he otherwise would have been.

However, when you read (for example) the Guardian on WCs, it's clear that they aren't that clued up overall:

"But if [Heather] will have slept easily on Monday night, there will have been a few other British women who might have had the odd moment of concern. Anne Keothavong, ranked 110, is right on the cut-off line and will receive a wildcard for Wimbledon if required but players such as Naomi Broady, Katie O'Brien and Emily Webley-Smith will all have their fingers crossed that their luck is in. James Ward and Daniel Cox are the only men likely to receive good news."

e.g. there's no "if required" for Anne, she's already a direct acceptance.