I had a feeling this tournament was a good one to enter, and so have had a quick look at draw & seeding strengths for 50K(+H) events that GB girls have been in recently.
It's interactive. You can mess around with it using the filters and check boxes provided and highlight bits and pieces yourselves - Don't worry, it's unbreakable.
It's just a 10 minute quick review of the data really, but I think it shows what I was aiming at - Kazan is a 'good' 50K to have gone to.
In no way am I seeking to undermine Tara's achievement. I just thought it was interesting to see.
Of course, if the consensus is it's not interesting, then I'm happy to delete the post.
Being a bit of a stats geek, I find this really interesting. I agree Kazan has a relatively weak field this year (Bratchikova aside who fell in round one) so it was a good choice for Tara. That said she has defeated decent opponents thus far:
- Valeria Solovieva: 3rd seed, steady player, on the cusp of the top 200, the kind of player Tara will meet regularly in International Tour event qualies
- Ksenia Lykina: Former top 200 player, not as good as she once was but refinding her range. A real pocket rocket when on song.
- Mayya Katsitadze: Up and coming player. I wouldn't be surprised if she was top 300 by the end of the year.
Looking at the other two example given in your beautiful tableau, I would see the Bronx tournament as a bit of an exception as the field is of a higher standard (as it is most years) than most 50Ks mainly due to it's close proximity in timing and location to the US Open and so is full of players preparing for the qualifying tournament (our own JoKo included).
Anyway, enough rambling - bravo for that great visual aid
A shame. But, another CH, and probably into the top 250 to boot. Hopefully onwards and upwards building consistently from this platform. Good week Tara, and hope for more of the same soon!
Disappointing loss but not that surprising given the amount of effort she will have had to put into winning her semi. Will be interesting to see how Tara does in the autumn. Hopefully she will have gained some confidence from this week. She's on the entry list for a couple of 25Ks in Japan. Not sure after that, could play the GB 75Ks or go to Aus and play their 25Ks.
Thanks, insomniacfolder, that's a very clear way to look at things. I'm sure the Bronx and (to a lesser extent) Lexington events have been strengthened by being in the US with the US Open coming up, but Kazan is clearly weak for a 50K+H and I'm sure that's why Tara made the effort to go there, though even then probably not thinking she would get quite that far!
It still wasn't easy and looks to have attracted some good up-and-coming young players (after all, it would make more sense for them to go to Russia than to the the US if they were not yet ranked high enough to play US Open qualies, especially if they were European), so it may well have been stronger than the rankings implied - the seeded players certainly seem to have found it very tough judging by the results.
Kazan is not the easiest trip (as you'll have gathered if you follow Tara and/or John Morris's Twitter accounts!), so well done to Tara for deciding it was worth the hassle and then making the most of it.
The players who are at the biggest advantage in terms of playing in tournaments that are weak relative to the points and prize money on offer are those who actually live in countries which hold these tournaments and lots of them. I'm not sure which countries fit that bill as far as the women as concerned, but for the men, countries like Brazil and (to a lesser extent, since their Futures tend not to be that weak) Turkey come to mind.
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