Week 45 - WTA ($125K Challenger) Pune, India

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 45 - WTA ($125K Challenger) Pune, India

indiana · Tennis legend

insomniacfolder wrote:
Originally scheduled for Delhi, but moved late on to Pune, this is the second of the WTA events pitched below International Level for emerging tennis geographies.
Points and monetary rewards are higher than an ITF $100K, but on the evidence so far, the field depth is far short of that. As can be evidenced by Emily's seeding! There are just 16 in qualifying, and 6 of those are byes. Again, just to mkae it clear, the rewards are all higher than for an ITF $100K.
EWS will in fact just have to play one match to get in to the main draw, and has 4 points and $600 just for turning up.

I like made up words. You are evolving the language with a word that I think most folk would have guessed what you meant smile

Will Emily really get the 4 points for reaching the FQR via a bye ? confuse I know in the ATP you don't get points for rounds reached via byes.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 2nd of November 2012 09:06:44 PM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Originally scheduled for Delhi, but moved late on to Pune, this is the second of the WTA events pitched below International Level for emerging tennis geographies.

Points and monetary rewards are higher than an ITF $100K, but on the evidence so far, the field depth is far short of that. As can be evidenced by Emily's seeding! There are just 16 in qualifying, and 6 of those are byes. Again, just to mkae it clear, the rewards are all higher than for an ITF $100K.

EWS will in fact just have to play one match to get in to the main draw, and has 4 points and $600 just for turning up.

Q1: WEBLEY-SMITH, Emily (GBR) [q2] vs. Bye

Emily's potential FQ opponents to secure 6 points are:

[WC] ALI SAJJAD, Zainab (IND) UNR (CH: UNR) - An 18 year old local wild card who has a career total of one MD and one other Qualifying match win on the Indian ITF circuit in the last 4 years.

CHILUMULA, Nidhi (IND) 710 (CH: 632 in Oct 2012) - Also 18. Her best result this year is against WR 721, in February. Retirements aside, that is also her best win, and one of only two she has against the top 1000.

Which is no criticism of the WTA or the organisers for trying to expand tennis in India. But, surely more needs to have been done to get players into an event if they're going to pitch it at such a high level.

Might it have been a decent investment and a shrewd proactiuve move for the LTA to perhaps have funded 6 or so girls (e.g. those willing from GB ranked ~6-11) out to Pune, & to this weeks $125K in Taipei for the chance of relatively low hanging fruit?

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

insomniacfolder wrote:
[...] this is the second of the WTA events pitched below International Level for emerging tennis geographies.

"Emerging tennis geographies"? confuse

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Stircrazy wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
[...] this is the second of the WTA events pitched below International Level for emerging tennis geographies.
"Emerging tennis geographies"?

You have a point, and perhaps the Plain English Campaign will come knocking at my door.

It was a clumsy attempt to concisely summarise what the WTA Marketing department had to say, as follows:

In May of 2012 the WTA announced WTA 125s, a brand new stream of tournaments that will not only provide an opportunity for emerging markets currently unable to host a Premier or International event to showcase a women's tennis product, but will also offer the WTA's lower-ranked and up-and-coming players an opportunity to play extra tournaments and earn more ranking points.

philwrig · Hall of fame

She needs to win the FQR match to get those points if I'm not mistaken.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Assuming EWS isn't too jetlaggety, the FQR win should be formalitinous.

indiana · Tennis legend

biggrin

steven · Tennis legend

insomniacfolder wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
[...] this is the second of the WTA events pitched below International Level for emerging tennis geographies.
"Emerging tennis geographies"?
You have a point, and perhaps the Plain English Campaign will come knocking at my door.
It was a clumsy attempt to concisely summarise what the WTA Marketing department had to say, as follows:
In May of 2012 the WTA announced WTA 125s, a brand new stream of tournaments that will not only provide an opportunity for emerging markets currently unable to host a Premier or International event to showcase a women's tennis product, but will also offer the WTA's lower-ranked and up-and-coming players an opportunity to play extra tournaments and earn more ranking points.

I immediately believed "emerging tennis geographies" had come straight out the WTA marketing departement - it sounds just like them! biggrin

Good tournament scheduling from Emily, I'd say ... and yes, it's a pity some of the others didn't go out there too.

steven · Tennis legend

FQR: (q2) Emily Webley-Smith WR 447 v (q7) Nidhi Chilumila (IND) WR 710 (CH 632 in Oct)

LordBrownof · Futures level

Especially those girls close to gaining entry into Aus Open qualies.

SMC1809 · All-time great

The match before Emily's has just finished.

SMC1809 · All-time great

It turns out Emily flew to Mumbai and had to return straight away due to a problem with her visitors visa.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Oh no. That explains it. I've been waiting for her match to start.

I experienced the 'Indian Visa Saga' myself this Summer. Unfortunately they are particularly tough on us Brits. Many other nationalities can get a 'Visa on Arrival' and certainly get longer than our 6 month allowance also on pre-issued visas. I'm not sure about the 60 day r-entry restriction for other nationalities but I suspect that if French or German or Scandanavian etc she could probably have got round it by getting a new ' Tourist Visa on Arrival'.

PaulM · Tennis legend

The problem was that Em was breaking the "60 day rule" since she left Indian after Gulbarga $10k.

Apparently she was "assured" by the embassy that the double entry visa she took would be ok to cover it, but that advice was wrong.

I believe its a pretty simple form that you just get signed off by the consulate if you want to break to 60 day rule, so it may be that there was a misunderstanding at the embassy of what she needed, or they simply made a mistake and didn't get her to do the right forms she would have needed to use her existing visa.

Tennis players spend half their lives sorting out visa requirements, so its very unsual for things to go wrong.