I suspect that JoKo, Anne, Tara, Elena and Sam will all be inside 250 and will be given maindraw WCs. Lisa made a 25K final just prior to the grass court season last year so has a lot of points to defend, making it far less likely she will ranked inside 250. I can't see the LTA recommending any brits outside the top 250 unless Bally happens to be ranked just outside (which actually may be the case given the number of points she is defending during the clay and early part of the grass season). 

Qualifying - Lisa (because she is likely to be ranked just outside 250). Then you have Amanda Carreras (ranked 312 currently and generally heading in the right direction). Naomi has the potential to win matches on grass and despite heading in the wrong direction in the rankings, is probably ranked high enough to be given a QWC. I think Jade Windley probably has a better chance of a WC than Mel. The other player ranked inside 500 (indeed inside 700) is Emily. I really don't know whether the LTA will give QWCs to Mel and Emily. I rather suspect they might be offered a play-off place alongside the many younger players ranked between 700 and 1115. I would hand QWCs to the two finalists in the play-off, possibly the 4 semi-finalists if there are 4 QWCs leftover; Genie won Wim juniors but is now ranked inside the top 100 as is the beaten finalist so neither need a WC of any sort. Since Eleanor Dean is still injured/recovering from injury, I don't see any younger players worthy of being fast-tracked straight into Wimbledon qualifying, without having to win their place in the play-offs.

It will be interesting to see if the same guidelines are applied to both the men and the women as the situation on the mens' side looks quite problematic with the possibility of just James Ward being inside the 250 cut-off. The current view on here is that Dan Evans is expected to get a maindraw WC as reward for his Davis Cup efforts and that Jamie Baker might get one even if he is ranked outside the top 250. Ed Corrie may get inside the top 300 if he continues to perform at the level he has shown so far in 2013 and would have a strong case for a maindraw WC were it not for the 250 rule.

Personally I would be in favour of giving nearly all the WCs to british players, with priority being given to players who hadn't received lots of WCs in the past and those who had demonstrated they could win matches on the grass at this level. I don't like it when players reach a career high of 275 but never get a maindraw WC because of the 250 rule yet others can sit for years ranked around 200, receiving WCs year after year. But worst of all, is handing WCs to foreign players, especially those without a strong case, effectively throwing the best part of £20k away, which could have been used to fund british players. Is it really too difficult to hand a british player (who perhaps doesn't have a strong case for deserving one) a wildcard (£20K) but tell them that the LTA won't fund x or y for them for the rest of the year, so the real net financial benefit for the player is £10K or £5K and the LTA then has the rest to use for other players or purposes ?

 

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 12th of April 2013 02:07:59 PM

Are you Ricardo from the Rusedski board by any chance?

Thank goodness for that  

(I might be joking ...)

Welcome to the board anyway

I just wrote a couple of paragraphs but the forum crashed when I tried to send them and now they're gone.  I might try again later.

Welcome to the board, Ricardo.

I pretty much agree with korriban re the MD WCs. YoKo, Anne and Tara are nailed on being well inside the top 250 and will get fully deserved WCs. Bally could certainly be outside the top 250, but I am sure that if fit she will be awarded one.

For Sam and Lisa, I do think finishing top 250 will be very important here. I would think that the LTA will see no mitigating circumstances and basically just judge it on that. Sam should hopefully make it, but yes will be tough for Lisa with her points to come off and she could fall quite a way short. I hope not as Lisa has shown before her liking for grass and it would be great for her.

Anyone else is a huge way off top 250 and would need to go on a bit of a mad streak to come into the reckoning, and no young player has an exceptional enough case for inclusion.

Oops, sorry, I meant kundalini. It was a long post from someone beginning with k.. LOL

When an error message stopped one of my posts a few minutes ago I used the back arrow to retrieve it , and then cut and pasted it afresh.

Under the terms of the agreement between the LTA and Wimbledon the LTA can put forward a list of just 8 for main draw / qualifying WCs, with 2 more guaranteed from the play-offs, though in practice there may be spare QWCs allocated to play-off semi-finalists or someone still in the Nottingham $50K and therefore unable to take part in the play-offs. I would not expect the LTA MDWC recommendations to diverge from the 250 principle, with the exception of Bally if required (under the occasionally stated rider of someone coming back from long-term injury), but Wimbledon may be more generous, as they have on occasions with the men.