Points Defences Week 4

Mens Singles

1200 - Murray
18 - Willis
16 - Ward J
10 - Goodall
6 - Bogdanovic
2 - Evans, Corrie, Milton, Bloomfield
1 - Edmund, Morgan, Martin

Mens Doubles

90 - Marray
18 - Rice, Thornley
10 - Clayton, Gabb
6 - Martin, Morgan


Womans Singles

160 - Robson, Watson
40 - Konta
12 - Moore
4 - Konotopseva, Whybourn, Brown
1 - Griffin, Fitzpatrick, Smith, Stephenson, Ren

For some players, it would be a disappointment. But Cox managed his schedule very well last year, so I'd put more faith in his choices ....

(Edit: Except that looking at all the entry lists, Glasgow is, as Mr Willis et al rightly observed, actually a very tough draw relative for a 10K, not that different from the German 15K)

-- Edited by Spectator on Friday 3rd of January 2014 07:12:38 PM

Spectator wrote:

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For some players, it would be a disappointment. But Cox managed his schedule very well last year, so I'd put more faith in his choices ....

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Perhaps, but it seems odd that he will fly to Australia just for Australian Open qualifying, assuming of course that he still intends to do so.  There are challengers there in weeks 5 and 6 that normally have quite weak fields.

Dan has almost no points (only 2 I think) to defend before April so playing futures makes sense for now stepping up to challengers for clay court season. Playing well in half a dozen futures could get his rankin close to 200 which with any luck would mean he would be better set for them. He would need to get injured or lose almost every match to miss out on 250 ranking for wimby wild card too.

RJA wrote:

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Jaggy1876 wrote:

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Dan has almost no points (only 2 I think) to defend before April so playing futures makes sense for now stepping up to challengers for clay court season. Playing well in half a dozen futures could get his rankin close to 200 which with any luck would mean he would be better set for them. He would need to get injured or lose almost every match to miss out on 250 ranking for wimby wild card too.

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You can make that case but personally I think that strategy is counter productive. Too many British players have hung around the home futures scene for too long, picking up cheap points and developing bad habits that come back to haunt them when they play at a higher level. I am therefore an unapologetic advocate of ambitious scheduling. 

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I agree.

Not only "Too many British players have hung around the home futures scene for too long, picking up cheap points and developing bad habits that come back to haunt them when they play at a higher level", but the whole thing is exacerbated by Wimbledon i.e. it seems acceptable, in fact almost commendable, for GB players to travel round the UK (with the occasional jaunt abroad) playing futures in the hope of making WR250 (not a major goal in itself) in the hope of squeaking a WC for Wimbledon (and the overwhelming likelihood of losing in the first round). I guess I can, just about, understand doing it one year but it's hardly a long-term plan.

You wouldn't get any Serbian or Spanish players doing this. Nor, with their own Grand Slam, any French players.

I also favour ambitious programming, and I;m glad the LTA have capped the bonus-top funding pool for futures, they're only a stepping stone.

paulisi wrote:

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So surely the solution is to put on less 10ks and more challengers.

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Yep, that's what I'd do.

 

And, along the same lines, credit to Dan Evans in The Independent today:  "Evans has decided to focus on attempting to qualify for tournaments on the main tour (his ranking is not yet high enough to get into most events automatically) rather than playing for smaller stakes on the Challenger circuit".

Hmm, I guess one can't fault Evo's ambition. I could have well lived with him playing a few more challengers. I hope it works out well for him.

He's not actually played that much at all since the US Open and I would have thought a few strong runs in challengers would have been a good aim in the first few months of the year. I just do hope he doesn't get consistently tough draws in ATP Qualifying, keep losing and get pretty frustrated.

I was a bit concerned that he pulled out of these Asian Challengers at the backend of last year ( although, yes, I have read the reasons given ), and, sorry, I am just not sure about this.