Week 22 - ITF $50K - Eastbourne, UK Grass

wimdledont · Challenger level

RE: Week 22 - ITF $50K - Eastbourne, UK Grass

paulisi · Tennis legend

What a silly rule.

Are you saying you cannot play the following week if you go out in rnd 1 or rnd 2 of a GS?

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

paulisi wrote:
What a silly rule.

Are you saying you cannot play the following week if you go out in rnd 1 or rnd 2 of a GS?

Yes. Because the same event is still ongoing that you entered, and you can't enter another event (MD) until the one in which you completed has finished.

This is unique to Grand Slams, as players on the WTA who lose in the first week of Miami regularly enter the Osprey $50K just down the road, that starts in the second week of that fortnight.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Ali thats not true. You can play second week of a slam as long as you are out the event (all of singles doubles and mixed) by the time of singles qualifying sign in.

Thats why Dodin and a few others were able to play here but several others were withdrawn automatically. Coco wasn't on the final singles entry list for here, she just came for some match time i suspect.

-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 5th of June 2015 03:51:53 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Correct - Baghdatis beat Karlovic in RG lost in rnd 2 and then played Manchester challenger.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

... and all would have gotten special dispensation from the RG Committee to do so; as per the rule.

PaulM · Tennis legend

There's pre dispensation for the second week of a Slam. Also in the rule book i believe but would need to double check.

indiana · Tennis legend

Certainly I get the impression of there being a lot of dispensations.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

indiana wrote:
Certainly I get the impression of there being a lot of dispensations.

No doubt; and, I'm not surprised some players don't know the rules full nuance.

Regarding PaulM's other point above on special stipulations about events in the the second week of a GS:

I've just read all 70 thoroughly riveting pages of the GS CoC and there is no such provision.

The only other mention is this:

As GS notoriously have their own rules, that supercede entirely the rules of either ATP, WTA and ITF tours, special dispensation by request is the only avenue of recourse.

It is an interesting hypothetical question, if Andy went out in R1 at RG, and decided he wanted to play a grass event in the second week of RG to warm up for SW19, would RG deny a marquee name that option, as it could be argued more likely to detract some part of focus from the continuation of events at RG.

But, if not Andy, imagine a weird year where all top 10 ATP players went out in the first round and all decided to play in challengers in RG week 2. RG, or any GS would probably deny them, or seek to deny them that option under the rules stated above, as the cumulative effect of coverage looking elsewhere than RG would certainly be deleterious to their tournament.

Which is why, I imagine the rules exist as given above - at some point along that imaginary line GS reserve the right to step in and ensure their tournament remains the pinnacle of focus in tennis, even though such is probably unnecessary they still feel they need to establish and reserve the right to option legally to enforce it.

CoCo, JoKo or Baggy playing is probably only going to be of interest to a tiny fraction of people (Cyprus excepted in the latter case), and so the coverage at RG would be entirely unchanged; under which circumstances GS are more likely to be lenient when granting dispensation.