cwej wrote:

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The fact that the British girls have managed to knock out all but one of the non-Brits makes me think that at that end of the rankings, the Brits are seriously under ranked the problem is they don't have any home tournaments to travel around to like in Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia etc, where the girls are clawing loads of ranking points up (like Mirabelle has been), without necessarily playing as hard opponents.

They really need to get more of these 10k's to ensure that our girls can get rankings - and make it worthwhile travelling abroad, without having to go through 2 or 3 rounds of qualifying before they even earn a ranking point.

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In general, l wouldn't say that our girls are seriously underranked, certainly not these with a full quota or good quota of counters or just tournaments played.

Yes, a number of the younger ones could / would be much higher ranked with more tournaments and should also be getting steadily better. But that applies to loads of younger players of all nationalities, who will have played relatively few senior tournaments for a variety of reasons.

In general, yes many would like more home 10Ks, not just for the points, but for availability with it being more difficult to travel abroad.

As for beating higher ranked foreign competitors, such as there are here, good wins as there are, there will be an element of playing at home. There is a large element of players worldwide often playing better at home and achieving better results ( so some would argue for more home tournaments just for that ). On neutral territory I see little evidence of Brits generally ( subject to what I have said on some young players ) being overranked.

indiana wrote:

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In this tournament very few have played any international opposition, although admittedly it has for whatever reasons been unusually extremely limited

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yes, exactly. Only one foreign entrant in the world top 1000 !

And you have to compare it with the other British 10ks earlier in the year, where the foreign opposition was much higher, and slightly less Brits took part.

We can't guarantee simply having more Chiswicks.

And as to not traveling abroad because it costs too much, well that's just what Gilles Simon was talking about when he said you have to invest in yourself. It's just like students going to uni: fees and living adds up to a debt - that's your investment in your future (and even if politically you believe fees should be free, it's a lost opportunity of earning potential, which again is an investment in yourself, because you think the rewards will be worth it, not to mention the state's investment in you).

Thrilled for Helen and Emily Arb.

Also, very pleased for Georgina Axon - it's curious - saw her play doubles at Surbiton, thought this girl's got talent and real ball skills (if not huge power), saw her play singles at the junior event in Roehampton and was seriously disappointed (she was not in the match, completely overwhelmed really) and now she beats Beth (who, it's true, I'm not a huge fan of, which sounds mean but I've never seen her play an impressive match).

And I'm with you Indy - come on Freya ! come on Lisa !