Plenty of women's 25K events this week - so should get a decent amount of Brits on the Wirral. I wonder if Laura and Katie will turn up after the Fed Cup....
Interestingly, but rather annoying for me, both Shrewsbury and Wirral start at the same time. However the joint events at Glasgow and Sunderland start a day apart.
This means I can watch one round of qualifiers at each venue, but only one of the first round matches and I will have to pick which final to watch.....
I'll have to look at the draws and make a decision where to go - I've seen a lot more of the men than the women recently, so will probably edge towards Wirral and I'm hoping Katie Swan will be in the draw as I've never had the chance to see her play live. There are a couple of others I wouldn't mind seeing for the first time - Laura Deigman, Dominique Covington, Aimee Gibson whereas the boys just Joel Cannell, Jonny Gray and Alex Jhun I've not seen, but would be interested in watching.
We want you to throw every sickie you possibly can and chalk up full day reports from as many venues as possible !!!
I think I'll only make the Sutton British Tour event in the next few months, which is meagre pickings against what you're talking about. Although I enjoyed it last year and there was definitely so very good tennis.
Personally still got my eyes vaguely on Marseille for this week. But doesn't seem to be ANY singles players down for qualies, although one or two may just "turn up". I have no doubt there will be a good sprinkling of doubles players at least.
I've got Wirral/Shrewsbury, Manchester challenger and Ilkley challenger and Birmingham WTA on the radar and probably junior grade 5 at Liverpool. I might even be tempted to go across to Nottingham on a weekend. I would have done more, but the LTA reduced the tournaments and put less on in the North West....
Spain this week for the men means Murcia, which is the nearest thing to a home tournament for me - although given my "travel habits", that doesn't mean too much, I know. But it is about 45 mins away to be precise (now that I am back in Spain).
Several Brits down to play there at the moment although the withdrawal deadline is not until next week, so the list will clearly get a lot smaller. Players on the list include:
Alex Ward Rich Gabb Jamie Whiteford Billy Harris Jonathan Gray
These are the ranked players, although at the moment only Alex and Rich are in.
Notable unranked players (i.e those that I have heard of ) include:
James Allemby Charlie Broom
There are about 6 others that are so far down the list, I doubt that they will get in even after all the withdrawals.
Just to note, that Alex has already mentioned to me that he is "very likely" to be there on this week and will probably play Cartagena the following week. I feel some match reports coming on. Such good memories of following Kyle on those 2 weeks in 2013. Was that really 3 years ago now ? Doesn't time fly.
-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Thursday 28th of January 2016 08:17:00 PM
Personally still got my eyes vaguely on Marseille for this week. But doesn't seem to be ANY singles players down for qualies, although one or two may just "turn up". I have no doubt there will be a good sprinkling of doubles players at least.
They can't just turn up any more. All ATP 250s now have advanced entry lists for qualifying.
Looking like Shrewsbury and Wirral will have normal 10K entries - I've put a comparison of entries, Men are very strong in general for a 10K across the board and Sunderland very strong for a women's 10K
Glasgow 522 cut off main draw (men)
Sunderland 622 cut off main draw (men)
Shrewsbury 505 cut off main draw (men) with double entries yet to come out
Glasgow 772 cut off main draw (women)
Sunderland 614 cut off main draw (women)
Wirral 700 cut off main draw (women) with double entries yet to come out
Spain this week for the men means Murcia, which is the nearest thing to a home tournament for me - although given my "travel habits", that doesn't mean too much, I know. But it is about 45 mins away to be precise (now that I am back in Spain).
Several Brits down to play there at the moment although the withdrawal deadline is not until next week, so the list will clearly get a lot smaller. Players on the list include:
Alex Ward Rich Gabb Jamie Whiteford Billy Harris Jonathan Gray
These are the ranked players, although at the moment only Alex and Rich are in.
Notable unranked players (i.e those that I have heard of ) include:
James Allemby Charlie Broom
There are about 6 others that are so far down the list, I doubt that they will get in even after all the withdrawals.
Just to note, that Alex has already mentioned to me that he is "very likely" to be there on this week and will probably play Cartagena the following week. I feel some match reports coming on. Such good memories of following Kyle on those 2 weeks in 2013. Was that really 3 years ago now ? Doesn't time fly.
-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Thursday 28th of January 2016 08:17:00 PM
Looks like my Murcia viewing is down to Alex in the MD and Billy in Qualies. James Allemby might just sneak in qualies with some late withdrawals.