Grass season preview

wimdledont · Challenger level

Grass season preview

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I suspect there are only 2 main draw wildcards for Birmingham; that's problematic. Two for Notts and 3 for Eastbourne. Heather received main draw wildcards for both Indian Wells and Miami so will only have one available for Birmingham/Eastbourne. I think Laura has 2 main draw wildcards available for Notts/Birmingham/Eastbourne.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I would imagine priority will be given to those who were successful in applying for funding under the new rules......sort of making sure their investment does well. As they haven't published the recipients, I think the allocation of WCs might be quite illuminating.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Heather should get in then to Brum.

Exciting grass season ahead really.

We have a clear WTA and ITF level at the moment so first few weeks will be good to see how each level progresses.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I see Birmingham R1 draw has been cut to 32 from 64. Naomi will get one for Brum.

Laura/ Katie will be the main 2 vying for WCs, and yes I could see Freya getting one for Notts, if there is one leftover.

wimdledont · Challenger level

There's also 4? WTA qWCs, and 4? simultaneous ITF 50k WCs, and 4? ITF qWCs. So the week of Notts should be a big week for 17? of our players.

Deano13 · Social player

If a top 10 player doesnt ask for a WC in to Notts or Birmingham does that mean we would have 3 WC's in to the main draw?

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Deano13 wrote:
If a top 10 player doesnt ask for a WC in to Notts or Birmingham does that mean we would have 3 WC's in to the main draw?

No. But in Birmingham it would improve Heather's chances (currently 4th Alternate) as the next in the alternates list gets in if one of the two top 20 WCs aren't used.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 6th of May 2016 08:38:45 PM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

I thought that Australia was a pretty useful analogue to measure WC distribution and it's success.
They have the same number of events as us, and the same levels of events too. Also, their players are roughly a good fit throughout the rankings to ours.

So, here's a quick look at the WC that were handed out in Australian events in 2016, the players and ranks that got them, whether age or ranking was a factor, and, ultimately, how they fared, and thus what we might expect in terms of all those things.
If nothing else, it disproves the suggestion someone made the other day that a WC had to have a reasonable chance of success.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Hi isf,

Not sure how you can graph this, but the ATF will have effectively granted 8 Australian wildcards to GrandSlam main draws, and 8 Australian wildcards to GS qualies, after swaps with the USTA and FFT are accounted for.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I would count a win as granting a wildcard to a player who in the future goes on to play in that tournament as a direct entry by rank. For example every wild card attributed to Naomi Broady, (Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund) at Wimbledon must now be considered a win.

Using that metric, the ladies side I see a number of opportunities for plenty of Wimbledon QF wild cards go to youngsters, Jodie Burrage, Ali Collins, Emily A's x 2 and Katie Swan, although torn with Katie (and indeed Freya) as I can see her winning through qualifying but would not be too critical of a MD wildcard as she could with a good draw and a prevailing wind win there also and regardless it will be a fantastic experience and preparation for the juniors.

Deano13 · Social player

Laura has been given a main draw wildcard to Notts according to BBC

wimdledont · Challenger level

The Eastbourne WTA MD list is out...

www.tennisforum.com/3146-aegon-international-eastbourne/1095297-eastbourne-md-list.html

...Heather is reported as playing, so has one of the WCs. I'm not sure how many are available?

And the ITF Eastbourne 50k initial list features none of the top 3, so Tara leads the pack as ALT35 at time of posting...

www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/women's-tournament/info.aspx

...followed by 63 other GB entrants. Last year, this had the weakest field of the UK 50k tournaments. (There is also an outside chance that, should Heather's Rio ticket be in any doubt, she might have to ask for a WC to this too.)

The LTA has announced, inter alia, that the 50ks will be 100ks from 2017 onwards...

www.lta.org.uk/news/general-news/2016/april/bigger-and-better-british-grass-court-season-announced-for-2017/

paulisi · Tennis legend

I assume the increase to 100k is on the premise that we should have a whole lot of girls in the 150-300 category

wimdledont · Challenger level

The Wimbledon MD list has the top 108 women, minus Shaz and Pennetta, plus 2 SRs= 108

www.tennisforum.com/3154-championships-wimbledon/1098521-wimbledon-md-list.html

Of the 49 women down for Surbiton MD+Qs, 48 will expect to be involved in Wimbledon qualifiers; so it's clearly doing them all a favour. None is British.

www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/women's-tournament/info.aspx

Tara is slightly further out, at ALT37, and last year this list, and Ilkley, both had less withdrawals than Surbiton. So most UK participation will be from wildcards.