Withdrawal day for Surbiton dawns with Amanda at ALT2; as she also is for her number 1 choice, a 25k in Italy.
Very good signs from may of the women ranked GB 4-10 over the last few weeks...
Amanda - new career high, and consecutive best-ever weeks + first 25k doubles title for 6 years
KatyD - back into top 300, near CH, still playing this week
Freya - new CH + maiden 25k doubles title, still going
Harriet - best ever week + 25k doubles title, still going
Gabi - new CH, still going
Of the rest, Tara seems to be protecting a minor injury, but has been fit enoug to play some Euroleague stuff; KatyS is rightly imho prioritising her development on clay, targetting the FO; and Laura put up a better fight against Azarenka than a few of the top 100 have managed this year.
Lower down: Good, encouraging returns from KB and Sam Murray; Em Arb and Maia making some headway; now 3 Juniors in the top 30, and a 15yo ITF 10k doubles RU. With about 5 days to go til kick-off, it's all looking surprisingly rosy.
-- Edited by wimdledont on Tuesday 24th of May 2016 09:09:13 AM
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.
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.
How do Wimbledon qualies affect qualifying and main draw for Surbiton? Unless I have my dates mixed up?
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.
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.
How do Wimbledon qualies affect qualifying and main draw for Surbiton? Unless I have my dates mixed up?
Surbiton is the week of 6 June, Ilkley another 50k the week of 13 June, and then Wimbledon qualies are the following week, week of 20 June. Next week is Eastbourne, the first of the 3 women's 50k events in a row. There are of course then the WTA grass events on top.
What I meant is that these tournaments appear to be laid on as a practice session for international players keen to get some grass court play in ahead of Wimbledon qualifiers, which start a fortnight after Surbiton.
(As such, they tend to draw very strong starting line-ups, making it extremely difficult for GB players to pick up cheap extra ranking points.)
What I meant is that these tournaments appear to be laid on as a practice session for international players keen to get some grass court play in ahead of Wimbledon qualifiers, which start a fortnight after Surbiton.
(As such, they tend to draw very strong starting line-ups, making it extremely difficult for GB players to pick up cheap extra ranking points.)
I would disagree with that statement. The 50k entries on the women's side are not particularly strong this year nor were they last year, mainly because there is a multitude of choices at this level on the ITF circuit at this time of year.
If you looked at Surbiton last year, it was virtually a GB qualifying event and loads of our GB players picked up points.
Anyway these tournaments are designed to be practice tournaments building up to Wimbledon and Wimbledon qualifying. The winners of these normally get a wildcard for MD.
Come on LTA, you have to get Mandy over here this grass court season for at least a couple of tournaments pre Wimbledon - starting with Surbiton...
Checked ITF site Mandy Carreras withdrew today from Surbiton perhaps she is not playing the grass court season
Oh dear, that's a pity, and what I'm afraid of - that Mandy won't play grass at all this year. She barely did last year, but the little she played (mainly Surbiton) showed she had some potential, and then she did quite well but lost in R1 qualifying for Wimbledon. But if she doesn't play any grass tournaments, then she's not going to be prepared even for the qualifying. And if she's not part of the main British grass court season this year, then she's likely never to be.
There is a 50k in China this week with a MD cut-off of 450. Next week, Eastbourne has a cut off of 185.
As winners normally get a wildcard for Wimbledon MD, a lot of the women who are in Wimbledon qualifiers try to enter all three 50ks, and Wimbldon qualifiers, giving them 4 shots at qualifying.
The usual prize money for a 50k winner is US$7,600. If you throw in a Wimbledon wildcard bonus, that rises to approximately US$$45,000. If these aren't very well attended...
'I'm going to be playing Nottingham and Birmingham, and maybe a small little one next week, in Eastbourne.'
Laura Robson
The small little one next week being where everyone else around her current ranking plies their trade (and they've all won more matches to get there than she has), and for which she would only be in qualifying in terms of her ranking itself. There is a little more of a sense of entitlement in Laura's attitude than there was in any of Naomi's, Dan's or Kyle's attitude, in terms of the focus and effort they achieved to get into the top 100. I hope Laura really understands that to get back into the top 100 she is going to have to put in the hard yards. At the moment that isn't clear. Her mobility on the court is shocking, but that's been obvious since Miami. She cannot compete very easily with her current game, fitness levels and mobility. So it will be interesting to see how she does do in that small little one next week. It will be a better test for her current condition than Laura perhaps realises. At the least she needs to win a few matches, and it will be interesting to see if she does.
'I'm going to be playing Nottingham and Birmingham, and maybe a small little one next week, in Eastbourne.'
Laura Robson
The small little one next week being where everyone else around her current ranking plies their trade (and they've all won more matches to get there than she has), and for which she would only be in qualifying in terms of her ranking itself. There is a little more of a sense of entitlement in Laura's attitude than there was in any of Naomi's, Dan's or Kyle's attitude, in terms of the focus and effort they achieved to get into the top 100. I hope Laura really understands that to get back into the top 100 she is going to have to put in the hard yards. At the moment that isn't clear. Her mobility on the court is shocking, but that's been obvious since Miami. She cannot compete very easily with her current game, fitness levels and mobility. So it will be interesting to see how she does do in that small little one next week. It will be a better test for her current condition than Laura perhaps realises. At the least she needs to win a few matches, and it will be interesting to see if she does.
I think the sense f entitlement is fair, as she's probably already had those conversations with the tournament organisers - and she is coming back from injury. She's also a crowd pleaser. I agree she's got a way to go yet,especially based on her lack of movement yesterday, but she's got the opportunity to get a good few matches in over the next few weeks at that higher level. I hope she makes the most of it and with favourable draws gets the odd W.
A quite major last-minute collapse in the entries to Surbiton has left the cut-off for main draw at around WR245, much lower, with Tara now 7 out, and possibly going to make the main draw, if there are a very high number of late withdrawals after the deadline.