Week 24 - ATP 500 - Aegon Championships, The Queen's Club, London (grass)

Spectator · All-time great

Week 24 - ATP 500 - Aegon Championships, The Queen's Club, London (grass)

goldenboy · Club Coach

what's anderson even doing in qualies? odd one? especially as seems to be a WC going "spare" if he simply forgot to enter?

DF · Tennis legend

Come on Alex. You can beat Donald Young!

RJA · Hall of fame

goldenboy wrote:
what's anderson even doing in qualies? odd one? especially as seems to be a WC going "spare" if he simply forgot to enter?

I have seen it suggested elsewhere that it was deliberate as he has recently returned from injury and wants some easier matches to start his grass court season.

Incidentally the wild card wasn't going spare. It was only available to an "A+" player from Europe. With most top players already playing here or in Halle only Djokovic could have taken it.

goldenboy · Club Coach

RJA wrote:
Incidentally the wild card wasn't going spare. It was only available to an "A+" player from Europe. With most top players already playing here or in Halle only Djokovic could have taken it.

interesting, is that an official rule? wasn't aware of it if so! who counts as an A+ player?!

goldenboy · Club Coach

as an aside, I for one am hoping for rather inclement weather this year at the championships, so that I can head down there for a ground pass after work and potentially see some tennis!

have thought it was a shame when the draw size reduced to 32, resulting in almost all matches on centre and court 1

RJA · Hall of fame

goldenboy wrote:
RJA wrote:
Incidentally the wild card wasn't going spare. It was only available to an "A+" player from Europe. With most top players already playing here or in Halle only Djokovic could have taken it.
interesting, is that an official rule? wasn't aware of it if so! who counts as an A+ player?!

Yes. All ATP 500 tournaments have an additional wild card which can only be used for an "A+" player from the region. The rule book doesn't specify the criteria for an A+ player but they are determined by the ATP and from what I gather it is only the top 10 or so players in the world.

RJA · Hall of fame

Further to the above, including Queen's and Halle there have been 7 ATP 500s this year and none of them have used their additional wild card.

FriendofLouieG · Lower Club Player

Why on earth does Ed Corrie deserve a QWC? His ranking has been falling off all year.... Can someone explain?

Why not give it to a promising junior? (i.e. Ryan Storrie)

Spectator · All-time great

Ed Corrie has a nice grass game, and his results on grass have been good. He qualified in Manchester, beating Zhe Li in the process, beat Brydan Klein, and had a decent match against Stakhovsky, no mug on grass. Then at Surbiton, he beat Alden Setkic and had a decent match against Dustin Brown, again a good grass player. So if you were looking for someone who might well win a match in general, he seems a good choice. Against Kevin Anderson, even a rusty Kevin Anderson, it's going to be tough for any British player not named Andy Murray. But that's not the WC's fault, whoever they may be.

Shhh · Challenger level

Ed Corrie is decent hard working player with a good grass game. I find it refreshing that he has a WC. As someone says above....eye of the beholder and all that

indiana · Tennis legend

FriendofLouieG wrote:
Why on earth does Ed Corrie deserve a QWC? His ranking has been falling off all year.... Can someone explain?

Why not give it to a promising junior? (i.e. Ryan Storrie)

Apart from what others have said re him being relatively good on grass, that is just factually wrong.

Ed is so far up 77 places this year from WR 453 to WR 376. This upward movrment ties in with his 2016 race position of #236. I'll grant one challenger run got him a large portion of these points, but still.

I am watching Ryan Storrie's progress with interest and he does seem to have real potential. But he has only played 3 senior main draw matches in his life, all unsurprisingly at futures level, and not yet won a set, even giving qualifying a go pretty sparingly. I don't think being fed to the lions would be that helpful. It would though be good to see him now playing more senior tennis ( not Queens MD though ! ) and I am pleased to see that he is in qualifying for the Ilkley Challenger. Hopefully see him in many more futures too in the coming months given that he is now 18.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 11th of June 2016 07:30:06 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I even think it sends a good message to the youngsters - that there will be some support for you throughout your career.

I hate the way many (especially at the NTC/LTA) want to always jump to the next generation and write off the current ones.

i.e. it's always going to be great in five years time because of the promising crop coming through.

AND I'm obviously a huge supporter of juniors.

Ed certainly has a good grass game: one of the few to win a round at Wimbly qualies. And made round two in Surbiton (unlike Alex). And deserves it as much as anyone else.

Of course, he does have connections - it might be a bit easier when your dad's on the Board.

But overall I think he's a decent choice.

Spectator · All-time great

Agreed: two good QWC choices, so far as I'm concerned. For a 500 of this depth, you want someone whom you'd expect to win matches at Wimbledon Qualies ... not someone just starting out.

RJA · Hall of fame

FriendofLouieG wrote:
Why on earth does Ed Corrie deserve a QWC? His ranking has been falling off all year.... Can someone explain?

Why not give it to a promising junior? (i.e. Ryan Storrie)

I am not sure how much much benefit a promising junior would get from being obliterated by the likes of Kevin Anderson. Ryan is much better off where is, playing qualifying at the Ilkley challenger.

As for why Ed. It was probably the case that he and Alex were the only two to accept the offer to play here. Others, such as Broady and Klein, may have been offered but preferred Ilkley.