I'll be interested to see how Olivia does. From what little I've seen the stronger half of the pretty successful Olivia & Beth partnership and I get the impression quite a lot to offer in singles, but with to date pretty limited time and opportunity.
I wonder if Maia Lumsden has slipped directly into the main draw and so not needing her WC. Alice Gillan is missing from qualifying, so could be a WC beneficiary.
I get the feeling that players on the Women's Pro Circuit are still adjusting the ITF level changes in to their schedules, especially at $15K to $25K level.
A lot of players are entering events that seem to low for them, without seeming to realise that, for example, a $15K is now only equivalent to a $10K of previously.
As the year goes on, I expect, and hope, to see things rebalance to a more realistic level, so that, again, for example, WR 736 doesn't need to qualify in the lowest level of tournament available.
However, with half of the ITF Women's Pro Circuit pyramid now comprising '+H' events, that very rarely get held, at any level, there are really only 5 levels for 90+% of all tournaments: $15K, $25K, $60K, $80K, $100K
There may be the odd '+H' held, but these were on offer previously, and less than 10 a year were staged worldwide.
So, things may compress up even worse than previously. And that's without even starting to factor in the uneven distribution of points allocations across the scale, as previously discussed in the 'Other Tennis' section when the new format as announced and implemented.
All of which just leaves us, as paulisi noted above, with a very tough qualifying draw here, at the bottom end of the pyramid, and pretty looking intimidating tasks to fresh up-and-comers.
Perhaps that's the intent, scare some off, reduce the overall number of ranked players and/or those trying their hand. It's all a bit muddled to my mind.
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Data I post, opinions I offer, 'facts' I assert, are almost certainly all stupidly wrong.
I wonder if Maia Lumsden has slipped directly into the main draw and so not needing her WC. Alice Gillan is missing from qualifying, so could be a WC beneficiary.
I would think you are right, as Maia was one place above Beth and beth is now Q1. Hannah and Camille got a QWC's, so Alice might just have been lucky (or not, depending on the draw !)
I get the feeling that players on the Women's Pro Circuit are still adjusting the ITF level changes in to their schedules, especially at $15K to $25K level. A lot of players are entering events that seem to low for them, without seeming to realise that, for example, a $15K is now only equivalent to a $10K of previously. As the year goes on, I expect, and hope, to see things rebalance to a more realistic level, so that, again, for example, WR 736 doesn't need to qualify in the lowest level of tournament available. However, with half of the ITF Women's Pro Circuit pyramid now comprising '+H' events, that very rarely get held, at any level, there are really only 5 levels for 90+% of all tournaments: $15K, $25K, $60K, $80K, $100K There may be the odd '+H' held, but these were on offer previously, and less than 10 a year were staged worldwide. So, things may compress up even worse than previously. And that's without even starting to factor in the uneven distribution of points allocations across the scale, as previously discussed in the 'Other Tennis' section when the new format as announced and implemented.
All of which just leaves us, as paulisi noted above, with a very tough qualifying draw here, at the bottom end of the pyramid, and pretty looking intimidating tasks to fresh up-and-comers. Perhaps that's the intent, scare some off, reduce the overall number of ranked players and/or those trying their hand. It's all a bit muddled to my mind.
Yes, may take a little adapting to for the women. The 25K now looks pretty out of line, prize money vs ranking points since the other non H level have increased their prize money.
The 25Ks now look a level relatively generous for ranking points ( when you compare with 15Ks and 60Ks ) but not so for prize money So be interesting to see how their fields compare this year. Seems the ITF wanted to have 15Ks and 25Ks for both men & women, but haven't really adapted the women's ranking points appropriately.
Of course, Glasgow is the only event this week at this level in Western Europe - your other choices are Kazakhstan, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.
And, having an airport, with flights to/from France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain etc. etc., it's reasonable that it was top choice for a lot of players.
I'm not sure that the players mis-judged their entries because of the new 15k, it just was their best bet (the 25k in Grenoble is very strong too, for simply the next rung up). Real shame, though, to have no one (or maybe only one player) in the main draw as of right.....