The minimum 3 counter ( or 10 points ) thing does seem a bit daft to me as opposed to simply making it 3 points gives a ranking.
Alice on Monday will drop from 7 points from 3 counters to 5 points from 2 counters and ...
a) When you are actually ranked gathering your points from fewer counters actually usually gives you a better ranking in the general tiebreaker that applies to lower ranked players ie. 5 from 3 ranks ahead of 5 from 4 so less counting tournaments to gather your points is here considered good, but then 5 from 2 is unranked, err right.
b) If you have even just 3 points from less than 3 tournaments then you must have won at least one MD match ( or qualifying match in a bigger than 25K tournament ) whereas you can pick up 3 ones without winning anything and maybe from WCs in 25K plus tournaments. Alice's 5 points are from her fairly recent Sri Lanka 15Ks SF and R2.
But then there are a few things about the WTA rankings that don't seem to make a great deal of sense.
Yes, the strangest thing is that on Monday she will drop to 5 from 2, and thus lose her ranking altogether, yet if she wins at least one match here, then the following week she suddenly reappears again with 6 from 3. The disappearance when she still has 5 points doesn't make sense... One would think that if a person has 5 points they should have a ranking...
Anyway, let's hope she can successfully do the resurrection bit.
-- Edited by Michael D on Tuesday 14th of November 2017 10:48:04 AM
Alice is playing now in search of her 1 pt to keep - or regain - her ranking week after next. Not making it that easy for herself, as both players are struggling on serve. Failed to serve out at *5-4, whereupon her opponent promptly held her first serve to make 5-5, and then Alice did win her second service game, so is now 6-5* trying to break again for the set...
The MTO was for her opponent, who has now retired, so Alice will lose her ranking for one week, then regain it again, which is good for her, as she will then keep it for near a year at least now.
R1: Alice Gillan WR 1068 beat (Q) Jovana Vukovic (SRB) UNR, age 17, JCH 245 7-5 2-0 ret
The minimum 3 counter ( or 10 points ) thing does seem a bit daft to me as opposed to simply making it 3 points gives a ranking.
Alice on Monday will drop from 7 points from 3 counters to 5 points from 2 counters and ...
a) When you are actually ranked gathering your points from fewer counters actually usually gives you a better ranking in the general tiebreaker that applies to lower ranked players ie. 5 from 3 ranks ahead of 5 from 4 so less counting tournaments to gather your points is here considered good, but then 5 from 2 is unranked, err right.
b) If you have even just 3 points from less than 3 tournaments then you must have won at least one MD match ( or qualifying match in a bigger than 25K tournament ) whereas you can pick up 3 ones without winning anything and maybe from WCs in 25K plus tournaments. Alice's 5 points are from her fairly recent Sri Lanka 15Ks SF and R2.
But then there are a few things about the WTA rankings that don't seem to make a great deal of sense.
The really annoying thing about this daft system is how it affects entry lists. Youngsters coming through who make a good start in the pro events, winning 2 or more rounds in their first couple of events end up with more than 3 points but no ranking. They can then be well down the entry lists, unable to tell if they will get into qualies until the last minute whereas others with 3 points from winning a round here and there are way above them, definitely in qualies and maybe even main draw! As we have so few 15Ks here and events nearly always mean travelling, it can really take a while for some of our better youngsters to get on the board. I remember Jasmine Asghar having 8 or 10 points and missing the cut on tournament after tournament.
The WTA evidently then more considered the fact that 'stars' returning with no PR after voluntary absences like Kim Clijsters could score big points in one or even two events and still be unranked.
So introducing the 'or 10 points' easily dealt with that. Don't know how much they considered it might still be anomalous for the little people, including as you say decent young players trying to get into the rankings, still leaving some players with a decent number of wins and points unranked and well down lists below the '3 ones' ranked players.
It cries out to simply be 3 points and you're ranked. If players get to 3 or more points from less than 3 counters, in probably most cases they will have actually achieved something more signficant than the '3 ones'.
I'm tempted to really put something together and send it off to the WTA. Undoubtedly to no effect but it would get it off my chest.