The Japanese have certainly had a big crew in Australia, I guess relatively home for them !

Re the GB top 25, concerns re it have been voiced before but seem more possible now. The theoretical worst case scenario is we could be down to 25 ranked players by the end of September.

The 8 that need points to avoid losing their ranking by then start with Foster and Sainsbury in April and follow with in order Nicholls and Ola Pitak in June, Deigman in July, Hurst in August, and Arbuthnott and Larkin in September. And we have no players currently sitting on two counters, just one short of a ranking.

Some will no doubt be fine, particularly say Emily Arb who will no doubt pick up points again in the summer, as will probably some others from the grass season. But a few of these have been very quiet of late.

'Credit' to the LTA for such assistance in quite likely helping reduce our number of ranked players, with such limited home opportunities, even before the big ITF changes from next year. Ahead of their time   

indiana wrote:

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The Japanese have certainly had a big crew in Australia, I guess relatively home for them !

Re the GB top 25, concerns re it have been voiced before but seem more possible now. The theoretical worst case scenario is we could be down to 25 ranked players by the end of September.

The 8 that need points to avoid losing their ranking by then start with Foster and Sainsbury in April and follow with in order Nicholls and Ola Pitak in June, Deigman in July, Hurst in August, and Arbuthnott and Larkin in September. And we have no players currently sitting on two counters, just one short of a ranking.

Some will no doubt be fine, particularly say Emily Arb who will no doubt pick up points again in the summer, as will probably some others from the grass season. But a few of these have been very quiet of late.

'Credit' to the LTA for such assistance in quite likely helping reduce our number of ranked players, with such limited home opportunities, even before the big ITF changes from next year. Ahead of their time   

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The situation is a little distorted as there are also 100 players of either sex playing college tennis which for almost all of them is a sensible decision, the best of whom if they had gone pro could have got some points but would be sitting the wrong side of 800.

I feel there is some strength in the cohort of 18-22 year old young ladies out there ie players are increasingly making informed decisions and turning pro with a realistic chance of at least winning on the futures tour and looking to step up beyond the 25k level. Generating 2 or 3 top 20 juniors a year who choose to go pro and at least break 300 strikes me as realistic and leaves fewer less talented players chasing rainbows at great cost to themselves, as we all know there is a pot of gold at the end of them but this one has a tiny neck and only lets s few hands in at any one time.