At least Emily can actually add to her doubles counting ranking points this week if she reaches at least the SF ( her 11th and final counter is 12 points ) though she could do with further than that. She will though certainly in coming months need to move up to higher levels ( there should be more opportunities ) if she is to approach her declared doubles ambitions. Thing is she still has singles ambitions too and they do to an extent conflict.

She just loves playing tennis ...

Freya 6-2 0-0*

Freya wins 6-2 6-3

Very good and convincing win. Perhaps the regular competition is starting to get Freya back in to her groove little-by-little.

The field at this $25K is considerably weaker than any other this week.
In that regard, it is a very useful selection of $25K to be at for two players where getting a big points haul to restore ranking is more important. For the others, that have been performing in Australia and Japan, it's arguably more important to have the competition against a quality field rather than just cheap points. Only by genuinely raising your level to true $60K, $80K level acn you really hope to progress other than by a bit of luck.
Playing against the weakest field each week will have you rising up the rankings, sure, but you perhaps won't be able to live at the new level to which you gain entry becasue you're not used to anything like that quality of play once you get there. Playing at the average or good fields for any given level each time will help you more readily improve your game.
For Emily and Freya though, they need to raise their rankings to get back to where they were, and gain entry to $25K MD in more competitive parts of the season. In that regard, this 'soft' $25K is just the ticket. If both our players can play well, they have a good chance to get a decent score, bump their rankings up just enough that they can put themselves in a position where they can aim at any $25K without worrying that they'll miss the cutoff. Then, go from there, and start playing the competitive events, like the Aussie/Japan gang.


As for fitness through the ranks, there isn't any reliable injury data that I know of. You could infer that long absences might be due to injury, but it would be imprecise. To do the exercise correctly, I think you'd need a table of all injuries for all players for all nations - when they began, and when the player started again and the injury was thus 'over'. That data doesn't exist, players don't record their injuries, and their durations publicly. Tentative attempts to use RET's as a proxy don't go anywhere, even as a measure of breaking down in matches, it's insgnificant, and that would not speak to the majority of injuries and absences, which occur from causes and incidents unrealted to any actual playing of a match.
I don't see that it's possible.

Yes Freya has a qualifier next, so an immensely winnable next match.

R32: Freya CHRISTIE (GBR) 531 beat Valeriya STRAKHOVA (UKR) [5] 361 (CH:231 Feb 16) 6-2 6-3

R16: Freya CHRISTIE (GBR) 531 vs Monica ROBINSON (USA) [Q] 1151 (CH:1149 Feb 18)

As good a chance as you are going to get in the second round of a 25k. Well done Freya.