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Post Info TOPIC: Katie Boulter


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Katie Boulter


Yep good point well made

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Katie is entered into Nuremberg the week before Paris

www.tennisteen.it/entry-list/wta/23288-wta-entry-list-20-26-maggio-2019.html

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JonH


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Good luck to her. Good to see that she has made a main draw by right and should be decent prep for the FO the week after. There's no big hard ITF events that week and the nearest is a 25k in Israel, so it's good that she is giving this a go.

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So, more acceptance lists are out and it looks like Katie is properly giving the dirt a go this year as the France 80k is her 1 priority. So it looks like her forthcoming schedule is:

WC 29th April - Spain 60k, Hard
WC 6th May - France 80k, Clay
WC 13th May - TBC - there is WTA Rome this week, so not sure if she is playing quals. There is a 100k Slovak clay event and a 60k French clay event and a 60k+H in Spain
WC 20th May - WTA Nuremberg, Clay
WC 27th May - French Open, Clay

Other than Dodin, who is using PR/SR, she is the clear top seed and only top 200 player in that Spain 60k event, so hopefully she can have a good week there, effectively secure her Wimbledon direct entry and then have less pressure on the clay.

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Stuart Fraser's assessment of Katie and where he'd hope she'd be by the end of Wimbledon:

The fighting spirit of Boulter has impressed in her debut year in Fed Cup singles. The pressure was on yesterday to deliver the winning point against Diyas in front of a passionate home crowd at the Copper Box in Londons Olympic Park. Boulter now needs to replicate those battling performances on the tour. Hopefully she will recover from the back issues she suffered during the weekend to compete at a second-tier event on hard courts in Les Franqueses del Valles, Spain, next week. Her ranking guarantees her a place in the main draw of the French Open next month for the first time, but she has never played a tour-level match on clay before. Grass better suits her big-hitting game, and she will look to feed off the home support as she has done in Fed Cup.
Target: Push up the rankings towards the top-50 by the end of Wimbledon. With a favourable draw, she is capable of reaching the third round at the All England Club.

A bit (too) ambitious to be pushing top 50 by the end of Wimbledon I'd imagine. She's 90 in the live rankings on 665 points and has to defend 325 of those (80 Japan, 25 Surbiton, 60 Nottingham, 90 Southsea, 70 Wimbledon) by the end of Wimbledon, that's effectively half of her points. I'd say 'pushing' top 50 would mean to be around 60 or so, and the person currently in 60th place is on 1001 points - so roughly 650 points between now and the end of Wimbledon would be some going (50th place would be a further 75 points). Katie had a really good grass season last year and even a year on and being higher ranked, I'd say she'd be pleased with something similar this year - a WTA quarter at Nott'm, the 90 for Southsea is about the same as making the L16 at Eastbourne/Birmingham, and she'd struggle to get a Wimbledon R1 match as good as Royg last year.

By all means aim big and a real breakthrough run at Wimbledon/Eastbourne/Birmingham and that would be achievable, but for me, just to make sure she is in and around where she is now come the end of grass, ensure US Open direct entry, and then look to really make her mark in the 6 or 7 months after that where she doesn't have as many points to defend, would be a far more realistic target IMO.



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Would love to be completely wrong but I can't see Katie B's slightly 'Bambi' style of game managing to do any damage on a clay court.

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Can anyone explain why Katie would withdraw from the 80K on clay in France where she would be seeded 2 (week 19), but apparently remain in the draw for a 25K hard court event in Spain instead? Surely with RG just a few weeks away the clay practice would be more valuable, and with a good seeding points would still be up for grabs?

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SuperT wrote:

Can anyone explain why Katie would withdraw from the 80K on clay in France where she would be seeded 2 (week 19), but apparently remain in the draw for a 25K hard court event in Spain instead? Surely with RG just a few weeks away the clay practice would be more valuable, and with a good seeding points would still be up for grabs?


I just noticed myself that she withdrew from the 80k and to be honest, I'm actually pleased. She would have been a seed in France, probably wouldn't have been 2nd by the time the draw happened as other players are playing this week and I think Ferro may actually be ranked ahead of her now following Lugano the other week, and others may pass her as well, but that French field is absolutely stacked and full of good players who are having a lot of success on the WTA tour at the moment like Muchova, Haddad Maia, even Siegemund who had a very good win today at WTA Stuttgart, so she may well pass her in the rankings leading up to this - seriously that field could have easily been a proper WTA internationa as the last direct entry is 129.

Whereas in Spain, she is definitely the top seed and the 3rd player isn't even in the top 200, so it's much more easier draw - last direct entry is 299. If she gets to the final in Spain, she will get 30 points, 50 if she wins, yet only 42 if she got to the France semi final which would be pretty unlikely IMO. Even lower down, if she 'only' managed a Spain 25k semi final she would get 18 points, which is basically the same as 21 for reaching the French QF, which would still be a tall ask.

Plus she is already in Spain the week before, I know France isn't a million miles away, but it's more convenient staying where she is and especially as she's clearly not started the year as she'd have hoped - she'll be about 150 in the Race at the end of the week so I don't blame her for chasing cheap points, particularly on a surface she is more comfortable on. It may seem unambitious and not as good prep for Roland G, but under all the circumstances, I think it's the best decision - she also has work to do to secure her Wimbledon spot and while she'll be nailed on for a MDWC if needed (and rightly so), she'd far rather qualify for Wimbledon by right for the first time ever and avoid all the 'terrible, undeserved Wildcard' chat that will inevitably follow on Social Media from those that don't know better if she loses first round and casual observers see headlines like 'Wildcard Boutler crashes out'.

She'll have clay prep at WTA Nuremberg the week before and maybe even W/C 13th May as well, but like CD, having watched her in RG quals last year, I can't imagine too much clay success either. The only bad thing is, Jodie is one off getting into the Monzon main draw, I assumed Katie would withdraw from this, but as it stands, Jodie still needs a withdrawal to avoid quals, or no SE's, or her to get an SE from the week before.

 



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Well thank you AV. That's a very different perspective and gives much food for thought.

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SuperT wrote:

Well thank you AV. That's a very different perspective and gives much food for thought.


Yeah, at face value it does look a bit strange, a top 100 player swapping an 80k event for a 25k one and looks a bit like prime vulturing, but there's definitely logic there.

I see there is a Spanish 60k+H clay event the week after the Spain 25k event (W/C 13th) and while we won't know until Thursday, she may well make her 2019 clay debut there and combine the 3 Spanish events together and if she gets enough points at the hard 60k and 25k events, it'll be a bit more of a 'free hit' when she does start the dirt, with far less pressure.



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I see the LTA have put out an article stating that Katie B is down to play Nottingham again. I'm not sure if that means the entry lists have been confirmed and she is in directly, or if she'll get a WC regardless, so there just letting us know early that she'll definitely be playing one way or the other. Hopefully the former so the WCs can go elsewhere like Harriet and maybe Heather.

I'm not sure what ranking the direct entry cut off was last year, but I see the list was published roughly a week from now.


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Pretty certain that will be a direct entry. The last direct acceptance in 2018 was Magdalena Frech at #141. Qualifying was way down - the 12th seed was Abbie Myers at WR333.

www.wtatennis.com/tournament/wta-nottingham

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As I understand it, with a large number of these events (eg Queens in the ATP side) they sign a contract with a player to play knowing that they will definitely get in on ranking if they entered or they could offer a WC if it comes to it, but the player is effectively contractually committed. Means they can do publicity etc and presumably get paid a fee which would get some sort of penalty if the player couldnt end up playing.

Andy committed to a lot of events last year on this basis, ended up dropping out, Queens this year I think has Kyrgios playing who wasnt or isnt guaranteed a direct spot but would presumably therefore get a WC if needs be

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JonH


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the addict wrote:

Pretty certain that will be a direct entry. The last direct acceptance in 2018 was Magdalena Frech at #141. Qualifying was way down - the 12th seed was Abbie Myers at WR333.

www.wtatennis.com/tournament/wta-nottingham


 That does seem really low. There must have been a fair few late withdrawals because I just saw the original entry list cut off was 101 Voegele (which would be the equivalent of announced next Wednesday):

https://twitter.com/MichalSamulski/status/991702262669029377

So, I'm not sure if they have used this weeks rankings and then 85 would surely be fine, but she's live 90 and there's still 8 who can overtake her (not all of them), which could put her close to that initial entry list of last year if using next weeks rankings.

Jon's post, while interesting, also doesn't really answer the question, because we know that she's definitely playing, but just not sure whether a MDWC will be needed. I guess we'll find out for certain next week. You'd think/hope 85-95 would be enough.

Also from my understanding, the WC situation is as follows:

Up to 4 WCs overall - 2 Top 20 + 2 normal WCs

No Top 20 WC takers would mean 1 extra normal WC + 1 Alt

1 Top 20 WC would mean the initial 2 WCs +1 Alt. So while it would be good for the tournament to get a late big bonus name, hopefully no one will take one and we'll get the 3rd WC. Last year Stosur got one (as a former slam winner about 10 year ago) which was a bit of a blow as she's pretty average now (relative to the top 100) and not really a big draw IMO, although saying that, Katie S did come through quals to get good points, whereas she'd probably have been the 3rd WC if Stosur didn't sign up and she'd have got minimal points if she lost to Barthel in R1 as a WC instead of a Q.



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Ace Ventura wrote:
the addict wrote:

Pretty certain that will be a direct entry. The last direct acceptance in 2018 was Magdalena Frech at #141. Qualifying was way down - the 12th seed was Abbie Myers at WR333.

www.wtatennis.com/tournament/wta-nottingham


 That does seem really low. There must have been a fair few late withdrawals because I just saw the original entry list cut off was 101 Voegele (which would be the equivalent of announced next Wednesday):

https://twitter.com/MichalSamulski/status/991702262669029377

So, I'm not sure if they have used this weeks rankings and then 85 would surely be fine, but she's live 90 and there's still 8 who can overtake her (not all of them), which could put her close to that initial entry list of last year if using next weeks rankings.

Jon's post, while interesting, also doesn't really answer the question, because we know that she's definitely playing, but just not sure whether a MDWC will be needed. I guess we'll find out for certain next week. You'd think/hope 85-95 would be enough.

Also from my understanding, the WC situation is as follows:

Up to 4 WCs overall - 2 Top 20 + 2 normal WCs

No Top 20 WC takers would mean 1 extra normal WC + 1 Alt

1 Top 20 WC would mean the initial 2 WCs +1 Alt. So while it would be good for the tournament to get a late big bonus name, hopefully no one will take one and we'll get the 3rd WC. Last year Stosur got one (as a former slam winner about 10 year ago) which was a bit of a blow as she's pretty average now (relative to the top 100) and not really a big draw IMO, although saying that, Katie S did come through quals to get good points, whereas she'd probably have been the 3rd WC if Stosur didn't sign up and she'd have got minimal points if she lost to Barthel in R1 as a WC instead of a Q.


 Hi - I think what I was saying is that if the MD list isnt due for a week or so, then they are probably confident she will get in directly and hence going for it, but know they will give her a WC if needs be. But it cant be confirmed yet as there may be other entries in the  intervening period that scupper it, however unlikely. The LTA will have the tournament director talking to various players and agents no doubt so other entries could unfold. All will become clear in a weeks time I presume!     



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