I am sure once the prize money on offer goes back up to $25K we will see the likes of Naomi Broady, Tara and Texas Tech (Wildcards) new girls Nell Miller and Olivia Peet in the main draw. Lana is of course already there and in her senior year.

I went to this event a couple of years back and there was a big squad of British girls there, my impression was that the tournament was glad to have them and indeed Texa Tech had tried quite hard to recruit one of them, Harriet. Although I really loved Harriets all round game I didnt see her managing to increase the weight of her shots in the way she has that has allowed her to really push on into the top 200.

Todd Petty has been the Texas Tech womens coach for a number of years (10) now and is really well regarded. Although he didnt manage to recruit Harriet I feel the fact he tried shows a good eye for talent and managed to recruit a very strong class a number of whom I would anticipate making significant progress on the ITF tour, Felicity Maltby (Snr) is likely to be in the main draw, Gabriela Talba (Rou) graduated last year was the pick of that class. A group it will be very interesting to follow and it is also exciting he has recruited Nell and Olivia.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 16th of September 2018 05:42:01 AM

TomTraubert wrote:

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Oakland2002 wrote:

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I am sure once the prize money on offer goes back up to $25K

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 this is $25k this year as it always is

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I think Oak knows that

Lana gets the win, 5&3

A solid start for Lana! Nice to see.

On a more general point there were concerns that the loss of 15K might impact our college players in the states. Not wanting to cause confusion but I feel the way this 25 k is run (and has always been) is reassuring as to how things will progress if the colleges run transition tour events. Texas Tech the host college taking the opportunity to develop their better players before the fall term really kicks off, with no discrimination between US and overseas college athletes. Their focus is on their students (generic) and developing the better players capable of competing at this level with the success of their whole team in mind.

Hopefully this is how things will evolve next year with the introduction of the transition tour and abolition of 15K's, it may be mutually beneficial in that more good players choose college tennis with that in turn becoming deeper in terms of talent level. It also means fewer players floundering around in futures as teenagers and in their early twenties really cash strapped and for nought in the long term (bar an experience). A good choice for Nell and Olivia whose talent level compares well with some of our girls in that situation at present and indeed even in the case of Harriet who is doing rather well (not something I had anticipated) it is quite exciting that they have been picked out by the coach who had tried to recruit her in one of this years US college tennis most highly ranked recruiting classes (As are LSU who have recruited Anna Loughlan)

Naomi draws a good junior, Nell and Olivia, both giving wild cards (as they attend TCU) but unfortunately/ fortunately draw each other, since one of them is guaranteed 5 points now, which will be a hefty boost. Tara draws a qualifier and she could really do with some points too, as she loses a bunch (21) next week.

R32: Naomi BROADY (GBR) [1] 167 vs Ann LI (USA) 324=CH 18yrs (12 Jan 18)
R32: Nell MILLER (GBR) [WC] 1237 vs Olivia PEET (GBR) [WC] UNR
R32: Tara MOORE (GBR) 398 vs Qualifier

Michael D wrote:

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Naomi draws a good junior, Nell and Olivia, both giving wild cards (as they attend TCU) but unfortunately/ fortunately draw each other, since one of them is guaranteed 5 points now, which will be a hefty boost. Tara draws a qualifier and she could really do with some points too, as she loses a bunch (21) next week.

R32: Naomi BROADY (GBR) [1] 167 vs Ann LI (USA) 324=CH 18yrs (12 Jan 18)
R32: Nell MILLER (GBR) [WC] 1237 vs Olivia PEET (GBR) [WC] UNR
R32: Tara MOORE (GBR) 398 vs Qualifier

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They Olivia and Nell attend Texas Tech based in Lubbock, TCU is in Fort Worth close to Dallas about 4 and 1/2 hrs away by car at a steady 70 (300 plus miles). Not a drive to be recommended some quite big snakes at the truck stops.