Week 38 - ITF ($25k) - Lubbock, USA Hard

tharris · Intermediate Club Player

Week 38 - ITF ($25k) - Lubbock, USA Hard

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

tharris wrote:
I live in (north) Texas. I've traveled all over the state. Lubbock is a bleak, depressing Hell-hole, to say the least.

Always good to get some local 'colour' - sounds lovely cry

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Wildcards into the main draw of a 25k for two of our girls? One unranked and one barely ranked..... it's blinkin' kind of the powers that be, brilliant. LTA take note.

I realise they're at college there but we've got lots of good players at college in the UK and they never get the same.

At the Loughborough 25k earlier this year I don't see any MD wildcards to any of the uni players/tennis centre players there.

Great to see a different approach by the US.

NB I'd expect Nell to win easily over Olivia Peet but haven't seen Olivia for a year or so.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 17th of September 2018 07:23:52 AM

telstar · Strong Club Player

Michael D wrote:
A whole 5 Brits are in the doubles too - the singles 4, plus Lana, and none of them are playing together. In the case of the lower ranked 3 it's probably so they could get WCs.

Naomi and Nadia Podoroska (ARG) are 2nd seeds;
Tara and Emina Bektas (USA) unfortunately play the top seeds Cornelia Lister/ Victoria Rodriguez (SWE/MEX)
Nell Miller and Felicity Maltby (USA) are WCs
Lana Rush and Monica Robinson (USA) are WCs
Olivia Peet and Denise-Antonela Stoica (ROU) are WCs

Tomorrow's OOP features Nell and Olivia's singles, and Tara +s doubles.

Felicia and Denisa-Antonella are also on Texas Tech roster. Monica was last year's Volunteer Assistant Coach. Dubs is very important at US unis-will be interesting to see how these three pairs do.

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

This is Nell's 3rd 25K or higher counter, which will mean she will still have a WTA ranking at the start of the new era on 31 December. I could go into some analysis on how this takes her from being one off the biggest losers to being a big winner under the new system. I could say that from being outside of the top 1,000 ITF WR and needing to qualifying for 15Ks, and perhaps struggling to get in to some next season she will now get straight into the main draw and possibly in some be seeded. But as she starts on her college career this is probably of little relevance to her.

What is of relevance is that we will now have 23 WTA ranked women at the start of the new era. That's important because it means that the magical 25 ranked players at the start of the new era is still possible. To get there Emma R needs a further 25K counter and Mandy needs two. With weeks running out, and in particular with Mandy's ranking falling further in the next couple of weeks, they both may need to rely on MD WCs for the two end of season GB 25Ks to get those counters. It will be short lived though, as the first of Nell's counters drops off in mid-February.

Michael D · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
tharris wrote:
I live in (north) Texas. I've traveled all over the state. Lubbock is a bleak, depressing Hell-hole, to say the least.
Always good to get some local 'colour' - sounds lovely

And this is where Nell and Olivia are at college?

Michael D · All-time great

RedSquirrel wrote:
This is Nell's 3rd 25K or higher counter, which will mean she will still have a WTA ranking at the start of the new era on 31 December. I could go into some analysis on how this takes her from being one off the biggest losers to being a big winner under the new system. I could say that from being outside of the top 1,000 ITF WR and needing to qualifying for 15Ks, and perhaps struggling to get in to some next season she will now get straight into the main draw and possibly in some be seeded. But as she starts on her college career this is probably of little relevance to her.

What is of relevance is that we will now have 23 WTA ranked women at the start of the new era. That's important because it means that the magical 25 ranked players at the start of the new era is still possible. To get there Emma R needs a further 25K counter and Mandy needs two. With weeks running out, and in particular with Mandy's ranking falling further in the next couple of weeks, they both may need to rely on MD WCs for the two end of season GB 25Ks to get those counters. It will be short lived though, as the first of Nell's counters drops off in mid-February.

Yes, this is very interesting RS and you certainly have a much more detailed understanding of how the new set up will work from next year than most of us do yet! But what is interesting is how much difference this one WC makes.. Like CD I'd expect Nell to win here, but also without knowing how much Olivia has improved.

Emma R has unfortunately missed her chance of gaining another 25k counter this week.

tharris · Intermediate Club Player

Michael D wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
tharris wrote:
I live in (north) Texas. I've traveled all over the state. Lubbock is a bleak, depressing Hell-hole, to say the least.
Always good to get some local 'colour' - sounds lovely
And this is where Nell and Olivia are at college?

At least they are attending a good university in Texas Tech. I just personally find most of west Texas (Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Abilene) to have very little to offer. I suppose Amarillo isn't too bad, being near the rather scenic Palo Duro Canyon.

tharris · Intermediate Club Player

I'd also like to add that it's been over 10 years since I've been to Lubbock, so perhaps it has more to offer now.

Michael D · All-time great

It looks very arid around there, though it would seem the city is trying to make something of itself as a small business hub, according to wikipedia... And in 2013 the Weather Channel named it the 'Toughest Weather City' in America, which certainly does not make it attractive. Very hot summers, very little rain, and freezing nights in winter.

TomTraubert · Futures level

hey lubbock aint all bad buddy holly was born there

Michael D · All-time great

TomTraubert wrote:
hey lubbock aint all bad buddy holly was born there

Yes, I saw that too, and there's a museum dedicated to him there too, but it doesn't say how quickly he got out!

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

Olivia and Nell met in the final at UT Arlington in week 4 of the Oracle ITA summer circuit, where Olivia came out with the win 6-4 4-6 10-8

Michael D · All-time great

RedSquirrel wrote:
Olivia and Nell met in the final at UT Arlington in week 4 of the Oracle ITA summer circuit, where Olivia came out with the win 6-4 4-6 10-8

Ah, that adds some real spice to the match! They are on court next.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Lubbocks fine, you climb out of the Permian Basin on to the plains and the oil pumps turn to fields full of combine harvesters its pretty rural and the college facilities are amazing.

Odessa and Midland are I agree pretty bleak, I think it is s great place to go to college a very different American experience from being in one of the big cities, the College sports teams are the major spectator sport for a city of close to 250,000 giving student athletes a high profile in the local media.