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the addict · Tennis legend

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Strongbow · All-time great

the addict · Tennis legend

Don't stand much chance of getting a match, do they !

indiana · Tennis legend

Strongbow wrote:

I see that these figures are from the final acceptance lists on the ITF site.

As can then happen with withdrawals from qualifying and particularly from alternates, for 3 of these wb 25/03 tournaments qualifying has ended going well down the alternates and generally taking in some locals who have stuck it out. And indeed the other 2 qualifying draws, Sharm and Antalya, ended up with 2 byes and 1 bye respectively so any registered player could have got in.

But I'd agree that that's still little use even for ITF ranked players from here well down that last alternates list. Since who is going to take a chance with the last minute expense that will incur

Then again, for those without an ITF ranking, and unlikely to get any wc, how do they ever get a shot at qualifying to maybe get that ranking without ultimately maybe travelling in hope sometime to somewhere that actually bothers to put on 15Ks.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 27th of March 2019 10:26:36 PM

Peter too · Tennis legend

You would have thought that the principle aim of the governing body of any sport would be to promote the sport and encourage as many people to play it as possible. However when it comes to the tennis the opposite appears to be the case.

Strongbow · All-time great

|n order to be in the draw you have to sign in - who can afford to travel on the off-chance of a place.

Seems "picking events" will be more important than service or backhand wink

indiana · Tennis legend

Strongbow wrote:
|n order to be in the draw you have to sign in - who can afford to travel on the off-chance of a place.
Seems "picking events" will be more important than service or backhand

An ITF transition tour tutor maybe more important than a traditional tennis coach?

Strongbow · All-time great

Why not sack everybody who earns over £50,000 P.A. at the LTA and have some UK 15k events - there could be "wild-cards" wink

Michael D · All-time great

Strongbow wrote:
Why not sack everybody who earns over £50,000 P.A. at the LTA and have some UK 15k events - there could be "wild-cards"

This must be really frustrating for younger - and older - players, and their families, where they are trying at least to test their abilities. There is just no intent from the LTA to provide any form of fairness or equality of opportunity to all. It's so sad that they'd prefer to continue their myopic, elitist path, that restricts opportunity, and unfortunately just mirrors the principles of global capitalism with its relentless pursuit of just money, and it's inevitable effect of just further inequality.

In short the LTA merely mirrors our times to the detriment of the majority of players. It would require much more enlightened leadership, far less focused on narrow interest, to turn this around, and don't hold out much hope for that in the foreseeable future. To reintroduce W15s would mean to show some real learning about a change of culture being needed... Not very likely.

Peter too · Tennis legend

I know we are in the process of shutting gates and pulling up drawbridges on some of our activities but it didn't realise that included tennis. If the 15K bottleneck stays in place for long I can see it killing professional tennis in the UK as sporting youngsters switch to other sports. How long will it be I wonder before Wimbledon is run without any British players.

paulisi · Tennis legend

The men don't have the same issue as the women.
The men can pick up ITF points at 25k, the women do not.

There is no way for good GB juniors or college graduates to start on the road to the hitting the top 200 with the current format.

Either the LTA put on some 15k for the women or 25ks get ITF points. It's ridiculous that even our better juniors who qualify will gain little or no benefit if they have no WTA points

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I see an Daria Snigur, a 17 year old IR without a WTA ranking, has just won a Japanese 25k event, beating Rebecca Marino in the final. She has put together an excellent recent run on the Turkey and Egypt 15k scene to build her ITF ranking to 56 and has then obviously benefited from the new system, allowing her in as one of the 5 IRs, and certainly taken advantage of it.

On a side note, it must be so exciting if you were a Ukrainian women's tennis fan right now - top 10 player in Svitolina who won the biggest title outside of the slams, solid top 32 player in Tsurenko, Kozlova who'll float in and out of the top 100 and a whole host of young talent - 18 yo Yastremska already with 2 full WTA titles, 16 year old Kostyuk who made the 3rd round of the AO last year, Lopatestka (15) who has already won 3 25k events in 2019 and now Snigar (17). There's also Zavatska who has just turned 19 and is in the top 200, but seems more in the background thanks to her younger compatriots. You'd think there'd be a fair chance that they would be the next Czech Republic in 3 or 4 years as far as the Fed Cup is concerned.

Edit - 'Fed Cup' not French Open.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Sunday 7th of April 2019 02:48:26 PM

Nosnowtabouttennis · Newbie

The comments of the contributors in this forum are spot on. It is increasingly frustrating for younger tennis players leaving juniors to get into tournaments to progress. Not everyone has the funding to travel, especially on the off chance of a last minute entry. I appreciate that not everyone can be funded by the LTA but what I find increasingly frustrating is the lack of guidance for these youngsters. Surely that costs little enough? Its difficult enough trying to juggle education (yes some do take A levels), training and competition. The pressure on them to get wins is enormous, and as a parent of one of them, I can tell you the effort they put in is second to none. When I see the support given to overseas players I cant help feeling some resentment. We have the option of changing nationality and have never seriously considered it. I can see why some would!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

THere are decent moves up in the ITF rankings this week, with our top 100 players now being:

30 APPLETON, Emily +13
38 JONES, Francesca 0
65 RADUCANU, Emma +35
90 CARRERAS, Amanda -3

wimdledont · Challenger level

A couple of points...

The obvious move up from 15ks is to 25k qualis. But there is no pathway to do so. with just an ITF ranking. They should have several ITF reserved places for each 25k. At present, an ITF ranking from 1-30ish gets you into 25k MD every week, but a ranking from 30-2000 is very little use.

There are severe absurdities now in the 15k seedings. An ITF 25k record of P3,W0,L3 trumps an ITF 15k record of P100, W100, L0.

The USTA hardly hosts any 15ks, so has very few players with an ITF ranking. For players ranked ITF 30-100, if they want to play 25k MD, the best idea is to head for the States.