Yes, many thanks Red Squirrel :D

Article in today's Times which discusses some of the points about the new system
www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/new-itf-world-tennis-tour-and-dual-ranking-system-causing-confusion-ncbxz00wl

Just as you think you've managed to get your head around the new system, in the 2019 rulebook it is revealed that the seedings for womens 15K singles are worked out in this order:
Players with a WTA ranking of 1 to 650
then players with an ITF ranking of 1 to 30
then remaining players with a WTA ranking
then remaining players with an ITF ranking

We will see some unintended consequences, I was unable to access Stu Frasers article and therefore find out the contents of his crystal ball but its interesting to speculate.

We may see the players ranked in the top 500 on the mens side get even older as exactly how to game to the new rules becomes apparent. That 15 to 25K step has to be pretty clean, generally one has to dominate ones cohort to transition a tier. Only the very best juniors will be able to do that.

Using British players as an example the likes of Jack Draper wont really be affected but perhaps the direction Anton Matusivich should take is less clear, ie. very good junior but not dominating his chronological cohort a year or two early. I think the futures wilderness years may be longer. This would make collegiate tennis potentially much more attractive. Collegiate tennis is 15K level in the power conferences and national competition 25k/ challenger level in the final rounds. Cam would have been totally unaffected by the changes (potentially debt free) and had the college experience, he made a very clean transition but didnt attempt it until age 22.

In the mean time under ranked college players will be dependant on wildcards probably easier for the US guys in the US but a bit more difficult for those trying to establish a rank in Europe during the holidays. Perhaps more players will choose the college route and play all 4 years in college with little or no impact on ATP rankings. The 15K to 25k step becomes steeper with more mature players who transitioned later hanging on longer??

So I'm just finding this new transition tour concept more and more mudlike... and then I see that the LTA has announced they won't be holding any ITF transition tour level tournaments next year. And increasingly I'm just thinking wtf? How exactly are they interpreting this new world/ tennis order? And what exactly is the message they are trying to pass onto younger aspiring players? How do they expect them to reach the main ATP/ WTA tours, if they have to accrue ITF transition points first in order to have a chance of even entering qualifying for a main tour event? I mean to me the message is we don't give a s... go to Monastir, Antalya, Sharm, wherever to acquire your tiny little 1s and 2s points, whilst we are only going to focus on the 'real' professional players. It's like saying, ok, from now on we are only going to have the Premier League and Championship in football... and disband all the lower leagues... and good luck to you elite sides where you find your future players from.

I'm other misunderstanding or missing something, but given the growing number of countries cancelling their ITF events next year, how is it they are viewing the tennis ladder? The rationale for the new structure seemed to be, if you want to be a tennis professional who can make a living from the game... you have to prove you have what it takes on a 'non-professional' lower tier before you can join the real 'pro' ranks... but actually, just so that we make your life really hard, and eliminate most of you from even bothering to try... we are also going to eliminate most of those bottom rungs on the ladder altogether.. and then we will really know which ones of you are really committed to becoming a pro by seeing how high you can jump and cling on with your finger tips... or more prosaically have rich family/ supporters to take a punt on paying your way to which ever countries are modest/ lower class enough in their tennis ambitions to keep hosting 'non-professional' tournaments.

I'm not against tennis reform but this all looks to me a classic example of a new system designed by a committee who couldn't be bothered to see whether the dots all join together... A bit like some other chaotic process I could name but won't. Maybe I do misunderstand and it will all turn out hunky dory.. but I have a lot of sympathy for young aspiring professionals right now trying to decipher all this and work out whether they have a chance of a career or not knowing that basically the shallow end where you can try out your abilities first, has been taken out and discarded.

Coup Droit wrote:

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The only thing I can think is that the LTA, and Canada, and such, are just looking at wildcards in the bigger events as being the way forward. For the favoured few.

To be honest, for the LTA, and as regards the women, that's no different from their approach this year, pre the transition tour. At least it's consistent :(

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I guess we will have to see how Alt lists actually work to see the extent to which players with only a transition tour ranking can actually get into 25k events, also given the -8 positions in the q draws.