paulisi wrote:

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Vrljic is in the same boat as EWS, at the latter stages of her career and going backwards in the rankings.
Another case of thinking she is better than she is.

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 Lordy, paulisi, you better watch your back - you're going to have to don a big hat and false moustache any time you come across PaulM on this board 

christ wrote:

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If it were only one player's view, then commenting on the worthiness of that player has merit: when 700 have signed up, then surely it is more than sour grapes from an old has-been?

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For whatever reason, they're trying to whittle the amount who class themselves as a professional tennis player down to around 750, so of course there's going to be several hundred not happy with the changes.

There will be a some in their twenties who have the potential to go on to better things who are probably harshly treated from these rules coming in out of the blue, and it's not great if some in the 400's can't get the 25k opportunities they once had, but as far as the ATP/WTA/ITF are concerned, if you're good enough you will eventually see your way through, even if you have to momentarily dip down to 15k level for this to happen, but for the likes of EWS, Vrljic and many others the wrong side of 30, who are 200-300 off their career best, clearly not going to get better and basically treading water, and there'll be many others of a similar status, then from the top end organisations POV, these are just getting in the way of those who can have an impact in the sport, as harsh as that sounds.

Daria Lopatestska used her IR to win a 25k in HK at the start of the year and Gauff used her JE to get to the Surprise 25k final and these with potential getting opportunities faster rather than someone basically travelling the world, barely breaking even is exactly what the governing bodies wants, obviously those 2 are huge talents and probably would have found their way regardless soon regardless, but that'll be seen as a success. It's not flawless and there are issues and it may have been implemented too much too soon, but I can see why they have done it.

 

the number of complainants 700 is pretty irelevant to the point of the change tho
if all those players are 250-1200 ranked previous then they are the people going to get afected and be upset as they are losing they tennis carer if they cant get better and win more matches
they are exactly the players that tennis now elieve it CAN do without as they bring in no real revenue
what are the highest rated and highest rate young players signing up is the key question and one that probly wnt be answered
if they have venus and serena and osaka signed up that has real bargain power but im sure we would have herd that if it were true
even if they fet someone like petkovic on board that show some solidarity
but if its all vrljic and similar - honest hard working journey pros that rabid fans like us get lots of plesure folowing but who dont really help grow tennis in the business sense - then atp/wta will probably think "good the dead wood is being cleared" of course they wont say that out loud but they aim is being met and they are getting the itf to take all the flak for it

does anyone know the highest rank/profile players to have signed in the 700? is there any one in the current top 100?

newby wrote:

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Spell check

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 Some people have dyslexia and/or use talk to text (not sure if this is the case with Tom).

-- Edited by flamingowings on Wednesday 20th of February 2019 09:46:39 PM

The ITF view:
https://www.itftennis.com/news/302119.aspx

Seven weeks into the new ITF World Tennis Tour, we sat down with Jackie Nesbitt, Executive Director, ITF Circuits and Andrew Moss, Head, ITF World Tennis Tour. We discussed why the changes to the Tour have been made, what the ITF is doing to support players on the Tour, and what initial observations can be drawn so far.

Particularly of note, confirmation of what Ace mentioned

"The impact of smaller draws is under constant scrutiny and indeed data evidence has been shared with the Committees who are in the process of determining whether the 24 qualifying draw size limits player access to job opportunities too severely."


As mentioned, we are reviewing the 24-qualifying draw size and this matter is with our Committee and a decision is expected in the coming days."

The qualifying draw for week 10 Antalya, Turkey is out. It has 16 players accepted and 8 byes despite a long list of players in the Alts list including 5 British players several of them entering for the first time.

Peter too wrote:

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The qualifying draw for week 10 Antalya, Turkey is out. It has 16 players accepted and 8 byes despite a long list of players in the Alts list including 5 British players several of them entering for the first time.

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At what stage and position on the alts list though do you take the chance to go for it, especially with the late possibly wasted expense, significant expense for many if not most?

Yes, you get situations like this where the vast majority from all other countries, and from even reasonably high up the alts list, decide no and hindsight says you would have easily got into qualifying. But as long as you remain clearly out you have no certainty.