This has really brought the effect of the changes into focus for me. It seems that players like Tara, Fran and Jodie who played a mixture of 15K and higher level tournaments last year are going to be the worst affected. Players who played exclusively 15Ks and were reasonably successful at that level have a high ITF ranking so get priority on the reserved ITF lists. However, players like Tara have dropped down the list for both WTA and ITF rankings and will probably struggle to get entry on either critereon. I wonder how much advice they were given to help plan their schedules last year? I see most of our "better" players played exclusively 25K+ during 2018, presumably because they knew 15K points wouldn't count.
That 15K to 25K transition has to be pretty clean it could have some interesting but unanticipated consequences, definitely in the short term until the players understand how to structure their itineraries to maximal effect.
With so few tournaments in weeks 1-3, I don't think the entries will become clear until week 4, whn there are 5 W25's and 5 W15's. Week 1 is rather top-loaded with WTA ranked players - the lowest ranked entry into qualifying in the two tournaments is WTA 331
With so few tournaments in weeks 1-3, I don't think the entries will become clear until week 4, whn there are 5 W25's and 5 W15's. Week 1 is rather top-loaded with WTA ranked players - the lowest ranked entry into qualifying in the two tournaments is WTA 331
I agree. We won't really know the full effects for several weeks. Things may become clearer in February. I do think that early evidence suggests that Emily Appleton may have played a rather canny schedule last year by concentrating on 15ks. She clearly wasn't ready yet to step up, but has put herself in a great position to enter 25ks on the back of that success lower down. Whether she is now ready to step up a level though is another question.
I have some doubts about whether some players arguably in seemingly decent positions for tournaments going forward really were trying to play any canny schedule, just maybe more that's how it has transpired.
And as said it looked like Emily App for instance wasn't ready for 25Ks last year. She did actually play quite a number, but unsuccessfully leaving the vast proportion of her points as 15K points. Her generally busy widespread tournament schedule and some seemingly easier 15Ks seemed to be a lot to do with her 2018 top 500 target and little to do with 2019. There seemed quite a lot of short termism with her.
-- Edited by indiana on Monday 17th of December 2018 11:45:28 AM
Emily has 102 ITF points coming off by end of January (12 tomorrow and 90 after the Australian Open) which will drop her to about 60 in the ITF rankings so opportunities for 25K reserved places may become limited for her. A canny schedule for those focused on reserved places would have been to build up a lot of 15K points in the last 2 or 3 months so you would have 9 or 10 months of reserved places to build up their WTA ranking without needing to have to defend 15K points coming off.
Like indiana, I doubt whether much transition planning went into the schedules this year, not least because we didn't even know what was going to happen at the start of this year. Also, Emily Appleton did try to play a few 25Ks, she just didn't have any success in them, while at the same time getting better at going deep in 15Ks.
The women's 25K entry system looks like a complete dog's breakfast and it does look like those who have been playing a mix of events might get caught in the middle.
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