Well that's a bit, you know what. Unless she's got a MDWC for Doha or something if she's not injured? Dubai and Doha obviously don't have many home players and last year Dubai gave Eden a random QWC.
Big shame for the tournament and seemed like a good choice for her. Not in the top 100, so 60k would be a good level for her to get some wins and improve the ranking, especially being a seed and at home. We finally get an ITF away from the grass season above 25k and it looks like 2 of the 5 who they would have been designed for won't be playing.
If it is injury related then I obviously wish her well.
Just seen her in the video of Kids Day at Bath.
She isn't on the entry lists for Doha, but who knows, she might have got a WC. Current qualifying cut-off there is WR139. The main draw is stacked, as you'd expect.
I suppose with playing Fed Cup and therefore not being allowed into qualifying, she probably wouldn't have entered as her ranking was never going to get her into the main draw, so it would be a MDWC or nothing.
In terms of Shrewsbury, as long as the Katie's and Heather remain and with the 4 MDWCs and maybe an outside chance of 1 GB player coming through quals (depending on who gets what sort of WC), it won't be too bad. I love going to watch tennis live, but for me, there's 4 thing's I'd want if I was travelling 50 or so miles:
Plenty of GB interest - numbers seem to be going down all the time, but still enough as it stands
Past big names - Lisicki, great. Very popular in the UK
Young players with big potential - Juvan, check*
Top 100 players or in and around - not so much, most seem to have pulled out - Dart, Bonaventure, Rus etc.
A potential QF of 27 year old Martina Di Giuseppe vs Von Deichmann wouldn't really get my juices flowing.
*I went to Ilkley last year and was disappointed when Yastremska beat Gabi comfortably in the first round. They were a similar(ish) age, both ranked around 150 at the time, but the score was 3 and 1. I went down for the QFs so saw her also beat Dart in 3 sets, Alexandrova in the SF and then lost agonisingly to Smitkova in the final in a deciding set TB and just missed out on the Wimbledon WC, but her presence and obvious potential made that trip for me, and look at her now 7 months on - 2 WTA titles, in the main draw of slams and ranked 34 so will probably be seeded for them all going forward. It's great being able to say you saw them when they were less known.
*I went to Ilkley last year and was disappointed when Yastremska beat Gabi comfortably in the first round. They were a similar(ish) age, both ranked around 150 at the time, but the score was 3 and 1. I went down for the QFs so saw her also beat Dart in 3 sets, Alexandrova in the SF and then lost agonisingly to Smitkova in the final in a deciding set TB and just missed out on the Wimbledon WC, but her presence and obvious potential made that trip for me, and look at her now 7 months on - 2 WTA titles, in the main draw of slams and ranked 34 so will probably be seeded for them all going forward. It's great being able to say you saw them when they were less known.
Apart from Ilkley,I also saw Yastremska play[and lose] in the first round at Didsbury to Claire Liu- a really good match-Yastremska was great to watch and unlucky to lose but Liu was excellent too. Not surprised at all to see Yastremska do so well and progress up the rankings so quickly.