Interesting, but I guess when you have 5 ITFs and 2 reserved for possible SE's then it's only 15 initial places as opposed to 22 or 24 that we have been used to previously. Swan will certainly get in and Fran way well get in via the ITF reserved route as she is 5th highest who have it as priority 1.

I see Gabi is down for the 25k event in Germany that week. Katie is priority 2 for Glasgow, 3 for Germany and I'd imagine her 1 would be the 60k in Japan which you are currently unable to see the initial entry list on the ITF site.

As has Katie Swan. Katie S still down for Shrewsbury but withdrew from the 60k Japan event the same week as Glasgow.

Strongbow wrote:

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Gabi is 10th in the Japanese MD - KD 5th in QF.

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 She's also in the MD of German 25k which is her 1 priority, so not sure how that works, if she doesn't withdraw from one, will she be automatically removed from Germany as Japan is a bigger event, or removed from Japan and Germany was her main preference.

Yes, it's a very valid point, that's been made before, but is worth repeating.

Of course, one of the problems is that if you don't have a lot of depth then you only need a couple not to take part and it becomes very skinny.

And, as others say, if we had a 15k (as opposed to all these richer events) then everyone could play. But we had some 15ks several years ago where hardly anyone turned up for those either.

However, one way or another, it doesn't look good for the 'we should have more tournaments' argument

Yeah, they must have their own reasons. If Gabi plays 60k Japan then you could at least say she's playing a bigger event and fair play, although that said, it is just a string of *25ks over there after that and she could have played 60k Shrewsbury, 25k Glasgow and a bunch of other European 25k's if she's going down that route, but if she does play 25k Altenkirchen (her 1 priority) then it would be a bit of a slap in the face for British tennis that she's chosen a German 25k over it. Harriet obviously had success there last year, but you'd hope your players would opt for a home 25k rather than a German one.

*I have just noticed that after the Japan 60k, they do have 7 25k's in a row - that'll be a huge advantage for there players and probably why when you saw the entry list for that Indian tournament last week (Jodie), that at least half of the entrants were from Japan. Mind, I suppose GB is at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of location because when we put events on, we'll always get a lot of Europeans ranked 150-200 like your Smitkova, Grammatikapolou etc. playing, whereas in Japan, they'll predominantly be from the 4 or 5 nearby countries and you'll get the likes of Inoue (who Jodie beat 2 and 1) as a seed despite never being ranked higher than 275:

www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/women's-tournament/info.aspx

Jodie stands more chance, as third alt in the main list. Eden at 8 - could scrape in.

Indeed pity about a few of the better GB 25K level players and certain or likely MD entrants being missing, essentially Katies S & D, Gabi and Naomi.

But still such as Maia, Jodie, Eden, Alicia, Fran, Freya, Tara, Laura and Emma are on the lists. In all 13 of our top 22 ranked, and still the big majority of 25K level players.

Clearly though looking like most of these left will need MD and Q WCs and it will be interesting to see who gets them.

I expect to get to the event for a day or two.