Ace Ventura wrote:

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I'm hoping they have 4 matches of both each of those days, have the women play more in the morning / early afternoon on the Monday, wrapped up by say 3pm, and have those Monday female players play their QF second on the Tuesday, so keeping their usual schedule from Tuesday. It would be a real shame to effectively branch off into separate events so early in the tournament IMO.

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 Yes, that works and makes a lot more sense in maintaining the model thats worked well as best they can. 

brittak wrote:

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News from Wimbledon today that Middle Sunday will become a permanent fixture from next year.

Not much detail around it but a suggestion about it becoming a different experience to that of other days so perhaps aimed at the less corporate and the more mainstream fan. This will mean a change to Manic Monday which will be a shame in some ways as that is generally my favourite day of the fortnight as there are so many good matches.

The update didnt give away much else other than they are holding back on ticket sales until the last possible moment to get capacity as high as they can within the rules. Obviously with the tournament taking place from 28th June, this is only a week after the potential relaxations on the 21st so continuing to be difficult to plan. I think ticket sales will end up being online so if anyone wants to go, might be worth keeping an eye out.

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 I'm hoping they hold some back for last minute release. Managed to get myself a Centre Court Ticket in 2019 once I knew what day Federer was playing.

RedSquirrel wrote:

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The AELTC have also released plans on the Wimbledon Park extension. They plan to construct 39 grass courts, including 1 additional show court. The show court will be 8,000 seater with movable roof and will provide the player facilities for the qualifying events. They are consulting on these plans. They'll be a further consultation on the final plans in June ahead of a planning application in July.

Consultation can be found at https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/virtualExhibitRoom/index.html
Video on the plans: https://youtu.be/I427_gTBgxY

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 I suspect they could commercially do a fair bit with qualies as well. Im sure with the right publicity it could get some sort of tv coverage package and more fans to watch it. Even the pre quals could link into the tv narrative i feel. you could see a road to glory story where they pick the lowest ranked pre qualifier and in turn follow the players who beat the person who beat, a bit like road to Wembley type stuff. Whatever, qualifiers should have a commercial value for them to exploit more.

The Optimist wrote:

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Neil Harman (remember him!) back in the day did that in a newspaper series highlighting the lowest ranked player in qualifying and then, when they were beaten, a profile on the winner of that match as so on throughout the championships.  It was a great way to bring some of the lesser known names to attention and what their professional lives consisted of.

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 I do remember him and maybe subliminally had that in mind!

Whatever, it works as a narrative to find out more about players and their lives - beyond the tennis player. 

I dont know how to find last years (2019) pre qual results information, is it anywhere? But would be interested in seeing how that would have panned out, for mens and womens.  

As an example, here was the 2019 Wild card play off draw for the mens:

Full first round draw

Brydan Klein [1/355] v Luke Johnson
Billy Harris v Jonathan Binding [WC]
Neil Pauffley v Alexis Canter
Michael Shaw [WC] v Ryan Peniston [3/514]

Lloyd Glasspool [2/472] v Andrew Watson
Alastair Gray [WC] v Sean Hodkin [WC]
Jonathan Gray v Mark Whitehouse
George Houghton [WC] v Jack Findel-Hawkins [4/670]

I am not certain, but Michael Shaw (who he??!) would have been lowest ranked presumably?

the road to the Wimbledon final would have therefore been:

Shaw lost to Ryan Peniston
Ryan beat Alexis Canter
Ryan beat Brydan Klein and so qualified

So at Roehampton

Andrea Arnaboldi beat Ryan
Arnaboldi then beat Moriya of Japan
Arnaboldi then beat Karlovsky

So Arnaboldi would have been followed the whole way through and, I suspect, as per Ryan at WC play offs, got a little following behind him

At Wimbledon

Karlovic bt Arnaboldi
Fabbiano bt Karlovic
Verdasco bt Fabbiano
Goffin beat Verdasco
Djoko beat Goffin
Djoko beat RBA
Djoko beat Federer

So the baton would have been passed and reached Djoko in the last 8. It isnt perfect but would have created a number of names to look at there that many casual followers wouldnt know

In the womens side for interest

the WC playoffs draw was:

Full draw for Round 1

Naomi Broady [1/350] v Sasha Hill [WC]
Amelia Rajecki [WC] v Emily Appleton
Victoria Allen v Alice Gillan
Matilda Mutavdzic [WC] v Eden Silva [3/435]

Samantha Murray [2/359] v Sonay Kartal [WC]
Emily Webley-Smith v Freya Christie
Destinee Martins [WC] v Beth Grey
Alicia Barnett v Tara Moore [4/466]

looking at the thread from the time, Sasha Hill was lowest ranked?

So...

Naomi Broady beat Sasha Hill
Naomi then beat Emily Appleton
and then Eden Silva beat Naomi - so a story develops there and follows Eden into the qualies

where:

Olga Danilovic bt Eden
Olga then beat Amadine Hesse
Haddad Maia beat Olga to qualify.

Haddad Maia would be an interesting player to follow into the main draw, a Brazilian at Wimbledon

where:

Beatriz beat Muguruza - now the story runs!
Cos Harriet Dart beats her in round 2!
But Ashleigh Barty despatches Harriet in last 32
But then Alison Riske beats Barty to beat the top seed in last 16
Serena then takes it from Riske and in turn beats Strycova in the semis
and Halep takes the title over Serena

Now the womens would have been quite a story to follow, the mens less so!

I think having a Road to Wimbledon Glory to follow here on the board might be something amusing to do, starting from the opening Wild card play offs matches onwards!