The site today says that Okuno is now WTA 778 (although has gone down in ITF terms, to 518)
But that's a super win against a WTA 778 ranked player. Who also used to be a top-30 junior.
I remember seeing Olivia play years back, as a 14 year-old or so, in a British Tour event, I think it was, and loving the fight she had.
Good technique too, which is not too surprising, given her Dad is/was LTA Talent Performance Manager (or whatever they call it) for the North of England.
Used to be a pro himself too - ATP 800-ish in singles and 600-ish in doubles.
Olivia has one existing WTA counter having beaten Nell Miller in the first round of a W25 event in the US last year. This falls off mid-September this year... so two more means for Olivia this week and she will gain a WTA ranking, at least for a couple of months.
But she needs to win a MD match to get an WTA point, doesn't she? And even if she does that here she'll on;y have two counters, so not enough for a ranking? (Unless, of course, she ends up with over 10 points in total). Do you mean if she wins a MD match here and then another one in an event next week or the week after? Is she entered anywhere next week?
But she needs to win a MD match to get an WTA point, doesn't she? And even if she does that here she'll on;y have two counters, so not enough for a ranking? (Unless, of course, she ends up with over 10 points in total). Do you mean if she wins a MD match here and then another one in an event next week or the week after? Is she entered anywhere next week?
Oh I thought I wouldn't need to spell out the maths CD
I mentioned Olivia had beaten Nell in the first round of a W25 last Sept, ie she already has 5 pts!!! So win a first round match here (yes, which two further wins requires), and she will then have a further 6 pts for a total of 11
The sooner this system goes back to 'normal', the better - it's obviously done my brain in trying to keep track of two (and that's assuming I had it under control in the first place, with only one system).
Part of the problem is that the women's 25K WTA points have been the unchanging 'normal' for far too long. It is possible like CD to forget how pretty silly it is and hence "really???".
The women's 25K WTA prize money vs ranking points has for a long time been very out of kilter with other tournaments. And various other changes over time ( the unnecessary harmonising that occurred a few years ago to have both men's and womens 15Ks & 25Ks while leaving the women's 25K points the same, upping the prize money above 25K and now the reintroduction of 15K WTA points at the slightly less 10 points for the title, from previously 12 ).
Either the prize money should be more or the points less ( 5 points for a R1 win and onwards up to 50 points for the title ). Actually probably a bit of both would be reflective of the general fields.
In the days of the men's 10K and 15K futures along with women's 10K and 25K days I always kind of looked at the women's 25Ks as mini challengers and they continue with their points to have relatively much better fields than men's 25Ks. Relatively good players take the low prize money hit for the ranking points on offer.
We will now have 15K - 10 points for the title, 25K - 50 points, 60K - 80 points, 80K - 115 points, 100K - 140 points.
If you changed 25K - 50 points to something like 35K - 40 points ( or maybe two new levels) you'ed have some sort of logical progression and help players planning their schedules. But as I said it's just been allowed to get steadily worse and not expecting anything to change on that front anytime soon. The women's 25Ks have been the unchanging rock. The rock should probably crumble a bit to let in more sense.
Yes, I agree Indy, it would make more sense to reduce the W25 win to about 40 points, though then a big jump to W60 events. It has times led to perhaps over expectations of players when they've had a run of W25 points, but no higher, as with Gabi early last year. Still it will be a relief to have a unified system back again, and we'll see players positioning sorts itself out the remainder of the year.
Some players mind you just don't bother with W25 points - Emily App is going to leap back up to around WR 550, STILL without a W25 win, which seems quite incredible. It will certainly be a changed setof dynamics, last 5 months of the year... look forward to it!
