Ace Ventura wrote:

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I knew there was a Grade 1 BT event coming up so I thought this Friday bump might have signalled a full days play, so I checked out YouTube to whizz through a spoiler free day of play, but it's next Friday when it starts. Quite a few notable withdrawals this week (Freya, Lissey, Lily, Emily Arb, Tanysha etc.) but still reasonably strong as it stands, with a decent top end.

Maybe Anna B might be in contention for one of the 2 WCs?

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 Sorry Ace but I'm sure there's zero chance of Anna getting a wild card from the LTA. She's aged 23 (and thus far too old) and rated 3.1 She stopped playing tennis for a while and needs to be punished...for ever.  I noticed an earlier BT event had the once-promising Lauryn John-Baptiste languishing in the alternates- because her all-important rating was too low. As you might guess  Lauryn remained a lowly alternate and has not been seen on an entry list since. If Ash Barty were British and did what she did a couple of years or so ago she'd still be playing cricket now. Nobody at the LTA could possibly be expected to remember Anna from 5 years ago and giving her a wild card would go against the long-established policy of giving senior event wildcards to 14 year olds who play tennis because their parents tell them to do so. A 23 year old might have made up her own mind to play again and we can't have that sort of thing going on!

The field for this week is thinned a fair bit from when I last looked, albeit some weeks ago

w.c. 28th September

1 Appleton, Emily DA 672
2 Maloney, Eliz DA 1116
3 Kartal, Sonay DA
4 Piper, Grace DA
5 Wilson, Emma DA
6 Pethybridge, Sally DA
7 Richardson, Erin DA
8 Olivelle, Annali DA
9 Daley, Danielle DA
10 Nobbs, Eleanor DA
11 Carmichael, Megan DA
12 Bakhaya, Lara DA
13 McGrane, Aisling DA
14 Hack, Danielle DA
15 Hurrion, Sophia DA
16 Bassega, Mayéla DA

The next week field is currently looking strong:

w.c. 5th October


1 Miyazaki, Lily DA 348
2 Barnett, Alicia DA 577
3 Grey, Beth DA 612
4 Christie, Freya DA 650
5 Appleton, Emily DA 672
6 Arbuthnott, Emily DA 958
7 Dissanayake, Tanysha DA 1073
8 Maloney, Eliz DA 1118
9 Popescu, Anna DA 1204
10 Kartal, Sonay DA
11 Piper, Grace DA
12 Wilson, Emma DA
13 Rawson, Nadia DA
14 Dudeney, Alicia DA
15 Wild Card WC
16 Wild Card WC

The draw is out and doesn't seem to be any more notable withdrawals since Jon's post yesterday.

competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/draw.aspx

As usual, there are 1 or 2 names I'm not used to, so hopefully some might unexpectedly (to me) catch the eye a little, a bit like Sofia Johnson did in recent weeks. The top end is relatively strong, so there could be some decent semi finals, like Eliz vs Sonay. I reckon another Emily Ap vs Sonay final could be favoured outcome.

Thats said, I'll likely be concentrating more on Paris, so will probably just skim through YouTube at some point in the evening.

I hadn't looked at the LTA website recently, but I see there are TWO British Tour events on this weekend.

The Return to Elite Week 8 at the NTC, which is a Grade 1, participants as already noted.
https://competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/matches.aspx?id=35104f27-2af4-4f97-8a03-27326f1ebc36

and British Tour Nottingham, which is Grade 2

https://competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/matches.aspx?id=55e7027c-2cfb-41cc-94e8-243d750a9841

where Nadia Rawson and Catherine Barnes are the top seeds.

-- Edited by the addict on Friday 2nd of October 2020 06:59:12 PM

Bagel wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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I knew there was a Grade 1 BT event coming up so I thought this Friday bump might have signalled a full days play, so I checked out YouTube to whizz through a spoiler free day of play, but it's next Friday when it starts. Quite a few notable withdrawals this week (Freya, Lissey, Lily, Emily Arb, Tanysha etc.) but still reasonably strong as it stands, with a decent top end.

Maybe Anna B might be in contention for one of the 2 WCs?

---

 Sorry Ace but I'm sure there's zero chance of Anna getting a wild card from the LTA. She's aged 23 (and thus far too old) and rated 3.1 She stopped playing tennis for a while and needs to be punished...for ever.  I noticed an earlier BT event had the once-promising Lauryn John-Baptiste languishing in the alternates- because her all-important rating was too low. As you might guess  Lauryn remained a lowly alternate and has not been seen on an entry list since. If Ash Barty were British and did what she did a couple of years or so ago she'd still be playing cricket now. Nobody at the LTA could possibly be expected to remember Anna from 5 years ago and giving her a wild card would go against the long-established policy of giving senior event wildcards to 14 year olds who play tennis because their parents tell them to do so. A 23 year old might have made up her own mind to play again and we can't have that sort of thing going on!

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 If Anna B turns up please post as we spent some time looking for her - a few years back.

Anna B is currently in the Glasgow Brit Tour, starting end of next week.

In Nottingham (meant to be outdoors) Nadia R lost first round, two rounds played yesterday probably due to today's weather forecast. Mingge lost in 2nd round to Katherine Barnes. No play today due to weather but semis and final presumably tomorrow.

At the tier 1 at the NTC (indooors) quarter finals are today:
Emily Appleton (1) v Sally Pethybridge, Emma Wilson v Grace Piper (4), Annali Olivelle v Sonay Kartal (3) and Eleanor Nobbs v Eliz Maloney (2).
Matches start at 10am.

I put the Eliz semi final on expecting it to be in the early stages, but it was match point. Two good comebacks after wide opening sets.

Emily won 1-6 7-6(5) 10-8
Eliz won 1-6 6-4 10-7

So the top 2 seeds in to the final tomorrow. I didn't see any odds, but maybe a minor upset with Eliz beating Sonay.