British Tour - 2020

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

British Tour - 2020

Bagel · Lower Club Player

Ace Ventura wrote:
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!

TennisMom · Social player

Annas best bet is to do some ITF and get a ranking there, therefore leapfrogging the LTA ranking issue. Easier said than done, I know but in LTA eyes shes far too old for any help. No chance of a wildcard, these are reserved for young chosen players to be given a chance.
After all the money invested by the LTA in these players, from 10yrs old, has to been seen to have been spent wisely. Rarely do they play the high seeds, thats reserved for a unsupported LTA player who has got there by right.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

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 addict · Tennis legend

There's a strong possibility that the field for 5th October will look like that, despite 5 of the top 6 being entered for Cherbourg that week. The Cherbourg entry list is so strong that none of the 5 are likely to even make qualifying.

Edit:- What I meant to say is the LTA competition is 9-11 October, and Cherbourg qualifying starts on the 11th.

-- Edited by the addict on Wednesday 30th of September 2020 09:39:56 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

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.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

No shocks today, certainly not among the better 5 or 6 anyway, and all matches over in straight sets, with none of them requiring someone reaching 7 games.

the addict · Tennis legend

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

sliced backhand · Lower Club Player

I hope there will be umpires for the semi finals!

Strongbow · All-time great

Bagel wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
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!

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

the addict · Tennis legend

No Anna B in either draw this week. And just the one WC - Mingge Xu in the Grade 2

Spireman · Club Coach

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.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

With the Roland Garros scheduling, I ended up watching more of this than I was anticipating.

All 4 seeds through in straight sets. Sonay through first 6-1 6-2 against Annali, about 15 mins before anyone else.
Sally offered a bit of resistance against Emily and had a few break points, but Emily won 6-3 6-3.
Didn't see much of Eliz vs Eleanor, Eliz also won 6-1 6-2, but the match finished at pretty much exactly the same time as Emily-Sally, and then the closest match, which it was on paper as they've had some right battles over the past few months, saw Grace beat Emma 6-2 7-6(4), but Emma was up a break pretty all through that second set.

So later today:

Emily Appleton (1) vs Grace Piper (4)
Eliz Maloney (2) vs Sonay Kartal (3)

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

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.

the addict · Tennis legend

The Return to Elite Week 8 at the NTC - final result

Eliz MALONEY [2] def Emily APPLETON [1] 3-6 6-2 10-7

British Tour Nottingham

SF:- Michelle Dzjachangirova [4] def Olivia Rook 6-4 7-6(5)
SF:- Katherine Barnes [2] def Lily Hutchings 6-2 6-4