Week 28 - Progress Tour Women's Championship - NTC, Roehampton, UK (Outdoor Hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Week 28 - Progress Tour Women's Championship - NTC, Roehampton, UK (Outdoor Hard)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Spireman wrote:
A real pity, especially after the battle of the brits had just about all the top 8 gb ranked men in it. Looking at rankings I make it that the premier event here now has gb numbers 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21 and 24. With katie b on protected ranking it would look a bit better, but still quite a contrast to the mens. And the issue at this stage is that sgh is on so a lot of others are committed to that this week. It makes me feel sorry for the lta (and the bbc).
Naomi would have been an additonal 'name'. But ultimatey St George's Hill has only 4 WTA ranked players - GB ranks 18, 20, 22 and 30, ie Naomi B, Beth G, Emily App and Eliz M.
So in the Premier Groups only Naomi and Beth would have had precedence over Freya and Alice.

Given there are 44 singles spots for women at the progress (16), SGH (12) and BT (16) events this week, how many of our top 44 players are in fact playing, at a guess? Less than half?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

More than itf events with players from all over europe etc, these current events are a chance to showcase tennis, and womens tennis more importantly. No doubt each player has a good reason why they cant play but ad a whole it is terribly disappointing and a big missed opportunity.

the addict · Tennis legend

According to OER, there are 32 ranked GB women, with another 21 with points but no ranking. Going to run through the entries tonight and see just who is playing.

Bagel · Lower Club Player

Spireman wrote:
A real pity, especially after the battle of the brits had just about all the top 8 gb ranked men in it. Looking at rankings I make it that the premier event here now has gb numbers 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21 and 24. With katie b on protected ranking it would look a bit better, but still quite a contrast to the mens. And the issue at this stage is that sgh is on so a lot of others are committed to that this week. It makes me feel sorry for the lta (and the bbc).

No need to feel sorry for the LTA. They are part of the problem for having sanctioned events in competition with one another. Chronologically the Battle of the Brits was mooted first followed by Progress Tour as a female equivalent. Only then did the LTA come up with the BT events. Then came the Pro-Series with temptingly high prize money. The LTA's bacon was saved by independent organisers-albeit the latter could only run tournaments through sponsorship from gambling companies.

sliced backhand · Lower Club Player

the addict wrote:
According to OER, there are 32 ranked GB women, with another 21 with points but no ranking. Going to run through the entries tonight and see just who is playing.

Sorry if this duplicates part of your research TA but I've categorised the 32 with WTA rankings:,

Playing this week: Swan, Burrage, Lumsden, Boulter, Maloney, Silva, Broady, Popescu (dubs only), Barnett, Gray, Arbuthnott, Christie, Appleton, Gillan, Allen (15)

Out of country: Bains, Moore, Carreras, Lindh Gallagher (4)

Injured after playing in past 10 days: Murray Sharan, Raducanu, Dissanayake, William (4)

Long term injuries (all originally entered Progress Tour but withdrew at least a week ago): Jones, Dunne, Collins (3)

New injuries: Watson, Dart (2)

Other: Konta (declined to play-still injured?), Taylor ( not entered for personal/psychological reasons), Webley-Smith (not entered on ethical grounds), Pitak (unknown)

Basically a mere 32 is insufficient to spread around a multiplicity of events. In comparison there are 62 British men with ATP rankings of whom 30 entered for Pro-Series this week- a similar percentage to the women who are spread over 2 events. There will always be injuries and probably will be a lot more women out before August because of this schedule.

-- Edited by sliced backhand on Monday 13th of July 2020 07:17:16 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

Thanks sb - I'd only got as far as listing the entries, and hadn't analysed it. Of the next group of players (WTA points but unranked) only three of them are playing, with the SGH places being filled with others.

I haven't looked at ITF rankings to see how that ties in yet.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

sliced backhand wrote:
the addict wrote:
According to OER, there are 32 ranked GB women, with another 21 with points but no ranking. Going to run through the entries tonight and see just who is playing.
Sorry if this duplicates part of your research TA but I've categorised the 32 with WTA rankings:,
Playing this week: Swan, Burrage, Lumsden, Boulter, Maloney, Silva, Broady, Popescu (dubs only), Barnett, Gray, Arbuthnott, Christie, Appleton, Gillan, Allen (15)
Out of country: Bains, Moore, Carreras, Lindh Gallagher (4)
Injured after playing in past 10 days: Murray Sharan, Raducanu, Dissanayake, William (4)
Long term injuries (all originally entered Progress Tour but withdrew at least a week ago): Jones, Dunne, Collins (3)
New injuries: Watson, Dart (2)
Other: Konta (declined to play-still injured?), Taylor ( not entered for personal/psychological reasons), Webley-Smith (not entered on ethical grounds), Pitak (unknown)
Basically a mere 32 is insufficient to spread around a multiplicity of events. In comparison there are 62 British men with ATP rankings of whom 30 entered for Pro-Series this week- a similar percentage to the women who are spread over 2 events. There will always be injuries and probably will be a lot more women out before August because of this schedule.

-- Edited by sliced backhand on Monday 13th of July 2020 07:17:16 PM

Thanks SB and TA - so 14 in actual fact of the singles players (taking out Popescu) have a world ranking, less than half of our ranked players (32) and way less than half the field.

It does show we are thinly spread but at the same time it is such a waste of opportunities - all 32 could have had places at one or other of the events, I realise there are good reasons such as injury and it probably isnt their fault, but it is such a missed opportunity for the womens game, which suffers from lack of profile anyway, as we all know.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

It's just a real shame that there's been so many key withdrawals at a similar time, and yes, it does show the lack of depth. I'd say Watson, Dart, Raducanu and Boulter would be right up there among the 4 names most would have generally been looking forward to seeing, so to lose 3 is really cruel. If you take the top 8 of last weeks SGH event, 4 are involved here, and you're replacing Broady, Grey, Appleton, and Maloney with Boulter, Swan, Lumsden, and Gillan, which isn't really a massive upgrade overall I don't think. Sure, Boulter and Swan are among our better hopes, but as mentioned above, a little 'name value' or a more familiar face is lost with Naomi, and Gillan is arguably the weakest player out of all the names mentioned here, and will likely be a bit out of her depth.

I'll still be tuning in, as I'm sure many on here will as well, but you do have to feel sorry for organisers. It'll be quite hard for the likes of Annabel Croft to sell a Gillan vs Silva, or Christie vs Barnett match when commentating.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Eden has now seemingly withdrawn.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I was looking on Bet365 and saw that Jodie vs Eden wasn't there at 11am, neither was Emily Arb's match at the same time - they only had Sasha vs Nell on the schedule for 11am, so I thought something was up - I also saw there were only 3 doubles matches on the Bet365 schedule, and no Jodie, so I thought she may have withdrawn, but the BBC are now showing Jodie vs Emily Arb, so it's obviously Eden. Not a massive surprise after ending last week early, but man, that top 8 group is decimated.

Confirmed by the organisers:

https://twitter.com/TheProgressTour/status/1282975644553326594

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 14th of July 2020 09:56:52 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I am so lost I could not be lost-er......

But it doesn't matter - I'll follow whichever match is playing, regardless of event, and where that person was supposed to be playing, or wasn't, and do a 'control find' for their name in the thread before I post to try and make sure I'm in the right one - good luck, with that, but hey....

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Ah, yeah, I mean it's still live tennis at the end of the day, which we have been starved of for so long, but it's kind of basically the British Tour - not necessarily a bad thing, but just nothing too special. Same courts and setting, similar level of entry list to week 1, and the same TV presentation as week 2 last week. You compare it to the BotB the other week with the Amazon team coming on about 20 mins before the matches started, the talking at sit downs, coaches involved, analysis, and it really is chalk and cheese. Doesn't help the casual viewer either when they say it's 16 of the best GB players, so presumably to them the Premier is going to be among the top 8, and then the next minute they're next saying Emily Arb will likely end up a doubles player because she likes the team environment. Emily Arb vs Alice G is in the Premier Division of a showcase of British women's tennis.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

delete.....

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 14th of July 2020 10:44:10 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

My 'lost-lost-er-lost-est' comment applied not only to this event but all tennis going on at the moment :(

But, as you say, I'm 100% happy with it.

I've uploaded all the screens from youtube and, having beavered away for 2 hours, now 'deserve' a break so am going to watch a bit of Nell v Sasha, while dropping in on the others too. With no idea who's playing what but it doesn't really matter....