These start next week and go on for several weeks, so it felt like it made sense to have a separate thread to allow people to comment on these matches that doesnt interfere with the British Tour, Progress Tour etc. Will do same for mens.
Dont think individual events need separate threads, suspect it will suffice to maintain the whole of the series in this one thread.
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Monday 6th of July 2020 09:06:54 AM
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Tuesday 21st of July 2020 01:42:57 PM
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Sunday 2nd of August 2020 12:00:09 PM
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Sunday 2nd of August 2020 12:41:09 PM
There's definitely a mixed bag of entrants in that first event next week with the likes of Jodie at the top end, and those who'll probably be quite content to avoid a double bagel in the W25s at the other end. It's good that there are a lot of home events on at the moment, so pretty much anyone who wants to play can. It would be nice to see a few more of the promising youngsters play in some of these events like Eva Shaw who was looking good at Sunderland, and Matilda (assuming she is currently GB based).
A stream, and a good, competitive match and you can't go far wrong (oh, and scores on the screen as well if possible )
There's definitely a mixed bag of entrants in that first event next week with the likes of Jodie at the top end, and those who'll probably be quite content to avoid a double bagel in the W25s at the other end. It's good that there are a lot of home events on at the moment, so pretty much anyone who wants to play can. It would be nice to see a few more of the promising youngsters play in some of these events like Eva Shaw who was looking good at Sunderland, and Matilda (assuming she is currently GB based).
A stream, and a good, competitive match and you can't go far wrong (oh, and scores on the screen as well if possible )
One of the government rules for the tennis return to competition, certainly for the brit tour series, is players have to be 16 as the tournament starts. This would rule out Eva (and some others) as she is May 2005. I thought matilda was mainly based in Belgium, but that may have changed.
Just re read and it is 5 weeks plus classic finals. 500k usd peizemoney. So as it's a small field, that's challenger level over 6 weeks of tennis. Pretty good.
So I read on the men's equivalent thread that there were 2 WCs for this, did those go to Emily M and Kimberley, or did a higher ranked player not enter, and then received a late WC?
Just to paraphrase what Tramlines said on the mens.
The 12 players each week are split into 2 groups of 6 and play round robins. In the groups, they play for 3 points a match, gaining a point for each set. Matches are 2 normal sets and a MTB. It appears they play the MTB regardless and it is also worth a point.
The players then are ranked in their groups, so play 5 matches and can gain up to 15 points.
They then go into play offs - the top 2 play for positions 1-4 in a semi and final each week.
From each week, they are then allocated tournament points, from 12 for the winner to 1 for 12th place.
Each player will be playing 7 matches a week - big commitment - and therefore could play lots of matches over 5 weeks.
In week 6, there is a Classic (or Masters) event which takes the 5 winners of the previous weeks, the 5 top points scorers not qualified as winners and 2 wild cards - so a 12 player final.
Prizemoney overall is $500k USD*, so that is roughly $40k+ per mens and womens event per week. As it is a 12 player field, that makes it Challenger level prizemoney really. Not sure how much the winner each week gets.
Obviously field will vary each week - Week 2 of this series will include this event, a British Tour event (Tier 1) at the NTC and also the Progress Womens Championship at the NTC also. Both of those are 16 player events and it would seem likely a player will need to commit to being in Roehampton or here (as the NTC events follow on from each other), so I would guess the UK Pro Series event that weak will be a lot weaker (as most of the big names seem to have committed to the Progress event), unless JoKo surprises us and takes part in this event at Weybridge.
Either way, it will be an interesting 6 or 7 weeks from now with the Brits playing lots of events.
There's definitely a mixed bag of entrants in that first event next week with the likes of Jodie at the top end, and those who'll probably be quite content to avoid a double bagel in the W25s at the other end. It's good that there are a lot of home events on at the moment, so pretty much anyone who wants to play can. It would be nice to see a few more of the promising youngsters play in some of these events like Eva Shaw who was looking good at Sunderland, and Matilda (assuming she is currently GB based).
A stream, and a good, competitive match and you can't go far wrong (oh, and scores on the screen as well if possible )
Worth noticing that only one junior player is permitted in each draw. Sashi Kempster seems to be the highest ranked U18 each week and is thus guaranteed a place in the first two events.
-- Edited by sliced backhand on Friday 3rd of July 2020 05:38:40 PM
So I read on the men's equivalent thread that there were 2 WCs for this, did those go to Emily M and Kimberley, or did a higher ranked player not enter, and then received a late WC?
Emily M and Kimberley were Alternates 1 and 2 and so presumably received wildcards.