Week 32 - UK Pro Series Classic Week- St George's Hill, Weybridge - (Hard)

the addict · Tennis legend

Week 32 - UK Pro Series Classic Week- St George's Hill, Weybridge - (Hard)

the addict · Tennis legend

And a feature about Nadia

https://www.ukproseries.com/news

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Here's the section about future plans

We dont want this to be a one-off tournament during this Covid-19 situation, Hayes said. We are planning to create a nine-week tournament series across the season, starting at the end of February and ending around the beginning of November, scheduled in conjunction with the LTA and through consultation with the players and other tennis rights owners to make sure it complements the British tennis calendar.

This would then enable the players to earn money and hopefully turbocharge their ability to participate on the international tour for ranking points. We want to be able to crown the UK Pro Series champion each year and to have meaning within the tennis calendar. We are working on that now and will hopefully nail that over the next couple of months for next season. The players are very keen to see this in the future.

I think this is good and working with the lta makes a lot of sense.

For itf events, going forwards, for players and organisers moving back to a satellite style system with groups of 4 events a bit like this uk pro series and regional tours surely must be the way forwards. I've long advocated this as people will know. Problem with round Robin's is that for 32 players, youd end up with 48 first round matches, as opposed to 16 now and that could be cost and space prohibitive. Reducing the number of players to 16 per event could work for round Robin's and cost but would need to be done with a feeder from national tours to ensure players still get the chance to move to itf level, if not then youd halve the number of pro chances in effect.

Later this year, I cant see itf getting going to give players enough chances. Another uk pro series style event in October and November wouldn't surprise me and would, I'm sure be welcomed. Maybe the british tour could evolve and work with the uk pro guys to run a series of further events in autumn at the NTC...

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
That is a tough one to call, but from what I've seen over the last few days I'd give Emma the edge, provided she gets her game going in the first set.

I see Bet365 are predicting all the other first-named players on the order of play to win today

Yeah, saw that, and was a little surprised Eliz was favourite against Emily Arb, despite the latter obviously losing all 5 of her matches this week. I would agree with the others being favourites, although whether they do all end up winning is a different question.

They do generally seem to favour Emily Ap in a lot of her matches, even stretching back to the W25 days - a few on here have benefited from (what proved to be) fairly generous odds on her overseas opponents, but she has been pretty solid these past couple of months.

Just waiting for this men's match to end ha, surprised they had 2 men's scheduled for the same time - think that's the first time it's happened all series.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hey TA, out of interest, what does the prizemoney status look like if you add this weeks current to what players have achieved earlier in the series? Can anyone top Naomi and Billy Harris overall?

the addict · Tennis legend

Yes, larger round robin's could prove awkward. But at SGH they have had six matches a day on each of two courts. So if there were 8 groups of four (48 matches in total as you say, 16 matches per day) and using three courts, they could complete the groups in three days. Winners through to quarter finals, and if the semi's and final were on different days the whole tournament would take 6 days, and there would even be a rest day. That would extend the player field further down into the British Tour regions, giving more players a chance.

the addict · Tennis legend

I don't have the figures for the men's prize-money, but on the women's side, including the money guaranteed so far this week I make Naomi in front on 24K with 1.5k to play for. Jodie and Eden can beat that if they win the title as they are both on 13.5k with another 12.5k to play for.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Yes, larger round robin's could prove awkward. But at SGH they have had six matches a day on each of two courts. So if there were 8 groups of four (48 matches in total as you say, 16 matches per day) and using three courts, they could complete the groups in three days. Winners through to quarter finals, and if the semi's and final were on different days the whole tournament would take 6 days, and there would even be a rest day. That would extend the player field further down into the British Tour regions, giving more players a chance.

Yeah, that would work well, in fact, one thing now is early play can often look sparse in a knockout event across multiple courts.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
I don't have the figures for the men's prize-money, but on the women's side, including the money guaranteed so far this week I make Naomi in front on 24K with 1.5k to play for. Jodie and Eden can beat that if they win the title as they are both on 13.5k with another 12.5k to play for.

25, 26k over the 6 weeks is decent!

I'll calculate mens tonight for comparison!

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Just goes to show how important yesterday's Eden vs Naomi match was. 2 very similar ranked players, who had already exchanged wins this summer - Eden beating Naomi at least once previously at SGH, and Naomi getting revenge at the BotB, but the difference in potential prize money is huge.

Going with odds (and ranking), Eden will be expected to finish 4th, and Naomi probably 5th, so in the end, they might end up fairly similar prize money (well still $1k difference, so significant, but adjacent to each other), but Eden is in a position where she could in theory lose 0-6 0-6 today, and possibly concede 3rd place, like Maia, if she wanted to (not that she would, but the option is probably there), whereas Naomi will have a lot of work to do just to secure 5th, and if Eden could pull off an upset (or two), then the money will be absolutely huge for a circa 500 player.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Saturday 15th of August 2020 11:24:34 AM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Emma vs Harriet up next, and jb have got their contrasting commentators calling the action, ha.

the addict · Tennis legend

Yes, the prize money is huge this week for players at this level. As a reminder it goes 20k,15k,10k, 7.5k, with 5th place on 6.5k, down to nothing for last place.

the addict · Tennis legend

Emma and Sonay both off to flyng starts
Emma 5-0*
Sonay 6-1 0-1*

PaulM · Tennis legend

The ITF used to do 4 week series about 10-15 years ago didn't they? I remember some of players taking part in them in Mexico in particular. It was like 3 weeks of 5ks and a final 15k week or something?

The money Naomi has won should cover a fair whack of expenses once the tour gets back up and running.

the addict · Tennis legend

Emily Appleton WR675 def Sonay Kartal UNF/ITF1006 1-6 6-1 10-6