Week 26 - Wimbledon - London (grass) - women's main draw

Crispy · Intermediate Club Player

Week 26 - Wimbledon - London (grass) - women's main draw

Madadman · Top national player

Such a shame the way it ended but what a great tournament for Emma. Hopefully its nothing too serious and she can takea few weeks to work out a plan for the rest of the year.

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Wasn't a maximising viewers decision, was a general order of things, the seeds and goats play first

foobarbaz · Strong Club Player

My point was all about player welfare, not about Emma's age. It was about the official's, they need to be monitoring the players better. When someone is displaying signs of distress, that should be a red flag, the umpire should be notified, and at the earliest opportunity ask the player if they need play to stop. It shouldn't be left completely to the player, who is not necessarily seeing the bigger picture. We've seen players at the US Open, and other places, on the verge of collapse, and there's been delay when there shouldn't have. Emma's clearly been at her limit physically, and that's entirely understandable, and the officials must have known that she would likely be in that situation. If we can see it happening on the TV, then there's no excuse for them not to.

-- Edited by foobarbaz on Tuesday 6th of July 2021 11:17:39 AM

Jan · Hall of fame

Just got home and saw the news. Poor Emma, do hope she's ok soon and it's nothing serious.
But it can't take away the fact this has been the most tremendous week for her.

Deucebag · Lower Club Player

Yet again British girls and injuries. I hope its nothing too serious. Its been very exciting watching her this past week. Big well done Emma..

indiana · Tennis legend

We clearly don't know how much the lateness of the match, prolonged further by the very long FAA vs Zverev match, and playing under the roof contributed.

But even if things hadn't gone awry, with how long the men's match was plus if and however it affected Emna, many of us were saying from well before the match that it was shocking scheduling to have these two players 3rd on a later start showcourt, with the QFs tomorrow. All 7 other L16 matches were done and dusted before 5.15, Ash Barty's much earlier.

Questions do need asked. Maybe Emma was initially quite looking forward to the prime time limelight, who knows, but there was still also Ajla. It was clearly umfair ( to anyone with a modicum of sense ) to both players and surely in no way should be repeated when so avoidable. Why for instance, if to be on Court 1, not the 2nd match, before FAA vs Zverev. Not prime time enough?!

And AELTC, don't even try to hide behind suggesting questions maybe only reallly being asked because of what transpired. Questions should be asked full stop as to why that schedule and who influenced it.

Wishing all the very best for Emma.

foobarbaz · Strong Club Player

It's a shambles when someone is allowed by the officials to just plonk themselves down, and have the medic rush on court when they are clearly play-acting, and yet when a player is genuinely attempting to play on whilst clearly in distress the officials do nothing to safeguard that player's welfare.

indiana · Tennis legend

junior wrote:
Wasn't a maximising viewers decision, was a general order of things, the seeds and goats play first

I think you are wrong. For starters Federer played 3rd on Centre today, and I think we could look at plenty previous schedules I do think this Emma natch was probably later prime time TV scheduling as used to be so often the case wirh 3rd on Centre Andy. With him it was often clearly for TV, and at least he would normally have the next day off. Why not put if on before FAA vs Zverev? Let's hear from the AELTC as to the reasoning for this timing.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 5th of July 2021 09:50:43 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
junior wrote:
Wasn't a maximising viewers decision, was a general order of things, the seeds and goats play first
I think you are wrong. For starters Federer played 3rd on Centre today, and I think we could look at plenty previous schedules I do think this Emma natch was probably later prime time TV scheduling as used to be so often the case wirh 3rd on Centre Andy. With him it was often clearly for TV, and at least he would normally have the next day off. Why not put if on before FAA vs Zverev? Let's hear from the AELTC as to the reasoning for this timing.

As per The Guardian:

"Womens singles players have to return on Tuesday each year to contest the quarter-finals and so they usually play earlier in the day on the second Monday. No womens fourth round has been scheduled as the third match since the roof was erected on Centre Court in 2009 Wimbledon. However, Raducanu has been the transcendent story at the Championships so far and the Wimbledon scheduling team include the requests of broadcasters."

Strongbow · All-time great

Well done Emma - and good luck smile

dodrade · Satellite level

Has she any previous history of breathing problems?

Peter too · Tennis legend

I was out today and watched the match later on iplayer without knowing the result. Right from the start I thought something had changed. There were no smiles and none of the joy we had seen from Emma in the previous rounds. She looked as if she was going through the motions without any of the amazing athleticism and miraculous shots from previous matches. She was playing alright but the fire had gone out of her game.

HarryGem · Club Coach

What a great shame for her run to end this way. Until we know the exact cause it is hard to comment but this will take a shine off her achievement and will probably affect her immediate plans for playing which may have been about to change to more higher level competitions.

All will depend whether there is an underlying health issue or whether this was a sort of panic attack brought on by mental stress.
Just hope she is ok and makes a full recovery.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Hi all,

Its been some time, as I've been busy elsewhere... but anger prompts the following...

There should be some sort of enquiry, and heads should be available for rolling.

If the scheduling of Emma's match is indeed, as reported, the result of discussions in a committee composed of various BBC Tristans and assorted minor members of the British tennis minor royalty, who now claim lifelong sinecures at the LTA/AELTC - scions of the Murray, Sears, Dimbutnasties, Lloyd, etc, clans, then there has been a major screw-up, which should be addressed.

While it was perhaps not entirely predictable that making an 18 yo on debut, while she is surrounded by unaccustomed national hysteria, wait for 8 hours before scheduling her match, would necessarily provoke her to experience a debilitating panic attack, it was entirely certain that in scheduling her last match first, then this one last, then if she had made the QFs, her body clock would be going haywire. Her chances of making the SF were vanishingly small, before she had even qualified for the QF.

This seems to me to be entirely typical of the general pattern of decision-making at the top of British tennis, in particular around Wimbledon/AELTC/LTA, where the welfare, interests and needs of the individuals who should matter most - the players, especially British players, especially young ones - are entirely relegated below the entirely spurious interests of the "brand" or the "legacy" of the tournament.

In this case, it would seem that, rather than putting on Emma's match at a time that might make it easier for her to proceed further - I don't mean by giving her any unfair advantage, just to relieve some of the pressure on her - it was decided that the tournament was in need of higher viewing figures (WTF?!!?!), which would be better achieved if she played last. Really? Is Wimbledon so skint that its having difficulty financing Tim to lose golf balls for 50 weeks of the year? Because that's what it comes down to - the interests and needs of current players who are actively now competing, or those of ex-players who retired before the current crop were even born.

In my view, the most egregious example of this is in the awarding of WCs. While I know that opinions on this differ among contributors here, with several arguing that WCs for Slams should not be awarded at all, for reasons that I respect, even if I disagree. But I personally believe that the current AELTC/LTA policy is based purely on protecting the apparatchiks from criticism, okay, perhaps at the cost of personal bankruptcy and premature retirement for our most exciting prospects/most dedicated and deserving loyal servants, but who cares? (Certainly nobody in the room where the decisions are taken)

Finally, I doubt if Emma reads our musings, but who knows? So here's some career advice for her...

Retire. You might think you've done well out of Wimbledon 2021, but look at Laura. She'll be on similar money, nobody seems to worry that she has virtually no journalistic talent, and apparently does much less research than a dozen or so contributors to this forum. Retire - its a lot less stress, and all the money in British tennis that doesnt go anywhere near our junior talents is freely available to be liberally splashed around the retirees. Do the math, do the economics. Then retire from tennis. In the UK, "tennis player" is a lousy job - "ex-tennis-player" is a lifelong lucrative career.