Coup Droit wrote:

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sliced backhand wrote:

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It would be a shame if Emma doesn't get a main draw wildcard but my suspicion is that one may be given instead to Talia Neilson Gatenby as she is young and did well at Loughborough. The huge surprise to me among the quali wild cards is Maddie Brooks. Doe anyone have a theory as to how she has got one?

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 Exactly what I was thinking ! (About Maddie, that is) 

She's 32 (which is not a problem......) but has no recent form of any note, and her showing last week was very mediocre.  

Emma had a wildcard to Bath so it doesn't seem hugely unfair if she doesn't get another (although I've lost count of who is due what from the feed-ups) 

Mind you, Maddie was very close to getting in as of right (for the qualis) - the depth of the quali acceptance list fell off a cliff (hence real youngsters with hardly any ranking of note like Brooke Black getting in as of right) 

What I don't understand is how Brooke won a quali round in Bath and now has an ITF point. Whereas Emma won a main draw match and doesn't seem to have any itf points? 

 

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 There are 3 players with similar names in the LTA ratings list. The Maddie Brooks in this event ( and the pro tour) is 24, rated 1.2 and was at US uni. So not such an extreme choice but still a very surprising one. 

Coup Droit wrote:

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Apologies to the wrong Maddie. And to the right Maddie too.

However, as per sliced backhand, I'm still not much the wiser - so the Maddie who's playing next week is the same Maddie who played this week at the UK Pro event?
i.e. the woman who got basically hammered in all her matches (except against Soumeya who is really a doubles player).

So how did she get a wildcard?

Well, whatever, good luck to her, I guess.......

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Na, this is a different one to the one playing at the UKPL. This one is 24, apparently been at US college, and hasn't had a recognised match since 2019, its' just pretty strange how there's 2 (or even 3) Maddie / Madeleine Brooks playing tennis around the same time. 

sliced backhand wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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Apologies to the wrong Maddie. And to the right Maddie too.

However, as per sliced backhand, I'm still not much the wiser - so the Maddie who's playing next week is the same Maddie who played this week at the UK Pro event?
i.e. the woman who got basically hammered in all her matches (except against Soumeya who is really a doubles player).

So how did she get a wildcard?

Well, whatever, good luck to her, I guess.......

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Na, this is a different one to the one playing at the UKPL. This one is 24, apparently been at US college, and hasn't had a recognised match since 2019, its' just pretty strange how there's 2 (or even 3) Maddie / Madeleine Brooks playing tennis around the same time. 

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 She IS the UKPL player!

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But the one who played UKPL this week is 32 y/o, you said this one is 24? I'm confused 

Edit - it must be tennisexplorer getting them mixed up. The 32 y/o likely hasn't played since 2007 and presumably not involved in tennis any more, and the 24 year old with the 2 2019 ITF matches being the one who played this past week at Sheffield, and next week. I thought it would be strange two different M Brooks playing in consecutive weeks, but yeah, the one playing last week doesn't exactly take great form with her into Birmingham.

sliced backhand wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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Yep, I edited my post to reference the age, about 20 minutes before your reply, but thanks for the additional info.

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 I am now guessing that Emma Wilson has a MDWC. Katie Stresnakova was one below Emma and was apparently told that she was one away from getting a place. There were 5 Brits between Katie and Maddie. None are particularly better than Maddie anyway so maybe she got a wild card just by turning up to sign in or was considered better than any of the five who did.

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Yeah, without wanting to harp on too much about the age again , the fact she is a lot younger than I initially thought helps a bit, and, looking at the respective odds, while obviously the opponents stock / level will play a big part in the initial pricing, her 6/1 odds are a lot lower than some of the Brit's higher up the Acceptance List, so she definitely won't look out of place when some results come in tomorrow. Plus she was reasonably nearby having just been in Sheffield.

In terms of MDWC's, I was thinking it would have been 4 from Sonay, Marni, Emma, Mimi and Talia, so at least one of those won't be playing at all. With Marni's recent injury record, I was kind of half thinking it might be her who misses out, but if it is one of the latter two (very) youngsters, then if they wanted to play, it would be a shame not to get at least a QWC as they probably would have been better alternatives than Maddie, or at the least, generally more interesting / intriguing, but then I think someone was saying, given their age, they are very restricted with WCs this year, so the LTA may have decided it would be better for one (or both) of them to save their allocation for later in the year.

In some ways it is a bit of a shame that Stresnakova will be missing out. She's obviously based here at the moment, a familiar face having played 35 UKPL matches in the past 9 months, and would have been a lot more competitive than some of those appearing in quals, but then there likely would have been more questions if a Slovakian was getting a form of WC into a UK event.