Week 24 - LTA Wimbledon Wild Card Play-Offs - Aorangi Park, London, Great Britain (grass)

PaulM · Tennis legend

Week 24 - LTA Wimbledon Wild Card Play-Offs - Aorangi Park, London, Great Britain (grass)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Tennisdad_101 wrote:
indiana wrote:
Only 8 of the field actually have a WTA ranking. I hope no-one gave it a miss purely because they thought they were ranked too low to go for it.

Of our 43 ranked players :

3 are MD DEs
5 are MD WCs
1 is a Q DE ( Maia by her SR )
1 would have been at least a Q DE but is evidently injured ( Fran )
4 are Q WCs ( Ranah isn't yet ranked )
8 are in the Q WC play-offs

And 21 (!) others are not involved ( provisionally suspended, injured, retired, competing elsewhere or some other reason )

So actually if you add Fran to that number then over half of our ranked players are not involved in any way when just having a WTA ranking gave at least a play-offs DE.
It does look as though some assumed they wouldnt get in to the event, which is a shame to miss it. The mens draw is much tougher. Maybe if the lta put it on the tournament software players could have seen the entry list and would have known their chance of getting in. It looks as though calls were made late yesterday to fill the 16 places.
I dont know how it works but Id hope the lta have someone with a list of all the players ranked in order and their mobiles and at around 4 pm start ringing down the list to encourage them or sign them up. In reality i suspect nothing like this happens and its left as a big fat void!
I don't think the LTA really should have the chivvy normal ranked players along and 'encourage' them to come.
It was obvious that this was going to go a LONG way down the ranking lists
If someone like Dani Daley doesn't put herself down (random example), it's not really for the LTA to act as 'mum' and run after her - there's presumably a reason - she's a pro tennis player - completely used to how entry lists work
This is not a public event where you want to ensure a spectacle for the public, or sponsors, or whatever - I doubt the LTA officially even called local players to fill the gap - more likely it was some coach there or something

yeah, fair do's

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

PaulM wrote:
Yeah I'm also feeling a bit like the ranking issue is a slight distraction. I mean is anyone really missing an inactive Pitak sister (no offence, her points are all 2019 I think) over an unranked junior at the top of the national lists? Do we expect a doubles specialist with a residual singles rank to prioritise this over an event they are still in (EWS) or a WTA they would be playing when qualies is on (Sam)?

The whole point of the playoffs is it should be a good mix of the established ones who've been around forever looking for a Cinderella moment, players coming back (from injury or Uni), and players coming through. Its a shame not to see Eliz (injured?), or Matilda and Jasmine, and I think Naiktha is making a wrong decision not to come here over Ilkley doubles, but generally I think this draw delivers that mix?

fair points

DF · Tennis legend

Yes . These players are the future with one or two exceptions like Jasmine. Matilda ,Emilie , Amanda. Their appearance here would not really strengthen the draw

as they are also fragile on court. We need new names always which we are getting(-like Lily and Ranah) and to support those who come forward as we don't

know where the next Emma smile will come from.

Tennisdad_101 · Lower Club Player

All good points and Im definitely a supporter of the younger talent coming through and being given opportunities. My daughter didnt have such opportunities but I dont begrudge those that do and certainly theres a crop of young talent coming through right now.,

Grachka · County player

DF wrote:
Yes . These players are the future with one or two exceptions like Jasmine. Matilda ,Emilie , Amanda. Their appearance here would not really strengthen the draw

as they are also fragile on court. We need new names always which we are getting(-like Lily and Ranah) and to support those who come forward as we don't

know where the next Emma will come from.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here - but not sure what you mean by players being "fragile" on court? Do you mean mentally or that they're physically too slight?

I also think it's way too early to be discounting Matilda. I'm not an enormous fan of her style of play but she's only 18 (as of tomorrow) so has plenty of time to evolve.

DF · Tennis legend

I am not discounting Matilda. She and her team believe that she needs time to evolve, and she does not like playing on the grass. So she is not yet ready.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I can't help thinking we're going to have some weird results here - maybe Anna will be on a low, having to start again, after doing so well this week, and Lissey not having played, nor Lauryn, and the youngsters being pretty unpredictable .... there seems a lot of scope for unexpected results (which is not saying anything insightful, I realise.......)

Grachka · County player

[1] Anna Brogan d. Esther Adeshina 6-0 6-1
Hephzibah Oluwadare d. Ruby Cooling 7-5 6-3

Alicia Dudeney d. Lauryn John-Baptiste 6-2 4-6 6-3
[4] Emily Appleton d. Erin Richardson 6-3 6-1

[2] Freya Christie vs. Ella McDonald
Sofia Johnson d. Francesca Davis 6-2 6-1

Holly Hutchinson vs. Emma Wilson
[3] Alicia Barnett d. Isabelle Lacy 6-3 7-5

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Ella caused an upset and beats Freya.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

With those results now even stronger likelihood of Anna and Alicia progressing as predicted id say.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Wow, well done Ella. And Emma won a long 3 setter over Holly to complete today's results.

jb288 · Satellite level

Poor Freya :(

I know it sounds bonkers, but I'd like to see a tennis equivalent of Special Measures for schools - the LTA sees a player is underperforming, and offers a time-limited package of support, with tangible improvements set out and support given to achieve them. We're not a country like France which has a huge crop of good players; we can't afford to let them just fall away like so many do.

the addict · Tennis legend

The last two results

Ella McDonald def Freya Christie (2) 6-2 7-5

Emma Wilson def Holly Hutchinson 7-6(4) (2)6-7 6-3

scottie1 · Futures level

That result cannot do much for Freya's confidence