Well in May , ilkley posted an instagram that said there was a Wimbledon wild card on the line.

www.instagram.com/iltsc_ltd/

That suggests they think its guaranteed?

indiana wrote:

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PaulM wrote:

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I don't believe the grass court lead-in WCs are in any way "guaranteed", it's just been a way of awarding ones that would (when they first started doing this) have likely gone unallocated.

So while recent years make it sensible to factor those players as being in the running, I don't think it's a settled certainty Wickmayer will get one.

If it's between the Ilkley winner and, say for arguments, Katie Boulter for the final wildcard - Katie B will get it.

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Interesting. I had got the impression from what others have said that they were guaranteed - or at least promised?

Anyone know the situation for sure?

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 Maybe its not guaranteed but it is accepted practice if that has any weight. The winners of the 2/3 British challenger / itf events and anyone else winning another warm up event such as van Rijthoven last year. 

the winner of ilkley and surbiton womens will get one. We shouldnt be parochial. The brits dont have a right. As Indy says, last year the initial batch awarded 6 womens and 7 mens with the others tbd. As ilkley ended, Bergs picked up the last mens. Presumably similar in the womens and also didnt Jodie get a last allocation one as well.

Sorry, I don't know if Surbiton and Ilkley winners are guaranteed or not. I think I'm correct in saying that every winner of tournaments since they've been 50K+ from 2008 have been in Wimbledon main draw either directly or as a or WC. I've seen Ilkley post on social media there's a WC on the line but also that their website says "historically been awarded" which would suggest it's not guaranteed. Katie Swan seems to think it's guaranteed as in her runners-up speech she congratulated Wickmayer on her Wimbledon WC. But Katie might just be under the same mistaken impression as the rest of us. Wimbledon do say some singles wild cards are determined by competition, but that might be referring to the play-offs.

What I do know from comments the AELTC have made in previous years is that they do not view Wimbledon as a British tournament. They view it as an international tournament that is not their purpose to award WCs just because someone is British, though that comment was made when there were several WCs going spare. That's of course is a consequence of being the only GS thats not owned by the national association and so don't have the national objectives that other GSs have. So, just as much as the winners WCs might not be guaranteed, nor do I think that it's certain they'd forgo giving a winner a WC to give it to a Brit.

It's an unusual year with no British DE, 6 British women in the 120-150 range (with 1 out of action), and a good chance of both Surbiton and Ilkley winners needing WCs. With no British DEs they need to consider generating British interest through more WCs. But they also value good performances on grass and are very bound in their traditions, and there would need to be strong compelling reasons to break from the tradition of awarding ITF grass winners WCs. Many would argue there are. It's hard to know what the selection committee will do. There's often a surprise so while I'm expecting certain non GB players named previously to be awarded WCs I am equally expecting the unexpected. Perhaps Venus will be missing off the singles and have a doubles WC instead, although we have a lot of contenders there too.

In Svitolina's case, hindsight is a wonderful thing. She was ranked 508 on the Wimbledon entry deadline. Grass is her worst surface. Would it have been reasonable to expect she'd get her ranking high enough to get into USO directly in 2 months when she'd be playing mostly ITF/WTA Challengers? Probably not, so better to save the 2nd and last SR for a GS for the USO and, if not already agreed, take her chances that Wimbledon will look sympathetically that she's under-ranked due to pregnancy as well as the Ukrainian situation. Of course it's frustrating that she got her ranking high enough to not needing a SR to get into GSs before even stepping on a grass court and could've used the SR for Wimbledon, but I don't think she could've have expected that and I don't begrudge her for it.

indiana wrote:

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dodrade wrote:

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I begrudge Svitolina more than Venus or Wickmayer as she should be using her PR rather than taking a WC from someone else.

If there are only four WC's available in the end then personally i'd leave out Harriet as she's usually quite good at qualifying.

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 Good luck in selling that one to Harriet !!!

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 I'd say that's a good reason to giver her a MDWC. Plus she has made the 3rd round previously.  Jodie is the one that I think may miss out. 

emmsie69 wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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dodrade wrote:

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I begrudge Svitolina more than Venus or Wickmayer as she should be using her PR rather than taking a WC from someone else.

If there are only four WC's available in the end then personally i'd leave out Harriet as she's usually quite good at qualifying.

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 Good luck in selling that one to Harriet !!!

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 I'd say that's a good reason to giver her a MDWC. Plus she has made the 3rd round previously.  Jodie is the one that I think may miss out. 

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Hasn't Harriet been a realy lynchpin of the BJK squad? I don't follow it that much and maybe Jodie was injured but I get the impression that Harriet is always there, doing her bit, far more so than Jodie, for whatever reason

In which case I'd give the last wildcard to Harriet too, if it came down to a straight contest between the two of them 

 

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 15th of June 2023 06:33:48 AM

We get an idea of who the LTA rate and may feature in their recommendations for qualifying with Mimi Xu and Ella Mcdonald being promoted to the Pro Scholarship Programme and Ranah Stoiber to the MWP.