Here we go, 13 interesting nominations and I think a wide open vote. Vote the player or team you think is most deserving of player of the month.
Please say who you vote for as it makes it interesting but also keeps the thread active and draws others to potentially vote as well.
Voting will close on Monday evening at 8 pm
Nominations
1. George Loffhagen - for winning the 25k in Notts, against Jule Marie, 150 places higher than him, and reaching the M25 final in Turkey. And for just being back in general !
2. GB Mens Wheelchair Team - for winning the World Cup in Portugal, the first time in 4 years, having been seeded second and being unbeaten all week
3. GB Juniors Wheelchair Team - for winning the World Cup in Portugal, first time since 2013 and after being runners up for the past 3 years. Seeded second .
4. Andy Murray - for winning his first title since 2019 and on clay in a strong field, beating world number 17 Tommy Paul in the final
5. Jay Clarke - for winning the 25k in Italy. Great to see back to winning ways. May it pave the way for onwards and upwards.
6. Luke Johnson - for winning the Challenger doubles in Portugal and taking out his Career High ranking in the process.
7. Lloyd Glasspool - for winning the Bordeaux Challenger 175 title and more importantly, breaking into the Top 10 in the world rankings.
8. Emily Appleton - for winning the W60 doubles title in Grado, Italy with Julia Lohoff, her second of the year at ITF W60 level.
9. Eleanor Baglow - for reaching the SF in the 15K at Kursumlijska Banja, Serbia with 2 unexpected wins (and five wins in total, having come through qualis)
10. Emily Webley-Smith - for making the final of the W40 SLO doubles, age 38, her 17th dubs tournament this year
11. Millie Rajecki - for making the SF of the NCAA DI Championships, the first in her college ever to do so - beating the #1 NCAA ranked player along the way - and earning All-American honours in singles. Finishing season GB's #1 ranked NCAA player, college season record of 40-11, smashing her college's previous record for individual wins in a season (33), and 33-12 in doubles
12. Stuart Parker - for winning back to back M25 doubles titles in the Czech Republic and the 2nd one without dropping a set all week.
13. Mark Ceban - age 14 - winning the title in the first ITF event he's ever played outside the UK (and on clay)
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Sunday 28th of May 2023 08:42:31 AM
For me personally it is between 4 - George, Millie, and the two GB wheelchair teams.
The ones I got most vested in over the month are Millie this week in the NCAA, and the mens team at the World Cup.
Ultimately, the mens wheelchair team did amazingly and became World Champions, and that is hard to beat. I suspect I will be the only person voting for them, I hope others respect what they did and also vote, but let's see!!
So I have voted for the GB Mens Wheelchair World Cup winning team of Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid and Ben Bartram
I voted for George. What with winning Nottingham and then making the final of a 25K this week his level really seems to have gone up a notch this month.
I would have suggested also considering Angelica Blake who had a very similar record to Millie. 36-7 for the academic year . 25-3 in 2023 where her only losses were to the 2 NCAA finalists Tian and Sleeth and the semi finalist Sieg.
Wins at NCAA finals over #3 Ma , #9 Komar and previously undefeated Broadus. Made quarter finals where she lost to Sleeth who also beat Millie next round.
Chosen as one of 6 players in NCAA team of the Tournament . Chosen as one of 6 players in PAC 12 conference team of the year. Won All American status at NCAA singles.
The final rankings are actually next week to take into account all results since the last List on May 4th and i imagine that Millie will be a few spots higher than Angelica but it may be close.
I am not arguing against Millie who had a fantastic year and got 1 round further. She probably deserves it slightly more by getting that 1 round further. But they did go out to the same player. I think Angelica should have at least been one of the nominees.
Interestingly when they played each other a couple of weeks ago it was unfinished at 1 set all.
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:07:38 PM
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:36:57 PM
I would have suggested also considering Angelica Blake who had a very similar record to Millie. 36-7 for the academic year . 25-3 in 2023 where her only losses were to the 2 NCAA finalists Tian and Sleeth and the semi finalist Sieg.
Wins at NCAA finals over #3 Ma , #9 Komar and previously undefeated Broadus. Made quarter finals where she lost to Sleeth who also beat Millie next round.
Chosen as one of 6 players in NCAA team of the Tournament . Chosen as one of 6 players in PAC 12 conference team of the year. Won All American status at NCAA singles.
The final rankings are actually next week to take into account all results since the last List on May 4th and i imagine that Millie will be a few spots higher than Angelica but it may be close.
I am not arguing against Millie who had a fantastic year and got 1 round further. She probably deserves it slightly more by getting that 1 round further. But they did go out to the same player. I think Angelica should have been nominated too.
Interestingly when they played each other a couple of weeks ago it was unfinished at 1 set all.
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:07:38 PM
Hi Danny - not to worry; yeah, I leave the nominations thread up for anyone to nominate any player the feel deserving, shame you didnt spot it in time! Keep checking - the thread for nominations is separate and goes up near the start of each month period and anyone can nominate a player for any reason. Sorry Angelica missed out this time!
I would have suggested also considering Angelica Blake who had a very similar record to Millie. 36-7 for the academic year . 25-3 in 2023 where her only losses were to the 2 NCAA finalists Tian and Sleeth and the semi finalist Sieg.
Wins at NCAA finals over #3 Ma , #9 Komar and previously undefeated Broadus. Made quarter finals where she lost to Sleeth who also beat Millie next round.
Chosen as one of 6 players in NCAA team of the Tournament . Chosen as one of 6 players in PAC 12 conference team of the year. Won All American status at NCAA singles.
The final rankings are actually next week to take into account all results since the last List on May 4th and i imagine that Millie will be a few spots higher than Angelica but it may be close.
I am not arguing against Millie who had a fantastic year and got 1 round further. She probably deserves it slightly more by getting that 1 round further. But they did go out to the same player. I think Angelica should have at least been one of the nominees.
Interestingly when they played each other a couple of weeks ago it was unfinished at 1 set all.
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:09:52 PM
You should have nominated her, Danny. You can't complain she's not on the list if you think she should be but you haven't nominated her. It's for everyone to chip in with nominations, there's no official list.
And you can't blame the person for only nominating Millie coz no one wants to hog the thing and nominate tons (well, I do sometimes, it's true, but I battle hard against it.... ). So people nominate one person and leave space for others to step up and nominate someone else.
-- Edited by Coup Droit on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:34:19 PM
I guess Danny is quite new to the board and it is sometimes hard to know at first how things work around established processes. I guess we all get it (even though it has evolved a little over the past year or two) but for some others who arent as familiar.
I hope Danny gives it a go and votes (for Millie or anyone else from the list) and then for future months feels free to nominate away - I guess there wont be much college tennis the next month or two, but there will be college players in the UK or in ITF events around the States or elsewhere, and college play picks up again in the Autumn/Fall period.
And there are non college players to vote for as well, of course.
Thank you Jon and CD for explaining that it is up to those posting to the Board to nominate. Somehow I mistakenly assumed that these were nominated by the iniiator of the thread. My apologies.
I will definitely be voting for Millie ! The US spring college season is a long haul and to win 40 matches is not easy and great achievement Reaching the final four.
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:57:13 PM
Thank you Jon and CD for explaining that it is up to those posting to the Board to nominate. Somehow I mistakenly assumed that these were nominated by the iniiator of the thread. My apologies.
I will definitely be voting for Millie ! The US spring college season is a long haul and to win 40 matches is not easy and great achievement Reaching the final four.
-- Edited by Dannythomas on Saturday 27th of May 2023 09:57:13 PM
great, thanks for voting Danny - we have had 6 votes now, we usually get around 40 plus votes, and so far 5 players/teams have votes, so it is going to be an interesting couple of days!