2023 PLAYER OF THE SEASON WILD CARD NOMINATIONS THREAD

the addict · Tennis legend

2023 PLAYER OF THE SEASON WILD CARD NOMINATIONS THREAD

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thank you TA! Worth waiting for!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
Adding Isabelle Lacy.

1. Jan Choinski - gained over 100 places in the rankings up to a CH 126 winning his second challenger title along the way.

2. Julian Cash - a new career high inside the top 50, thanks to 5 challenger titles (at 75, 100 x 2 and 125 x 2 level), together with numerous other finals, including his first 3 ATP250 finals (all with different partners). And all that despite the ending of a long-term successful partnership mid-season.

3. Max Lendrum - 12 years old. Another Welsh up and coming potential star of the future.Coached by Francesca Lewis at Swansea (Mimis old stamping ground). Max beat the number one seed Frederick Fabricus to take the National U12 title at the Lexus indoor chamionship in Bolton in October - his first national chamionship title. Achieved without dropping a set and followed up by reaching the boys double final in the same event.

4. Viktor Frydrych - 17 years old for winning his first ITF U18 J300 event in Beijing in October this year. Moving nicely up the junior ranking to mid 50s. Another up and coming star from Colwyn Bay in North Wales.As Chris Lewis Tennis Wales noted, from Viktor first practise sessions at Colwyn Bay they knew he had potential.

5. Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid - Alfie is already qualified individually for Player of the Season but as a pair, Alfie and Gordon are the real deal - winners of Australian, French and Wimbledon slams this year, the are the worlds top pair with 9 titles overall this season - Gordon alongside Joe Salisbury is the only slam winner not in the PoS qualfiers so far, so this gives him a chance to right that wrong as part of this dominating pair. Also won the Wheelchair Masters title to cap a great season as world champions.

6. Emily Appleton - for her dedication and progress up the rankings. Although Emily's schedule is largely dictated by doubles she has managed to improve her singles ranking to 386 on 31 Oct (and a career high 368 a couple of weeks earlier) from 793 on 31 Oct last year. She's also improved her doubles ranking to 139 from 194. She's done this by playing week in week out having played 28 singles events and 34 doubles events during 2023 to date.

7. Katy Dunne - for returning to tennis after facing illness and injury and being very close to giving up. Playing competitive tennis and being open about all the hurdles she and other tennis players have to face

8. Dan Cox - Dan largely goes unheralded and plugs away at the ITF level. But for those of you who remember, hes become our King of Grass - this year he won the most grass court matches of all Brits; but he also did it last year. And deserves credit for that!

9. Danielle Daley - topped the UKPL league standings this season, including winning the UKPL event in week 3. Overall top points scorer on the women's league circuit

10. Louis Bowden - topped the UKPL league standings this season, including winning the UKPL events in weeks 4 and 6. Didn't play Finals week, but had the best league season of all men's players.

11. Maia Lumsden - nominated here just in case Heather manages to pip her for GB#1 in doubles by making up the 90 point difference. Tremendous year, coming from WR219 at the start of the year to WR74, winning 6 titles in the process, as well as reaching the quarter finals at Wimbledon, losing to the now WR1 & 2 pair.

12. Jack Draper - for reaching his first ATP tour final (beating WR 27 and 28 on the way) and climbing back up the rankings after injury troubles and falling to a ranking low of 123 in August.

13. Holly Hutchinson and Madeleine Brooks. Since starting to play together in April they have improved their doubles rankings from a combined 1925 (1073+852) to 573 (286+287) reaching 7 semi-finals and two finals - but still to win their first title

14. Jamie Murray - won 4 doubles titles this season and achieved a ranking of around 16 or 17 which is better than half of last year and his best ranking in 5 years. Impressive all round return.

15. Heather Watson - won WTA 250 title in Poland (July), w/ Yanina Wickmayer, and RU in Nottingham (June) with Harriet. Also, doubles RU in a WTA125 in Mexico, in October, and won an ITF40 in the same month

16 - Emily Webley Smith for keeping on, keeping on. I don't follow her much though but I know she's somewhat of a stalwart, keeps plugging away and I knows she just had her equipment stolen and I think a parent was unwell and she took time off?

17. Jack Pinnington-Jones - ranked #3 in the US College rankings. As per the college thread "became just the second ITA National Fall Championships finalist in the TCU program's 49-year history. He is the first TCU player to reach a national singles final since 1982. Pinnington's performance cemented him among the sport's rising amateur starts. The London native concluded the fall season with a 12-3 singles record. Seven of his wins were against ranked opponents. All but two of his victrices were sweeps".

18. Angelica Blake - had her strongest year yet at Stanford as they reached team semi finals where she and Amelia Rajecki were locked at 1 set all when the team match ended. Was 36-7 for the year. 15 wins in a row March to May. 12 ranked wins including players ranked 3,5 and 8. Won All American status. Chosen by NCAA committee as position 3 in NCAA All tournament team .Quarter finalist in NCAA singles championships beating 3 seeded players . Achieved no 14 in college D1 rankings. Has suffered with an injury that has kept her out of past 2 months events.

19. Toby Samuel - from relatively few tour appearances, Toby has shown real further progression. In singles he entered the top 500 with a November CH of 404, reaching QR2 at Wimbledon and being a winner and a RU in domestic M25s. In doubles he has a November CH 254, reaching MD R2 at Wimbledon ( with Connor Thomson ) and winning ATP Challenger 75 Drummondville ( with Andre Goransson ).

20. Ciara Moore - for topping the season long British Tour leaderboard, and comfortably as well.

21. Marcus Walters - for topping the season long British Tour leaderboard, taking the lead by winning the last counting event of the season.

22. Amarni Banks - progressed this season to the fringes of the top 300 and into the GB top 10. Gave huge indications of what more may be possible if she can stay fit and well in the Shrewsbury W100 where she reached the final, beating 3 top 200 players on the way.

23.Emilie Lindh for reaching a CH of 442 last week. On 16th July she was ranked 678, so thats a rise of 236 places in 4 months. For the past couple of years she has played consistently in far flung low level tournaments with no help from wild cards that Im aware of. Her recent good form and rise feels like a reward for hard work and perseverance.

24. Oli Bonding - aged just 16, Oli has impressed this season by reaching 28 in the world junior rankings, including winning a J300 title (singles and doubles) in Barranquilla.

25. Isabelle Lacy - aged 17 and moving from juniors onto the ITF tour. Impressive performances in the grass court season with a good run through qualifying to the quarter-finals in the W100 at Surbiton, defeating Madison Brengle WR95 on the way.

Ok, so this is the completed list of wildcard nominees.

some of these may escape directly Into the POS vote between now and next week, but no one can be added now.

good luck to all 25; the field will be finalised next Tuesday 5th and the vote will go up that evening

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Nominations are now CLOSED!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

If anyone feels a players narrative above is not complete or missing vital updates etc , please feel free to edit any of those you see fit. My plan is to leave as is.

3 sets of groups are drawn depending on whether there are 1/2,3, or 4 wildcards , using the random numbers posted some way up this thread. We will know exactly where we stand after November player of the month which finishes Tuesday, and before this vote is posted later on Tuesday!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Maia qualified for player of the season as top womens doubles ranked player and so doesnt need a wildcard now!

1. Jan Choinski - gained over 100 places in the rankings up to a CH 126 winning his second challenger title along the way.

2. Julian Cash - a new career high inside the top 50, thanks to 5 challenger titles (at 75, 100 x 2 and 125 x 2 level), together with numerous other finals, including his first 3 ATP250 finals (all with different partners). And all that despite the ending of a long-term successful partnership mid-season.

3. Max Lendrum - 12 years old. Another Welsh up and coming potential star of the future.Coached by Francesca Lewis at Swansea (Mimis old stamping ground). Max beat the number one seed Frederick Fabricus to take the National U12 title at the Lexus indoor chamionship in Bolton in October - his first national chamionship title. Achieved without dropping a set and followed up by reaching the boys double final in the same event.

4. Viktor Frydrych - 17 years old for winning his first ITF U18 J300 event in Beijing in October this year. Moving nicely up the junior ranking to mid 50s. Another up and coming star from Colwyn Bay in North Wales.As Chris Lewis Tennis Wales noted, from Viktor first practise sessions at Colwyn Bay they knew he had potential.

5. Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid - Alfie is already qualified individually for Player of the Season but as a pair, Alfie and Gordon are the real deal - winners of Australian, French and Wimbledon slams this year, the are the worlds top pair with 9 titles overall this season - Gordon alongside Joe Salisbury is the only slam winner not in the PoS qualfiers so far, so this gives him a chance to right that wrong as part of this dominating pair. Also won the Wheelchair Masters title to cap a great season as world champions.

6. Emily Appleton - for her dedication and progress up the rankings. Although Emily's schedule is largely dictated by doubles she has managed to improve her singles ranking to 386 on 31 Oct (and a career high 368 a couple of weeks earlier) from 793 on 31 Oct last year. She's also improved her doubles ranking to 139 from 194. She's done this by playing week in week out having played 28 singles events and 34 doubles events during 2023 to date.

7. Katy Dunne - for returning to tennis after facing illness and injury and being very close to giving up. Playing competitive tennis and being open about all the hurdles she and other tennis players have to face

8. Dan Cox - Dan largely goes unheralded and plugs away at the ITF level. But for those of you who remember, hes become our King of Grass - this year he won the most grass court matches of all Brits; but he also did it last year. And deserves credit for that!

9. Danielle Daley - topped the UKPL league standings this season, including winning the UKPL event in week 3. Overall top points scorer on the women's league circuit

10. Louis Bowden - topped the UKPL league standings this season, including winning the UKPL events in weeks 4 and 6. Didn't play Finals week, but had the best league season of all men's players.

11. Jack Draper - for reaching his first ATP tour final (beating WR 27 and 28 on the way) and climbing back up the rankings after injury troubles and falling to a ranking low of 123 in August.

12. Holly Hutchinson and Madeleine Brooks. Since starting to play together in April they have improved their doubles rankings from a combined 1925 (1073+852) to 573 (286+287) reaching 7 semi-finals and two finals - but still to win their first title

13. Jamie Murray - won 4 doubles titles this season and achieved a ranking of around 16 or 17 which is better than half of last year and his best ranking in 5 years. Impressive all round return.

14. Heather Watson - won WTA 250 title in Poland (July), w/ Yanina Wickmayer, and RU in Nottingham (June) with Harriet. Also, doubles RU in a WTA125 in Mexico, in October, and won an ITF40 in the same month

15- Emily Webley Smith for keeping on, keeping on. I don't follow her much though but I know she's somewhat of a stalwart, keeps plugging away and I knows she just had her equipment stolen and I think a parent was unwell and she took time off?

16.Jack Pinnington-Jones - ranked #3 in the US College rankings. As per the college thread "became just the second ITA National Fall Championships finalist in the TCU program's 49-year history. He is the first TCU player to reach a national singles final since 1982. Pinnington's performance cemented him among the sport's rising amateur starts. The London native concluded the fall season with a 12-3 singles record. Seven of his wins were against ranked opponents. All but two of his victrices were sweeps".

17. Angelica Blake - had her strongest year yet at Stanford as they reached team semi finals where she and Amelia Rajecki were locked at 1 set all when the team match ended. Was 36-7 for the year. 15 wins in a row March to May. 12 ranked wins including players ranked 3,5 and 8. Won All American status. Chosen by NCAA committee as position 3 in NCAA All tournament team .Quarter finalist in NCAA singles championships beating 3 seeded players . Achieved no 14 in college D1 rankings. Has suffered with an injury that has kept her out of past 2 months events.

18. Toby Samuel - from relatively few tour appearances, Toby has shown real further progression. In singles he entered the top 500 with a November CH of 404, reaching QR2 at Wimbledon and being a winner and a RU in domestic M25s. In doubles he has a November CH 254, reaching MD R2 at Wimbledon ( with Connor Thomson ) and winning ATP Challenger 75 Drummondville ( with Andre Goransson ).

19. Ciara Moore - for topping the season long British Tour leaderboard, and comfortably as well.

20. Marcus Walters - for topping the season long British Tour leaderboard, taking the lead by winning the last counting event of the season.

21. Amarni Banks - progressed this season to the fringes of the top 300 and into the GB top 10. Gave huge indications of what more may be possible if she can stay fit and well in the Shrewsbury W100 where she reached the final, beating 3 top 200 players on the way.

22.Emilie Lindh for reaching a CH of 442 last week. On 16th July she was ranked 678, so thats a rise of 236 places in 4 months. For the past couple of years she has played consistently in far flung low level tournaments with no help from wild cards that Im aware of. Her recent good form and rise feels like a reward for hard work and perseverance.

23. Oli Bonding - aged just 16, Oli has impressed this season by reaching 28 in the world junior rankings, including winning a J300 title (singles and doubles) in Barranquilla.

24. Isabelle Lacy - aged 17 and moving from juniors onto the ITF tour. Impressive performances in the grass court season with a good run through qualifying to the quarter-finals in the W100 at Surbiton, defeating Madison Brengle WR95 on the way.

The field is now 24 and may reduce further before the vote if other players qualify .

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

The wild card groups will be put up tomorrow morning. As things stand, we should be heading for 3 wildcards being needed, so 3 groups. The middle one of our random set of numbers up above will be used to form those groups.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

As I am on a train to London tomorrow morning early doors, and will find it hard to access email/wifi reliably, I will in fact post the wild card groups this evening after the PoM final has completed, sometime after 9 pm, probably quite late, maybe 11pm ish,.

The votes will continue until Thursday as originally planned.

I am almost certain we will need 3 wild cards and thus have 3 groups.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Tuesday 5th of December 2023 02:37:08 PM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

It is almost certain 2 of the current wild card nominations will qualify for the PoS vote and the field for the wildcards will reduce to 22 players in total across 3 groups.

SuperT · Futures qualifying

Hi Jon. I notice that you have removed Maia from the candidates on the wild card voting list but have left Heather on it. Does that mean Maia is definitely in the POS vote as number one doubles, even if Heather overtakes her? I was wondering whether I should vote for Heather or wait and she if she qualifies of right, and that when I realised that Maia might miss out if she does. It's a bit confusing I think. Sorry

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

SuperT wrote:
Hi Jon. I notice that you have removed Maia from the candidates on the wild card voting list but have left Heather on it. Does that mean Maia is definitely in the POS vote as number one doubles, even if Heather overtakes her? I was wondering whether I should vote for Heather or wait and she if she qualifies of right, and that when I realised that Maia might miss out if she does. It's a bit confusing I think. Sorry

Hi SuperT - sorry if it is!! Because of the timing of things, I took the cut off for all the rankings lists as those published on Dec 4th. So Maia was number one then and she is DEFINITELY qualified for Player of the Season.

Not quite end of year ranking list but I had to make a cut off date or otherwise run into Xmas and timing issues! All the other lists werent close and make no difference but in the womens doubles case, , as you point out Heather misses out.

Maia was therefore taken out of the wildcard list and Heather remains in it - she wont get put back into Player of the Season as the cut off is done and the vote starts Friday, before the next official rankings list.

So please do vote for her in the wild card vote as that is her only route into player of the season!

I hope that clarifies it!!!

A lot of moving parts, sorry if it isnt entirely clear!!

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 6th of December 2023 01:59:41 PM

SuperT · Futures qualifying

JonH comes home wrote:
SuperT wrote:
Hi Jon. I notice that you have removed Maia from the candidates on the wild card voting list but have left Heather on it. Does that mean Maia is definitely in the POS vote as number one doubles, even if Heather overtakes her? I was wondering whether I should vote for Heather or wait and she if she qualifies of right, and that when I realised that Maia might miss out if she does. It's a bit confusing I think. Sorry
Hi SuperT - sorry if it is!! Because of the timing of things, I took the cut off for all the rankings lists as those published on Dec 4th. So Maia was number one then and she is DEFINITELY qualified for Player of the Season.
Not quite end of year ranking list but I had to make a cut off date or otherwise run into Xmas and timing issues! All the other lists werent close and make no difference but in the womens doubles case, , as you point out Heather misses out.
Maia was therefore taken out of the wildcard list and Heather remains in it - she wont get put back into Player of the Season as the cut off is done and the vote starts Friday, before the next official rankings list.
So please do vote for her in the wild card vote as that is her only route into player of the season!
I hope that clarifies it!!!
A lot of moving parts, sorry if it isnt entirely clear!!

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 6th of December 2023 01:59:41 PM

Thanks Jon that is crystal clear now. Sorry for not understanding before.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

SuperT wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
SuperT wrote:
Hi Jon. I notice that you have removed Maia from the candidates on the wild card voting list but have left Heather on it. Does that mean Maia is definitely in the POS vote as number one doubles, even if Heather overtakes her? I was wondering whether I should vote for Heather or wait and she if she qualifies of right, and that when I realised that Maia might miss out if she does. It's a bit confusing I think. Sorry
Hi SuperT - sorry if it is!! Because of the timing of things, I took the cut off for all the rankings lists as those published on Dec 4th. So Maia was number one then and she is DEFINITELY qualified for Player of the Season.
Not quite end of year ranking list but I had to make a cut off date or otherwise run into Xmas and timing issues! All the other lists werent close and make no difference but in the womens doubles case, , as you point out Heather misses out.
Maia was therefore taken out of the wildcard list and Heather remains in it - she wont get put back into Player of the Season as the cut off is done and the vote starts Friday, before the next official rankings list.
So please do vote for her in the wild card vote as that is her only route into player of the season!
I hope that clarifies it!!!
A lot of moving parts, sorry if it isnt entirely clear!!

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 6th of December 2023 01:59:41 PM
Thanks Jon that is crystal clear now. Sorry for not understanding before.

Thats ok - I live and breathe it and sometimes make assumptions and certainly cant expect everyone to read whatever I post ! It was a perfectly reasonable question!