So, there are 3 wild card places up for grabs in the Player of the Season vote. There are 22 players assigned randomly to 3 groups and 1 player from each group will get into the Player of the Season field. Players have not been allocated by singles or doubles, junior or senior, female or male. It is simply a random allocation.
Just the top player. No room for any tactical voting here.
The 3 players winning through will join the 25 in Player of the Season already to make up a field of 28.
Vote for whoever you wish to for whatever reason - could be the best, just your favourite, could be someone who achieved one single feat or achieved stuff all year around.
The players in this group are list below. Votes will close on Thursday evening at 9pm
8 players in this Group A
A
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
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.
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
20. Marcus Walters - for topping the season long British Tour leaderboard, taking the lead by winning the last counting event of the season.
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.
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.
1. Jan Choinski - gained over 100 places in the rankings up to a CH 126 winning his second challenger title along the way.
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.
I wanted to award my wildcard vote in a few different ways here but it came down to me between Jamie and Jan. Jan I think had a season of his career and didnt get much recognition.
If this ends in a tie for top spot, please note there will be a rapid tie breaker vote tomorrow night at 9 pm between the tied players- winner will take all over a 2 hour quick vote!