Para tennis 2024 thread

AnnaM · Social player

RE: Lily Mills

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hi Anna - I thought we should change the title of this thread from Lily Mills to reflect that there are many more players in these categories, such as Anna, and allow us to update on their progress, generally, as the season progresses.

We have a separate wheelchair thread as that is a well established and professional sport, so I wasnt sure disability tennis was quite right for this thread if it is renamed.

Any suggestions on what we should call it, as someone who is on the inside?

Thanks

AnnaM · Social player

JonH comes home wrote:
Hi Anna - I thought we should change the title of this thread from Lily Mills to reflect that there are many more players in these categories, such as Anna, and allow us to update on their progress, generally, as the season progresses.

We have a separate wheelchair thread as that is a well established and professional sport, so I wasnt sure disability tennis was quite right for this thread if it is renamed.

Any suggestions on what we should call it, as someone who is on the inside?

Thanks
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Hi JonH,

My event is the 2024 AO PWII Championships and the deaf event is 2024 AO DHoH Championships. However, Para tennis should cover both. Thanks

-- Edited by AnnaM on Sunday 21st of January 2024 10:28:40 AM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

AnnaM wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Hi Anna - I thought we should change the title of this thread from Lily Mills to reflect that there are many more players in these categories, such as Anna, and allow us to update on their progress, generally, as the season progresses.

We have a separate wheelchair thread as that is a well established and professional sport, so I wasnt sure disability tennis was quite right for this thread if it is renamed.

Any suggestions on what we should call it, as someone who is on the inside?

Thanks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi JonH,
My event is the 2024 AO PWII Championships and the deaf event is 2024 AO DHoH Championships. However, Para tennis should cover both. Thanks

-- Edited by AnnaM on Sunday 21st of January 2024 10:28:40 AM

Great - Para Tennis it is!

AnnaM · Social player

Para tennis 2024 thread

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Great stuff, will follow with interest! How is Anna feeling, must be a great experience!

AnnaM · Social player

Anna is excited to play at the AO. We met with the LTA president and other top people LTA people yesterday. We all watched Gordon and Alfie win yesterday, plus saw some of the British junior matches. Anna has trained and played against some of them in the past. The AO is a fantastic event to be part of, it is a privilege to be here.

The only problem is I was ill on the plane, my wife was sick yesterday and Anna is too ill to train today. She has 24 hours to get herself right for tomorrows matches. It looks like one of those 24 hour illnesses, so fingers crossed she will be ok for her two matches tomorrow. Her first match will start a little after 11pm UK time, Thursday night.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

AnnaM wrote:
Anna is excited to play at the AO. We met with the LTA president and other top people LTA people yesterday. We all watched Gordon and Alfie win yesterday, plus saw some of the British junior matches. Anna has trained and played against some of them in the past. The AO is a fantastic event to be part of, it is a privilege to be here.

The only problem is I was ill on the plane, my wife was sick yesterday and Anna is too ill to train today. She has 24 hours to get herself right for tomorrows matches. It looks like one of those 24 hour illnesses, so fingers crossed she will be ok for her two matches tomorrow. Her first match will start a little after 11pm UK time, Thursday night.

Thank you ! Ive just clocked on - I thought the person posting was Annas Mum and also called Anna! But Im assuming the profile name is Annas name herself! haha.

sounds like a great experience - do other slams have the para categories? or Is the AO effectively the largest event the players get to play? Would be lovely if Wimbledon had an event!

Fingers crossed Anna recovers from her illness (and your wife) , maybe jet lag plays a part as well?

AnnaM · Social player

JonH comes home wrote:

Thank you ! Ive just clocked on - I thought the person posting was Annas Mum and also called Anna! But Im assuming the profile name is Annas name herself! haha.

sounds like a great experience - do other slams have the para categories? or Is the AO effectively the largest event the players get to play? Would be lovely if Wimbledon had an event!

Fingers crossed Anna recovers from her illness (and your wife) , maybe jet lag plays a part as well?

Definitely a bug, we seemed to get ill a day apart.

Lol, Annmarie is my wife. I set this account for Anna when she played junior Nationals. I show her what I have wrote in here, so she knows what is happening. She feels that this side of tennis is very neglected and few people know about the top level. Anna has been the World number one for 5.5 years and very few people even know about it. So she is happy to get the info out there. Most people only hear about the Special Olympics, which is actually a lower inclusion type of event.

Virtus Sport run the World Games 3 out of 4 years and the bigger Global Games once every 4 years. https://www.virtus.sport/all-news This event at the AO is sanctioned by Virtus and the ITF.

The other slams don't have these Para events. The AO started the international version of these Para events last year and it is the most inclusive event of all the Slams. With everyone all the way down to the juniors treated very well.

We were talking yesterday about Wimbledon with the LTA President and her deputy. So now they are seeing the AO leading the way, it is possible that something my happen in the future. They seemed open to the idea about opening things up, but space maybe an issue, as Wimbledon is on a much smaller footprint than the AO. So for the moment the AO is the highest individual event that is available right now. The nearest thing Wimbledon has right now is the Road to Wimbledon event which had it's first event last August on the practice courts. But that is nothing like this and the AO are spending quite a lot of money running these Para events. Anna would love to tackle the Oz players on grass!

-- Edited by AnnaM on Wednesday 24th of January 2024 10:31:01 PM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Excellent insight and lets hope Wimbledon does catch up.

Thank you for the detail - Im able bodied myself but started following wheelchair tennis a couple of years ago and think the level of skill is amazing, and the athleticism. Its great to hear about a part of the sport I never knew about, personally, and will follow with interest.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I see from the attached that the ranking system is following a 4 year cycle, which seems different although I guess the number of ranking events are too few to enable a single 12 month ranking system like the main pro tours use.

c3k8ff.n3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/7.11-Sport_Virtus-Championship-Specification-Tennis-Dec23.pdf

AnnaM · Social player

JonH comes home wrote:
I see from the attached that the ranking system is following a 4 year cycle, which seems different although I guess the number of ranking events are too few to enable a single 12 month ranking system like the main pro tours use.

c3k8ff.n3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/7.11-Sport_Virtus-Championship-Specification-Tennis-Dec23.pdf

The tennis world rankings were based on the last World/Global Championships and the seeding for the next Championships based off the last two. So Anna was unseeded in Paris 2018, won it and became the World number one. The next event was the Global Games in Brisbane She was the World number one, but seeded about 4th. She won that and then played the Global Games in Vichy last year as the World number one and the first seed.

There are changes this year and there is a new ranking point system. The AO now counts, along with the World Games in France in September and the Nationals in November. In some ways having more events makes it fairer, but I am not sure about what they have done. For example, the AO has draws of 8, which this year and last there is a 50% allocation to the strong Oz players and the top two non Oz players, plus two wildcards. So it is not really fair on those who cannot compete here in Australia.

Hopefully, they will get it right in the end. The legacy rankings that are current now, are a fair reflection of those who competed last June in Vichy, with just a few of the good players missing. So are pretty much a reliable indicator of things right now. Though, there are many more players with no ranking that will get a low ranking by the end of the year. We only found out about the changes last month, so we will have to see how things develop later this year. When the end of year rankings will be based on the last two World events, the AO and the various Nationals that countries have.

I have just read what you sent and I was not aware that they were going to use a 4 year cycle of rankings. I am not sure about that either. I dislike the tennis number for being so inaccurate. It also goes back years and is meaningless for current form of improving, or declining players.

-- Edited by AnnaM on Thursday 25th of January 2024 12:30:21 AM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Hi Anna's Dad. How does the AO event work then? It looks like round robin groups of 4, top 2 into the semis? Are they all one set matches in the groups? The schedule looks like 2 matches Friday, final group match and presumably Semis on Saturday, final on Sunday? It looks like the semis and final are 3 sets, is that with a MTB for the third set or full sets?

Is the doubles just one big round robin group of all 4 pairs - and the top two play a final? Or just the RR winner takes the prize?

Looking forward to following how Anna and the other 4 Brits get on!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

So, just to confirm, in the DHoH event we have:

Esah Hyatt in the men's event

In the PWII event (which is described as intellectual disability and autism on the ITF/AO draw website) we have:

Anna McBride and Lily Mills in the womens event
Fabrice Higgins, Oliver Beadle and Aidan Moody in the mens event

Good luck to all 6 players (6 out of a total of 32 across the 4 events is a strong contingent and great to see we take this seriously).

AnnaM · Social player

JonH comes home wrote:
Hi Anna's Dad. How does the AO event work then? It looks like round robin groups of 4, top 2 into the semis? Are they all one set matches in the groups? The schedule looks like 2 matches Friday, final group match and presumably Semis on Saturday, final on Sunday? It looks like the semis and final are 3 sets, is that with a MTB for the third set or full sets?

Is the doubles just one big round robin group of all 4 pairs - and the top two play a final? Or just the RR winner takes the prize?

Looking forward to following how Anna and the other 4 Brits get on!

You have the format right, but it should be two full sets of 6 and a MTB in the groups and semi's. Three full sets to six in the singles final. If they shorten the sets I will let you know.

There are only two matches on Friday, as there are still plenty of other matches still to play. Plus the rain delay has meant we are on different courts than originally planned, as they have to catch up on delayed matches. It will be three matches a day on Sat and Sun for those players who reach the final.

The doubles are just a straight box group of four pairs. Scratch pairings and the way the pairings are worked out make those matches hard to predict. So it should be an exciting long weekend.

Below is copied from the fact sheet.

"Womens Singles/Mens Singles Round Robin (8 players) Semis/Final + 3-8 Playoffs Best of 2 sets, 3rd set match tiebreak Best of 3 sets (Final only)

Womens Doubles/Mens Doubles Round Robin (4 pairs) Best of 2 sets, 3rd set match tiebreak, no ad scoring"