2024 Player of the Season Wild Card Nominations

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

2024 Player of the Season Wild Card Nominations

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

All the nominees so far come from the pro game, which is fine. But anyone who follows other levels such as college, junior, wheelchair, other disability genres, please do feel free to nominate anyone you feel has had a worthy year. This is truly open to anyone to nominate.

I have 3 more planned over the next three days, it would be great if someone beat me to it for any of them or indeed if we closed out the 20 before I get all mine in!

Tanaqui · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
Ive nominated Ella - its possible someone else can match her titles haul, but unlikely Id say with 4 weeks left; and its possible she may get through December POM as she is one of the few players in action still. But we can cross that bridge if we get there.

Jon, is Ella not on your already qualified list (number 14)?

Tanaqui · Club Coach

I suspect this is a player on your list, Jon! Thanks for the nudge post which reminded me to nominate. smile (Also, if you agree Ella doesn't need a nomination, I'll edit to take her out and re-number the list.)

Wildcard nominations and reason:

1 - Heather Watson - most nominated player for the player of the month who hasnt qualified - 7 times - and also won our favourite British player vote back in Feb. She must have done well this season to get so many nominations and be so popular! Seriously, she won a W50 title in Nottingham this season and is also our third best ranked doubles player

2 - Paul Jubb - without having any really spectacular performances apart from reaching the semi final of the Mallorca ATP250, Paul has nevertheless consistently performed well over the year and raised his ranking from 793 at the end of last year to a career high of 180 by the end of November.

3 - Jodie Burrage - for sensibly entering end of season lower level tournaments after a long injury break and saving her PR for 2025. In doing so she has reached SFs at W35 and W50 level followed by the final of the W75 in Trnava thereby taking her ranking back into the top 250. Before injury struck, Jodie made the QF of a WTA 500 in early season and hit a CH of 85 before a season of great promise was derailed. She has come back well

4 - Emily Appleton - for winning 5 doubles titles at at least W75 level ( 4 W75s & a WTA 125 ) with 5 different partners and entering the doubles top 100. Also in July reached a singles CH 348

5 - Madeleine Brooks - for having a breakout year, winning 4 titles during 2024 (a W50 and 3 W75s) with three different partners. Before this year, Madeleine had only reached (and lost) two finals at W25 level. Apart from winning those titles, she's consistently gone deep in other tournaments, reaching the final on 4 further occasions. As a result, she's raised her ranking from 287 at the end of 2023 to her current CH of 127.

6 - Johannus Monday - moving from a strong college career, JoMo really hit the pro ranks hard this summer and ended up taking 4 ITF M25 titles on US Hardcourts, backed up with 2 M25 doubles titles and a Challenger doubles title at Knoxville. Over the year, he has improved his ranking from 724 to a high of 369 this year and is one of our men players to watch in 2025

7 - Ella McDonald - has won more titles than anyone this season, with 9 in total - 2 singles and 7 doubles. From a ranking perspective, her singles rose from c1200 to around 400 and in doubles from around 500 to 250. In fact, shes had one of the most impressive seasons of all our players, but quietly, and deserves a place in player of the season

8 - Anna McBride - despite injury and illness issues throughout the year, para tennis player Anna managed some great results, including defending her singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open. Even when recovering from injury and (thanks to incompetence by the LTA) relatively unprepared, she showed her fighting spirit by playing competitively against much better prepared opponents. (I'd also like to acknowledge how much we owe to Anna's father for posting updates here and patiently explaining the ins and outs of para tennis to us. It's been a great addition to this place.)

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JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Ive nominated Ella - its possible someone else can match her titles haul, but unlikely Id say with 4 weeks left; and its possible she may get through December POM as she is one of the few players in action still. But we can cross that bridge if we get there.
Jon, is Ella not on your already qualified list (number 14)?

She is!! I said she was deserving, haha! I will edit the list, also want to say well done on nominating Anna - she was on my list of possibles that I was going to add! . Anna also won the World Championship singles in France later in the year so I may add that to your narrative!!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Wildcard nominations and reason:
1 - Heather Watson - most nominated player for the player of the month who hasnt qualified - 7 times - and also won our favourite British player vote back in Feb. She must have done well this season to get so many nominations and be so popular! Seriously, she won a W50 title in Nottingham this season and is also our third best ranked doubles player
2 - Paul Jubb - without having any really spectacular performances apart from reaching the semi final of the Mallorca ATP250, Paul has nevertheless consistently performed well over the year and raised his ranking from 793 at the end of last year to a career high of 180 by the end of November.

3 - Jodie Burrage - for sensibly entering end of season lower level tournaments after a long injury break and saving her PR for 2025. In doing so she has reached SFs at W35 and W50 level followed by the final of the W75 in Trnava thereby taking her ranking back into the top 250. Before injury struck, Jodie made the QF of a WTA 500 in early season and hit a CH of 85 before a season of great promise was derailed. She has come back well
4 - Emily Appleton - for winning 5 doubles titles at at least W75 level ( 4 W75s & a WTA 125 ) with 5 different partners and entering the doubles top 100. Also in July reached a singles CH 348
5 - Madeleine Brooks - for having a breakout year, winning 4 titles during 2024 (a W50 and 3 W75s) with three different partners. Before this year, Madeleine had only reached (and lost) two finals at W25 level. Apart from winning those titles, she's consistently gone deep in other tournaments, reaching the final on 4 further occasions. As a result, she's raised her ranking from 287 at the end of 2023 to her current CH of 127.

6 - Johannus Monday - moving from a strong college career, JoMo really hit the pro ranks hard this summer and ended up taking 4 ITF M25 titles on US Hardcourts, backed up with 2 M25 doubles titles and a Challenger doubles title at Knoxville. Over the year, he has improved his ranking from 724 to a high of 369 this year and is one of our men players to watch in 2025

7 - Anna McBride - despite injury and illness issues throughout the year, para tennis player Anna managed some great results, including defending her singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open and later in the year becoming World Champion at the championships in France. Even when recovering from injury and (thanks to incompetence by the LTA) relatively unprepared, she showed her fighting spirit by playing competitively against much better prepared opponents. (I'd also like to acknowledge how much we owe to Anna's father for posting updates here and patiently explaining the ins and outs of para tennis to us. It's been a great addition to this place.)

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-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 4th of December 2024 11:14:31 AM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

So, I only have two more I plan to add later in the week, thanks to Tanaqui for checking up on my list - it was a deliberate mistake! - and great to see Anna on it now as well

Tanaqui · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Ive nominated Ella - its possible someone else can match her titles haul, but unlikely Id say with 4 weeks left; and its possible she may get through December POM as she is one of the few players in action still. But we can cross that bridge if we get there.
Jon, is Ella not on your already qualified list (number 14)?
She is!! I said she was deserving, haha! I will edit the list, also want to say well done on nominating Anna - she was on my list of possibles that I was going to add! . Anna also won the World Championship singles in France later in the year so I may add that to your narrative!!

Thanks for the additions to Anna's nomination! (I did skim through the para tennis thread to write up the nomination and was a bit confused because I remembered her doing something impressive later in the year that I didn't see there. I must have missed it -- or there was a separate thread.)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Ive nominated Ella - its possible someone else can match her titles haul, but unlikely Id say with 4 weeks left; and its possible she may get through December POM as she is one of the few players in action still. But we can cross that bridge if we get there.
Jon, is Ella not on your already qualified list (number 14)?
She is!! I said she was deserving, haha! I will edit the list, also want to say well done on nominating Anna - she was on my list of possibles that I was going to add! . Anna also won the World Championship singles in France later in the year so I may add that to your narrative!!
Thanks for the additions to Anna's nomination! (I did skim through the para tennis thread to write up the nomination and was a bit confused because I remembered her doing something impressive later in the year that I didn't see there. I must have missed it -- or there was a separate thread.)

Yeah, I think her Dad put a thread up specially for the world champs which were around August or September time?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

britishtennis.activeboard.com/t71088152/para-tennis-world-championships-in-annecy-9th-14th-september/

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

When we know how many wild card places there are (spoiler, it will be between 1 and 4 as we are aiming at a 28 player draw ad currently have 24 qualifiers in place; most likely it will in fact be 2 wild cards as I expect 2 qualifiers from the December PoM poll, leaving 2 wild card spots to be filled), then I will split the wild card nominations into as many groups as there are wild cards, and it will be randomly ie no seeding of any sort.

So if we have 20 players nominated and 2 spots, I will draw 2 groups of 10 players battling it out for the places

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 4th of December 2024 03:36:08 PM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Wildcard nominations and reason:

1 - Heather Watson - most nominated player for the player of the month who hasnt qualified - 7 times - and also won our favourite British player vote back in Feb. She must have done well this season to get so many nominations and be so popular! Seriously, she won a W50 title in Nottingham this season and is also our third best ranked doubles player

2 - Paul Jubb - without having any really spectacular performances apart from reaching the semi final of the Mallorca ATP250, Paul has nevertheless consistently performed well over the year and raised his ranking from 793 at the end of last year to a career high of 180 by the end of November.

3 - Jodie Burrage - for sensibly entering end of season lower level tournaments after a long injury break and saving her PR for 2025. In doing so she has reached SFs at W35 and W50 level followed by the final of the W75 in Trnava thereby taking her ranking back into the top 250. Before injury struck, Jodie made the QF of a WTA 500 in early season and hit a CH of 85 before a season of great promise was derailed. She has come back well

4 - Emily Appleton - for winning 5 doubles titles at at least W75 level ( 4 W75s & a WTA 125 ) with 5 different partners and entering the doubles top 100. Also in July reached a singles CH 348

5 - Madeleine Brooks - for having a breakout year, winning 4 titles during 2024 (a W50 and 3 W75s) with three different partners. Before this year, Madeleine had only reached (and lost) two finals at W25 level. Apart from winning those titles, she's consistently gone deep in other tournaments, reaching the final on 4 further occasions. As a result, she's raised her ranking from 287 at the end of 2023 to her current CH of 127.

6 - Johannus Monday - moving from a strong college career, JoMo really hit the pro ranks hard this summer and ended up taking 4 ITF M25 titles on US Hardcourts, backed up with 2 M25 doubles titles and a Challenger doubles title at Knoxville. Over the year, he has improved his ranking from 724 to a high of 369 this year and is one of our men players to watch in 2025

7 - Anna McBride - despite injury and illness issues throughout the year, para tennis player Anna managed some great results, including defending her singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open and later in the year becoming World Champion at the championships in France. Even when recovering from injury and (thanks to incompetence by the LTA) relatively unprepared, she showed her fighting spirit by playing competitively against much better prepared opponents. (I'd also like to acknowledge how much we owe to Anna's father for posting updates here and patiently explaining the ins and outs of para tennis to us. It's been a great addition to this place.)

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AnnaM · Junior player

JonH comes home wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Ive nominated Ella - its possible someone else can match her titles haul, but unlikely Id say with 4 weeks left; and its possible she may get through December POM as she is one of the few players in action still. But we can cross that bridge if we get there.
Jon, is Ella not on your already qualified list (number 14)?
She is!! I said she was deserving, haha! I will edit the list, also want to say well done on nominating Anna - she was on my list of possibles that I was going to add! . Anna also won the World Championship singles in France later in the year so I may add that to your narrative!!
Thanks for the additions to Anna's nomination! (I did skim through the para tennis thread to write up the nomination and was a bit confused because I remembered her doing something impressive later in the year that I didn't see there. I must have missed it -- or there was a separate thread.)
Yeah, I think her Dad put a thread up specially for the world champs which were around August or September time?

Hi, thanks for the nomination. I have listed Anna's Para achievements at the bottom.

I was just wondering about the LTA part. We can't blame them for the injuries. They do some things well, but there are plenty of other things they do wrong. Many matches caused the wrist injury at the AO 2024, and we have since determined that to avoid wrist problems, Anna needs to wear a wrist support while playing tennis. Also, a trip to the AO on Air India left us all very ill. Never again! For the next AO, Anna is arriving in Melbourne on the 12th January 2025, so she has time to be well before the event that takes place between the 24th-26th of January.

The back injury happened at MyTennis in Nottingham when she had just turned 14. The coaches got them to play football and she fell heavily on her hip. We think, she fractured her back. Her spine curved away from the injury and this, plus long covid has compromised her ever since. The problem was incompetent and nasty coaches. For the week after the injury, Anna was in agony, and they forced her to train full-on, saying she was lazy and laughed at her as she was in pain and in tears. This worsened things, and she was out of training for 6 months. Only to return to training, and one of the coaches then tipped a full bucket of balls behind her while she was playing a full on training match, almost breaking her ankle. While she was screaming on the floor, this coach carried on as if nothing had happened and replaced her on her court with another player while Anna was on the floor in agony just behind the baseline. All criminally incompetent. Anna had to then pull out of the 14&U Regional RTW qualifier. She just got herself fit in again in time to win her first World title at age 14 in Paris in 2018.

A quick list of Para achievements

World champion in singles and mixed doubles as a 14 year old in Paris

https://www.lta.org.uk/news/great-britain-win-medals-at-2018-inas-world-tennis-championships/

Global Games champion in singles and mixed doubles as a 16 year old in Brisbane 2016

https://www.lta.org.uk/news/gb-win-seven-medals-at-inas-world-global-games/

A covid break in 2020-2022

Due to the special status of the Australian Open, Anna was persuaded to play para tennis again at the first AO PWII event in Jan 2023, where she won the singles and women's doubles

https://www.lta.org.uk/fan-zone/australian-open/news/anna-mcbride-among-british-stars-to-make-their-mark-at-the-australian-opens-first-ever-all-abilities-tournaments/

The four-yearly Global Games took place in Vichy, France, in 2023. Anna won the singles and mixed doubles gold and a silver in the team prize

https://www.lta.org.uk/news/great-britains-tennis-team-take-home-four-gold-medals-at-the-2023-virtus-global-games/

Defends gold in the singles and women's doubles at the 2024 AO

https://www.lta.org.uk/fan-zone/australian-open/news/anna-mcbride-and-esah-hayat-lift-titles-at-the-australian-open-pwii-championships-and-dhoh-championships/

Invited to compete at an exhibition tournament at Queens 2024

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/sport/24428080.dunfermline-tennis-star-anna-mcbride-plays-londons-queens-club/

https://x.com/jamie_murray/status/1804930279053697090

World championships in Annecy, France. Gold in the singles and mixed doubles. Bronze in the women's doubles and team prize

https://www.lta.org.uk/news/virtus-world-tennis-championships-2024-great-britain-pocket-four-gold-medals-in-france/

https://www.virtus.sport/anna-mcbride-battles-for-two-hours-twenty-minutes-to-win-gold-in-womens-ii1-singles

-- Edited by AnnaM on Wednesday 4th of December 2024 11:13:13 PM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Wildcard nominations and reason:

1 - Heather Watson - most nominated player for the player of the month who hasnt qualified - 7 times - and also won our favourite British player vote back in Feb. She must have done well this season to get so many nominations and be so popular! Seriously, she won a W50 title in Nottingham this season and is also our third best ranked doubles player

2 - Paul Jubb - without having any really spectacular performances apart from reaching the semi final of the Mallorca ATP250, Paul has nevertheless consistently performed well over the year and raised his ranking from 793 at the end of last year to a career high of 180 by the end of November.

3 - Jodie Burrage - for sensibly entering end of season lower level tournaments after a long injury break and saving her PR for 2025. In doing so she has reached SFs at W35 and W50 level followed by the final of the W75 in Trnava thereby taking her ranking back into the top 250. Before injury struck, Jodie made the QF of a WTA 500 in early season and hit a CH of 85 before a season of great promise was derailed. She has come back well

4 - Emily Appleton - for winning 5 doubles titles at at least W75 level ( 4 W75s & a WTA 125 ) with 5 different partners and entering the doubles top 100. Also in July reached a singles CH 348

5 - Madeleine Brooks - for having a breakout year, winning 4 titles during 2024 (a W50 and 3 W75s) with three different partners. Before this year, Madeleine had only reached (and lost) two finals at W25 level. Apart from winning those titles, she's consistently gone deep in other tournaments, reaching the final on 4 further occasions. As a result, she's raised her ranking from 287 at the end of 2023 to her current CH of 127.

6 - Johannus Monday - moving from a strong college career, JoMo really hit the pro ranks hard this summer and ended up taking 4 ITF M25 titles on US Hardcourts, backed up with 2 M25 doubles titles and a Challenger doubles title at Knoxville. Over the year, he has improved his ranking from 724 to a high of 369 this year and is one of our men players to watch in 2025

7 - Anna McBride - despite injury and illness issues throughout the year, para tennis player Anna managed some great results, including defending her singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open and later in the year becoming World Champion at the championships in France. Even when recovering from injury and (thanks to incompetence by the LTA) relatively unprepared, she showed her fighting spirit by playing competitively against much better prepared opponents. (I'd also like to acknowledge how much we owe to Anna's father for posting updates here and patiently explaining the ins and outs of para tennis to us. It's been a great addition to this place.)

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27 days left and 13 places available still - dont miss out if you have someone youd like to put forward!

Tanaqui · Club Coach

Hi, Anna's Dad! In the nomination, I was actually referring to the Queen's exhibition matches where the LTA was, to be kind, extremely unhelpful about providing necessary information and support until the last minute. Which was a bit of a contrast to the excellent support the Australian players had received in terms of being given time to acclimiatise and practice in the UK before the event.

I am very sorry to hear about what happened with Anna when she was 14 that's appalling and it's a testament to what a remarkable person and player Anna is (and the support you and the rest of the family have provided) that's she's since become such an outstanding champion.