2024 Player of the Season Wild Card Nominations

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

RE: 2024 Player of the Season Wild Card Nominations

AnnaM · Junior player

Tanaqui wrote:
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.

Hi Tanaqui,

Thank you for your kind comments.

You are certainly right about Queens. The pre-tournament information and planning for Queens were not great for us, but quite rightly, but in contrast, they did roll the red carpet out for the Australian team. We thought that an equality of treatment pre-tournament would have been more appropriate. Once at Queens we were looked after and provided with an excellent support person. Jamie Murray was also nice and made an effort to make us feel comfortable.

Adversity often makes you fight harder!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

AnnaM wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
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.
Hi Tanaqui,
Thank you for your kind comments.
You are certainly right about Queens. The pre-tournament information and planning for Queens were not great for us, but quite rightly, but in contrast, they did roll the red carpet out for the Australian team. We thought that an equality of treatment pre-tournament would have been more appropriate. Once at Queens we were looked after and provided with an excellent support person. Jamie Murray was also nice and made an effort to make us feel comfortable.
Adversity often makes you fight harder!

I dont know if it will change how the para tennis aligns with Queens but, of course, Laura Robson is the TD for the WTA event which is the week before the mens ATP event - would Anna and her colleagues end up being aligned with Laura and the womens event, do you think? Or maybe over middle weekend?

AnnaM · Junior player

JonH comes home wrote:
AnnaM wrote:
Tanaqui wrote:
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.
Hi Tanaqui,
Thank you for your kind comments.
You are certainly right about Queens. The pre-tournament information and planning for Queens were not great for us, but quite rightly, but in contrast, they did roll the red carpet out for the Australian team. We thought that an equality of treatment pre-tournament would have been more appropriate. Once at Queens we were looked after and provided with an excellent support person. Jamie Murray was also nice and made an effort to make us feel comfortable.
Adversity often makes you fight harder!
I dont know if it will change how the para tennis aligns with Queens but, of course, Laura Robson is the TD for the WTA event which is the week before the mens ATP event - would Anna and her colleagues end up being aligned with Laura and the womens event, do you think? Or maybe over middle weekend?

Lol, my experience is that the LTA leaves everything to the very last minute. Hotels and travel are booked at two to three times the cost available to those who plan and book early. I do not expect to hear anything about Queens until June next year. There is no certainty that they will even run an event or even if Anna will be invited. Sandy P (LTA) was shocked to see a woman perform so well in the last doubles match, so fingers crossed.

I would guess the timings would remain the same, as it is easier to manage matches and space in the player's lounge at the end of the event. I expect a high demand for practice courts in the middle Sunday.

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.)

8 - Emile Hudd - Has made great strides again this year, in singles rising from around 900 to the edge of the top 500; and winning 4 ITF titles in the doubles. In singles he has notched up a 60 percent win loss record in the process, playing in a lot of far flung places to amass the points.
9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I only have one more nomination I will make, and will do it tomorrow. It is going to still leave 11 places up for grabs - I am sure Tanaqui has one or two up her sleeve, but anyone else (and thanks to Indiana and SuperT for their nominations!), please feel free to fill the void by nominating - anyone can do it, feel free to put a name forwards.

Juniors - none in here yet, am sure there is a junior out there deserving?

College - loads of great college play this year (narrated by Lambda so well), maybe one of those players stood out in May or in the Fall action?

ATP/WTA - captured many of those but anyone else come to mind who we are dissing by missing?

Team - several of our teams got on the monthly votes, did any of them stand out or do it more than once and deserve to get on the seasons vote?

Wheelchair - a few players are in but with Paralympics this year, did anyone else stand out?

Para - we have Anna in the list but dont know too much about the others, but did any of those deserve a call out for a season well done?

Max is 20 nominations on the list and it would be great to almost fill them up, if we can - if we don't the list we do end up with will be fine also!!

the addict · Tennis legend

I've looked through the women's lists and most of our top ten singles and doubles are already included one way or another.
The one's I would consider as having some decent runs are Amelia Rajecki, Harriet Dart, Maia Lumsden, Freya Christie and Mingge Xu (Mimi) - I haven't checked to see what they did in POM polls.
I'm not going to put them forward myself though wink

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
I've looked through the women's lists and most of our top ten singles and doubles are already included one way or another.
The one's I would consider as having some decent runs are Amelia Rajecki, Harriet Dart, Maia Lumsden, Freya Christie and Mingge Xu (Mimi) - I haven't checked to see what they did in POM polls.
I'm not going to put them forward myself though

Thanks TA, no worries, I have one of those mentioned as my last and final nominee in the pipeline!

Note, they dont need to have done well in PoM votes - in fact, those who do well in POM votes are those already included, generally. The ones I fear we miss are those who had a good overall season but didn't have that one outstanding month where they shone above all the rest. Whether the 5 you mention, who knows, folks can vote on it if people put them forward!!

Tanaqui · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
I only have one more nomination I will make, and will do it tomorrow. It is going to still leave 11 places up for grabs - I am sure Tanaqui has one or two up her sleeve, but anyone else (and thanks to Indiana and SuperT for their nominations!), please feel free to fill the void by nominating - anyone can do it, feel free to put a name forwards.

Juniors - none in here yet, am sure there is a junior out there deserving?

College - loads of great college play this year (narrated by Lambda so well), maybe one of those players stood out in May or in the Fall action?

ATP/WTA - captured many of those but anyone else come to mind who we are dissing by missing?

Team - several of our teams got on the monthly votes, did any of them stand out or do it more than once and deserve to get on the seasons vote?

Wheelchair - a few players are in but with Paralympics this year, did anyone else stand out?

Para - we have Anna in the list but dont know too much about the others, but did any of those deserve a call out for a season well done?

Max is 20 nominations on the list and it would be great to almost fill them up, if we can - if we don't the list we do end up with will be fine also!!

Hahaha, I thought I was done and then your list above made me go... hmmm.... biggrin

Will need to do some research, though, so I'll wait and see who you nominate tomorrow.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
I only have one more nomination I will make, and will do it tomorrow. It is going to still leave 11 places up for grabs - I am sure Tanaqui has one or two up her sleeve, but anyone else (and thanks to Indiana and SuperT for their nominations!), please feel free to fill the void by nominating - anyone can do it, feel free to put a name forwards.

Juniors - none in here yet, am sure there is a junior out there deserving?

College - loads of great college play this year (narrated by Lambda so well), maybe one of those players stood out in May or in the Fall action?

ATP/WTA - captured many of those but anyone else come to mind who we are dissing by missing?

Team - several of our teams got on the monthly votes, did any of them stand out or do it more than once and deserve to get on the seasons vote?

Wheelchair - a few players are in but with Paralympics this year, did anyone else stand out?

Para - we have Anna in the list but dont know too much about the others, but did any of those deserve a call out for a season well done?

Max is 20 nominations on the list and it would be great to almost fill them up, if we can - if we don't the list we do end up with will be fine also!!
Hahaha, I thought I was done and then your list above made me go... hmmm....
Will need to do some research, though, so I'll wait and see who you nominate tomorrow.

It's not all about me though is it. I'll say that a second time, me. Im quite happy to be gazumped !

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Thursday 5th of December 2024 05:35:56 PM

Tanaqui · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:

It's not all about me though is it. I'll say that a second time, me. Im quite happy to be gazumped !

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Thursday 5th of December 2024 05:35:56 PM

If you're planning to nominate one of the specifc names TA mentioned, I have someone elee in mind. So no gazumping involved. biggrin

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Tanaqui wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
It's not all about me though is it. I'll say that a second time, me. Im quite happy to be gazumped !
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Thursday 5th of December 2024 05:35:56 PM
If you're planning to nominate one of the specifc names TA mentioned, I have someone elee in mind. So no gazumping involved.

Go for it! Ill do mine in the morning and , yes, I do plan that.

Lambda · Challenger level

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 which he finished in May as the No 2 ranked man and briefly being ranked No 1 in early May, 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.)

8 - Emile Hudd - Has made great strides again this year, in singles rising from around 900 to the edge of the top 500; and winning 4 ITF titles in the doubles. In singles he has notched up a 60 percent win loss record in the process, playing in a lot of far flung places to amass the points.

9 - Jack Pinnington-Jones - Starting the US College team season in January as TCU's No 2 he stepped up to be their No 1 in early March when Jake was injured, and went 15-2 at No 1. His performances were so impressive that he prevented Jake from regaining being TCU's No 1 when he returned from injury. JPJ went unbeaten in team college play as TCU's No 1 through April and May playing a leading role in helping TCU to be US College National Champions and the No 1 ranked team. He finished the 2024 US College season ranked No 6. Focussing on the pro-game since June he has increased his ranking around 400 places from the 770s to the 370s, taking 1 M25 title and being runner-up in another.

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

-----

Okay Jon, you asked.
I've also taken the liberty to add a little to Johannus's narrative.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thank you on both fronts, Lambda!

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 which he finished in May as the No 2 ranked man and briefly being ranked No 1 in early May, 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.)

8 - Emile Hudd - Has made great strides again this year, in singles rising from around 900 to the edge of the top 500; and winning 4 ITF titles in the doubles. In singles he has notched up a 60 percent win loss record in the process, playing in a lot of far flung places to amass the points.

9 - Jack Pinnington-Jones - Starting the US College team season in January as TCU's No 2 he stepped up to be their No 1 in early March when Jake was injured, and went 15-2 at No 1. His performances were so impressive that he prevented Jake from regaining being TCU's No 1 when he returned from injury. JPJ went unbeaten in team college play as TCU's No 1 through April and May playing a leading role in helping TCU to be US College National Champions and the No 1 ranked team. He finished the 2024 US College season ranked No 6. Focussing on the pro-game since June he has increased his ranking around 400 places from the 770s to the 370s, taking 1 M25 title and being runner-up in another.

10 - Dan Evans - so, Dan had a torrid season, really poor. But he did a couple of amazing things. First he chose not to defend his Washington title and collapsed down the rankings as a result - so he could partner his pal, Andy Murray, in the Olympics. And did he partner Andy as they staved off certain defeat twice and came back to epic wins in reaching the last 8. As if that wasnt enough, Dan arrived in New York facing a winter of challenger events; and in New York, he stayed around, for 5 1/2 hours in the longest ever US Open match in beating Khachanov, a feat recognised today by the ATP as their grand slam comeback of the year. It may have been a bad season for him - but the highlights sure stood out.

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

-----

I chose not to nominate Mimi and have decided to call it a day with Dan- Dan is part of the reason we instigated wild cards because his achievements wouldnt get through a player of the month process; but they still stand out as some of the most memorable of the year. Ill let Mimi find another backer, if there is one out there - Ive done my bit here now!

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Friday 6th of December 2024 12:11:14 AM