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pauldepstein · Junior player

Week 25 - LTA Wimbledon wild card play-offs (pre-qualifying)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

LTA Wildcard playoffs

pauldepstein · Junior player

Thanks, Coup Droit. Just a clarifying note on Dan Cox's 2023 performance.
You say that he qualified which he did but he qualifed for the Qualifying event, not the main draw.
In Wimbledon Qualifying June 2023, Dan Cox lost in the first round to Federico Gaio, but the match was extremely close.

The LTA Wildcard-playoff winners all have much lower rankings than most others in the qualifying tournament, so they
usually lose in Q1, but there are plenty of exceptions, and that year Dan Cox was nearly an exception.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, of course biggrin biggrin biggrin

But the title was wildcard playoffs so, yes, naturally it only qualifies for the qualifiers smile

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Sunday 15th of June 2025 02:27:12 PM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Biggest question for me is, do we think there is a chance the LTA will provide better access to a draw and scores this time? Surely no reason they couldn't do from a tech perspective, posting a live scores feed can't be difficult in this day and age. They have , for some reason, created a secrecy around this in the past that, to me, makes no sense.

Is there any chance they will be more open and communicative this time around - at the very least posting the scores at the end of each round or as matches finish, as opposed to word of mouth from the one journalist allowed in to watch proceedings?!

I think I know the answer but hoping someone will say it is all going to be different this year!!!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

For the junior watchers, I'm expecting Megan Knight and Hollie Smart to have wildcards into this. And Brooke. And Tegan. And probably Flora.

Expecting Dani Piani to have qualis wildcard directly but if she doesn't then she will of course too

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I wondered if SC or Indiana or someone could tidy the title of this up and make it the tournament thread ( for the men, presume there needs to be one for the women separately?) assuming we have a tournie thread for this to record scores etc?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

pauldepstein wrote:
Thanks, Coup Droit. Just a clarifying note on Dan Cox's 2023 performance.
You say that he qualified which he did but he qualifed for the Qualifying event, not the main draw.
In Wimbledon Qualifying June 2023, Dan Cox lost in the first round to Federico Gaio, but the match was extremely close.

The LTA Wildcard-playoff winners all have much lower rankings than most others in the qualifying tournament, so they
usually lose in Q1, but there are plenty of exceptions, and that year Dan Cox was nearly an exception.

I havent really followed or kept a memory of this over the years, is there much history of anyone from the wild card play offs actually getting through to the main Wimbledon draw? Marcus of course? Anyone else, men or women?

feels like this is v much like the FA Cup qualifying rounds - folks very interested but everyone knows its almost certain they will all be out come the main tournament!

the addict · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
I wondered if SC or Indiana or someone could tidy the title of this up and make it the tournament thread ( for the men, presume there needs to be one for the women separately?) assuming we have a tournie thread for this to record scores etc?

I'll do a tournament thread for the women tomorrow, once the main wildcards are announced and we have a better idea of who will be playing. There's already threads for speculation wink

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
pauldepstein wrote:
Thanks, Coup Droit. Just a clarifying note on Dan Cox's 2023 performance.
You say that he qualified which he did but he qualifed for the Qualifying event, not the main draw.
In Wimbledon Qualifying June 2023, Dan Cox lost in the first round to Federico Gaio, but the match was extremely close.

The LTA Wildcard-playoff winners all have much lower rankings than most others in the qualifying tournament, so they
usually lose in Q1, but there are plenty of exceptions, and that year Dan Cox was nearly an exception.
I havent really followed or kept a memory of this over the years, is there much history of anyone from the wild card play offs actually getting through to the main Wimbledon draw? Marcus of course? Anyone else, men or women?

feels like this is v much like the FA Cup qualifying rounds - folks very interested but everyone knows its almost certain they will all be out come the main tournament!

But no wildcards get through to the main draw

(Or hardly any)

So it's not really fair to dismiss the wildcard playoff qualifiers for not getting through when none of the others do either

None of the wildcards (from playoffs or other) are expected to win even a single match - that's the point of rankings

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
pauldepstein wrote:
Thanks, Coup Droit. Just a clarifying note on Dan Cox's 2023 performance.
You say that he qualified which he did but he qualifed for the Qualifying event, not the main draw.
In Wimbledon Qualifying June 2023, Dan Cox lost in the first round to Federico Gaio, but the match was extremely close.

The LTA Wildcard-playoff winners all have much lower rankings than most others in the qualifying tournament, so they
usually lose in Q1, but there are plenty of exceptions, and that year Dan Cox was nearly an exception.
I havent really followed or kept a memory of this over the years, is there much history of anyone from the wild card play offs actually getting through to the main Wimbledon draw? Marcus of course? Anyone else, men or women?

feels like this is v much like the FA Cup qualifying rounds - folks very interested but everyone knows its almost certain they will all be out come the main tournament!
But no wildcards get through to the main draw
(Or hardly any)
So it's not really fair to dismiss the wildcard playoff qualifiers for not getting through when none of the others do either
None of the wildcards (from playoffs or other) are expected to win even a single match - that's the point of rankings

Absolutely - I agree. And I think they are great. If it was me, Id have a whole road to Wimbledon process before these starting in January with some play ins. Let the 6 wildcards or whatever come from pre qualifiers held at various points of the year or whatever.

so dont disagree, was really just musing

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

JonH comes home wrote:
Biggest question for me is, do we think there is a chance the LTA will provide better access to a draw and scores this time? Surely no reason they couldn't do from a tech perspective, posting a live scores feed can't be difficult in this day and age. They have , for some reason, created a secrecy around this in the past that, to me, makes no sense.

Is there any chance they will be more open and communicative this time around - at the very least posting the scores at the end of each round or as matches finish, as opposed to word of mouth from the one journalist allowed in to watch proceedings?!

I think I know the answer but hoping someone will say it is all going to be different this year!!!

I'm not bothered about live scores but basically agree with you. Every year it is a task to find out the scores, even on here some people will just name the winners without the score. I gave up with the LTA site a few years ago it was terrible to navigate etc.
Let's hope something better is done this year.

wolf · Tennis legend

They have provided live scores for a few years now have they not?

Chris Eaton won through qualifying and a round in the main draw after going through the play offs, although he actually lost in the last round of the play offs but got a reprieve like they sometimes do.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

RE: Week 25 - LTA Wimbledon wild card play-offs (pre-qualifying)

pauldepstein · Junior player

JonH comes home wrote:
Biggest question for me is, do we think there is a chance the LTA will provide better access to a draw and scores this time? Surely no reason they couldn't do from a tech perspective, posting a live scores feed can't be difficult in this day and age. They have , for some reason, created a secrecy around this in the past that, to me, makes no sense.

Is there any chance they will be more open and communicative this time around - at the very least posting the scores at the end of each round or as matches finish, as opposed to word of mouth from the one journalist allowed in to watch proceedings?!

I think I know the answer but hoping someone will say it is all going to be different this year!!!

The "secrecy" does make sense to me. There are several considerations. One is that there is a no-spectators policy. However, suppose a person shows up at reception and asks to see the play. Does Security really want to create bad feeling and argument by being firm and send people back home? (Spoiler alert -- no, people try to be kind and accommodate others). Now, given this no-spectator policy (which is prominently displayed in the pdf), does it make sense to create more pressure for spectator demand by releasing live scores? No. Of course, this leads to the question of why there is a no-spectator policy. I can only speculate about this. Clearly accommodating spectators would demand a lot of work and resources, and the decision seems to be made that these resources are better spent on the main Wimbledon events.

Also, if there was a live feed, bookmakers would definitely want to offer bets and would want their reps to have access to the events, and this could create separate issues.

With regard to the no-spectator policy, I do recall one year where a player had an unusually large number of guests who were very voluble (but not during rallies, only when points were over). I think the tournament officials reacted adversely but I don't have details about the controversy (if there was any). Of course, I won't reveal the player's name on a public forum. However, the upshot is that this probably made them even more determined to limit the spectators.

In short, a no-spectator policy is bound to result in secrecy. So the real question would seem to be: "Why are live spectators not allowed?" and I have attempted to suggest some answers.