British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

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

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Ali v Matt
Millen v AIdan

Ewen v James
Connor v Charles

Giles v Anton
Harry v Kyle

Hamish v Ben
Liam v Stuart

Danny1312 · Intermediate Club Player

Stacked bottom half compared to the top!

pauldepstein · Junior player

JonH comes home wrote:
Two players I thought we might see here are Felix Gill (not sure where he is at generally) and Emile Hudd (not been around for a few months?).

Anyone know their status. Other than that, think all the relevant players are here?

I'm probably the least informed on this forum but, judging from last year alone, I expected to see Viktor Frydrych. He had a fantastic run last year at this event,

beating Hamish Stewart in the first round and taking a set off Stuart Parker (who co-won the event) in the second round.

Danny1312 · Intermediate Club Player

pauldepstein wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Two players I thought we might see here are Felix Gill (not sure where he is at generally) and Emile Hudd (not been around for a few months?).

Anyone know their status. Other than that, think all the relevant players are here?
I'm probably the least informed on this forum but, judging from last year alone, I expected to see Viktor Frydrych. He had a fantastic run last year at this event,
beating Hamish Stewart in the first round and taking a set off Stuart Parker (who co-won the event) in the second round.

Think he's been searching for points and a ranking... but either way there is a lack of junior representation here unlike the ladies, or younger players like Gusic Wan, Frydrych and Robertson even Ceban which is a tad odd when you have Jones or Summers there, but maybe a good reason.

pauldepstein · Junior player

PaulM wrote:
The play-offs have been "no spectators" since their inception, so it's not a thing that revolves around a particular player. You couldn't go along and watch back in the late 90s/early 00s either.

At least we have live scores now. I take small victories.

Despite the official "no spectators" policy being constant, there have been subtle changes. For example, the requirement for competitors to list guests in advance rather than announce them just before their matches is a recent requirement, dating from last year.

Anyway, after being a regular spectator every year, today I was turned away which was tremendously disappointing after a hot and sweaty journey, and somewhat unexpected.

I will keep names out of it but some details are: I emailed mens competitor Mr. X expressing an interest in the event and in meeting him there and being on his guest list.

The idea was that I might be able to help him in his career if he transitions away from tennis (I hope that doesn't give any clues as to who Mr X. is. But please don't out him.)

He said that yes, he was interested in meeting to discuss career choices. But no, his guest list is full and I couldn't be on it.

I phoned him this morning and no one picked up. So I was about to give up, but then he returned my call.

I then became optimistic that he would help me but he said that it's a big event for him and he couldn't deal with any additional stresses to do with helping me out.

I do feel wronged by Mr. X -- spending several hours and £50 quid on a wasted trip isn't a particularly trivial matter -- because he did express interest in me talking to him about his career,

helping me would have taken a few minutes and his match was at least an hour away.

Paul Epstein

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Danny1312 wrote:
pauldepstein wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Two players I thought we might see here are Felix Gill (not sure where he is at generally) and Emile Hudd (not been around for a few months?).

Anyone know their status. Other than that, think all the relevant players are here?
I'm probably the least informed on this forum but, judging from last year alone, I expected to see Viktor Frydrych. He had a fantastic run last year at this event,
beating Hamish Stewart in the first round and taking a set off Stuart Parker (who co-won the event) in the second round.
Think he's been searching for points and a ranking... but either way there is a lack of junior representation here unlike the ladies, or younger players like Gusic Wan, Frydrych and Robertson even Ceban which is a tad odd when you have Jones or Summers there, but maybe a good reason.

11 of the 16 places, I think, are straight from rankings, plus Worthing winner and NCAA rep. So little room for juniors in the way theyve constructed the field

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

PQR1: (pq1) Alastair Gray WR 371 defeated Matthew Summers WR 767 by 1 & 2

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Danny1312 wrote:
pauldepstein wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Two players I thought we might see here are Felix Gill (not sure where he is at generally) and Emile Hudd (not been around for a few months?).

Anyone know their status. Other than that, think all the relevant players are here?
I'm probably the least informed on this forum but, judging from last year alone, I expected to see Viktor Frydrych. He had a fantastic run last year at this event,
beating Hamish Stewart in the first round and taking a set off Stuart Parker (who co-won the event) in the second round.
Think he's been searching for points and a ranking... but either way there is a lack of junior representation here unlike the ladies, or younger players like Gusic Wan, Frydrych and Robertson even Ceban which is a tad odd when you have Jones or Summers there, but maybe a good reason.

The reason there's no youngsters in the men is because there's only 1 actual discretionary wildcard

Only 1

(There's only 3 wildcards in total and one goes to a college player and one goes to the winner of West Worthing)

The other 13 places are directly from rankings

BUT the question you're sort of asking is WHY there's only one discretionary wildcard (and no junior one)

In the women, there's two cards specifically for juniors, and two discretionary ones (as well as college and W. Worthing)

Last year, the men's was like the women's

This year they've pared it right back

So they must have thought that the ranked players had a better chance, that it wasn't fair to them, that junior boys don't have the same level as junior girls (vis-a-vis the adult players) etc etc

Danny1312 · Intermediate Club Player

That's good to know, I do kind of understand that there are more men in the top 500 ect but I'd expect a few might have better chances than Jones, Summers ect but hey ho I guess it's telling the youngsters to improve for there chance.

pauldepstein · Junior player

Coup Droit wrote:
Danny1312 wrote:
pauldepstein wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Two players I thought we might see here are Felix Gill (not sure where he is at generally) and Emile Hudd (not been around for a few months?).

Anyone know their status. Other than that, think all the relevant players are here?
I'm probably the least informed on this forum but, judging from last year alone, I expected to see Viktor Frydrych. He had a fantastic run last year at this event,
beating Hamish Stewart in the first round and taking a set off Stuart Parker (who co-won the event) in the second round.
Think he's been searching for points and a ranking... but either way there is a lack of junior representation here unlike the ladies, or younger players like Gusic Wan, Frydrych and Robertson even Ceban which is a tad odd when you have Jones or Summers there, but maybe a good reason.
The reason there's no youngsters in the men is because there's only 1 actual discretionary wildcard
Only 1
(There's only 3 wildcards in total and one goes to a college player and one goes to the winner of West Worthing)
The other 13 places are directly from rankings
...
I would have thought two discretionary wildcards in this case because James Story won West Worthing and surely his ranking would have qualified him anyway.
Or is it that a wildcard goes to the best West Worthing performer who didn't qualify by other means?

Lambda · ATP level

The only WC was the NCAA WC to Connor Thomson. The discretionary WC and the West Worthing WC were not used and reverted to direct acceptance places.

Lambda · ATP level

Looks like Lui Maxted and Charlie Swaine were among those to sign in. Could have given those WCs to them. Juniors are notably absent from the sign in list to give a WC to.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
Looks like Lui Maxted and Charlie Swaine were among those to sign in. Could have given those WCs to them. Juniors are notably absent from the sign in list to give a WC to.

I know you are a good sleuth, Lambda, but how on earth do you find a sign in list? Where are those stored - and could you link it on here?!

Thanks!!

Lambda · ATP level

JonH comes home wrote:
Lambda wrote:
Looks like Lui Maxted and Charlie Swaine were among those to sign in. Could have given those WCs to them. Juniors are notably absent from the sign in list to give a WC to.
I know you are a good sleuth, Lambda, but how on earth do you find a sign in list? Where are those stored - and could you link it on here?!

Thanks!!

I'm taking what is in the events tab to be the entry/sign in list.
https://competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/event.aspx?id=CEFC8705-6850-43B4-8466-2950C078CD9F&event=1