Ratty, I look at the progress of American Soccer, I know we are talking about a different sport in a different country, but in the 1970s a decision was made to bring foreign names into American Soccer while at the same time maintaining sub-par American Soccer players too. Yes, the foreign stars brought a great deal of interest into a sport which hardly anyone followed before, but at the same time the dream remained that an American soccer player could hope to play with a Pele or a Hudson etc and it was an inspiration to young American soccer players. Even though the league collapsed due to some horrible management, soccer was changed to such an extent that we had the World Cup in 1994, an amazing 1998 World Cup, MLS and even American players playing in European Leagues. Soccer is played all over this great nation now as never before....a 1000 kids in tiny little Bozeman, MT played soccer during the recent Spring league.

My point is this, for the future of the British game I feel that the nation needs to see British players on the same stage as foreign names, competing to pass that vision/hope on for British children. How many sports do you follow that dont have competitive Brits playing? Now there have been players who have fallen on their faces, but I think staff the LTA have put together recently is amazing, now they need the kids playing, but why would you play and dream without seeing players from your country on the largest stage? I know many wild cards have been the subject of ridicule by the press, but there have been amazing performances as a result of those wild cards too. I think of Bally, if only she had kept her health, even Cowans moment in the sun, Naomi this week at the DFS.

I know Wild Cards have been given out to many British prospects in the past, but I have not seen a time when the LTA have put together an infrastructure like now to be prepared to work with prospects, which leads me to hope that the Wild Cards continue.

Amanda, Anne and Kate are among the best British players we have at this time, and even though Katie has lost three wild cards, in straight sets, she has competed with the likes of Clijsters at Wimbledon, giving her pay checks to encourage to keep the dream alive and also keep her in front of the British public. I think more than anything the "diehard fanatic fans on this board" want British kids playing tennis with the dreams of playing Wimbledon and hopefully one day being good enough to be coached by this amazing staff that the LTA has put together. Giving Wild Cards to relatively unknown foreign players does not achieve this. We are not talking about a female Goran here or even a Flip, that is my frustration.

Also who cares about the press anyway? They will say or do anything that will sell papers. They built Henman up when it was novel and have since spent years tearing him down when over here he is respected and looked up to for over achieving during his career while under immense pressure.

Happycynic wrote:

---

Tara is too soon for a WC, much as I think she has a future. And Anna P can hold her own up there I think.

---

 No, of course not. I don't want Tara to get a main draw wild card.

And speaking of Tara, I wonder if she'll get one for qualies...

I'm sure that Pavlyuchenkova can beat quite a few people in the top 100, but the fact remains that she is just 15 and thus obviously incapable of producing her best tennis week in and out. She probably has no better chance of winning a round than Katie or Borwell.


Anyone know how many withdrawals are needed before Caro gets a direct entry?