Queue of girls on the Notingham alternates list headed by the next 8 after Heather in the GB rankings ( excl Cav ) - i.e. Katie, Laura ( still also I presume down for French Juniors ), Emily, Mel, Naomi B, Lisa, Tara and Fitzy. WCs sought here too please.
Tomic only seems to enter events where he gets wild-cards. Shocking attitude on court, no one seems to have a good word to say about him...another weird decision
Tomic is a horrible individual, one of these people who believes his own hype. One of my friends out in Australia knew him personally and apparently a year or two ago he put as his facebook status, '$500,000 from Nike Sponsorship and $100,000 in prize money, did anyone else earn more than that? No, didn't think so'. Seems like such an arrogant individual who at the moment has achieved very little in terms of success. As for management companies, he is part of the IMG group which is one of the biggest agencies in world sport, if not the biggest with tennis stars like Federer, Venus Williams and Sharapova on it's books from the tennis scene.
As for his arrogance, i feel that the amount of money he is receiving for basically doing nothing contributes to it, that's probably why the youngsters who are tipped as world-beaters are struggling so much, they get ridiculous amounts of money at an early age so why bother going the extra mile to become a dominant force in men's tennis?
I really hope this is part of some WC swap as otherwise it is a terrible decision as arguably it shows the LTA don't have any faith in our players at Challenger level, let alone ATP level or Wimbledon! Speaking as someone who is going up there next week with my partner I would far rather see the wildcards go to Brits, or, if the LTA are determined to give it to a foreigner then at least make it a big name (ie. someone in the top 80 who has had an earlier than expected exit at the French and wants to get on the grass early, for example Olivier Rochus or similar) and thus adding something to the draw
Have many (or any) of the Brit boys performed well enough at Challenger level to give the LTA faith though? I know it hasn't been a bad year, but a lot of these boys still aren't performing to the standard that was expected of them, and wildcards will still go to one or two.
However, I don't see how getting James or whoever an extra WC into a Aussie tournament is going to help particularly.
Steven has said on his twitter that the LTA have awarded WC's in Nottingham to Dan Evans, Dan Cox, Bernard Tomic and one still to be announced. Probs the right decision, although Ward is the highest ranked he does not deserve one for his current year.
Nope, Wardy got a WC into Sydney which is an ATP 250. Tomic has stated he's playing Halle which falls under the same week as Queen's which would rule him out for WC contention. Which would leave either Eastbourne or Wimbledon for him to get a WC, if it turns out that we get a ATP 250 in exchange for just a challenger then it would seem a good bit of business on paper by the LTA, although it's still early doors and this early bright outlook could quickly diminish!