British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

wales1994 · County player

Weeks 27 & 28 - The Championships, Wimbledon (Womens') (grass) - main draw

telstar · Club Coach

Coup Droit wrote:
telstar wrote:
5 qualifiers won as did 2 Lucky Losers. 0 wild cards won. I have always felt that qualifiers, because of extra confidence and extra grass court practice, have far more chance of winning a round than do wild cards who have just been parachuted into the main draw!
Qualifiers had more chance also
because their rankings were a lot higher
But Coco and Qinwen and Jessica were all parachuted into the main draw as well
And all lost too - to players a lot lower ranked
As did tons of others, despite some having excellent warmup events
And Arthur and Jack PJ and Billy and Evo were all parachuted into the main draw as wildcards and won

Players whose rankings give them a direct place in the main draw are there by right. They work all year to have a place. It is those who are gifted a place that do not deserve to be there. It is those 7 British women who should have been in qualifying- not given £66,000 for a main draw loss!

9vicman · Futures qualifying

telstar wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
telstar wrote:
5 qualifiers won as did 2 Lucky Losers. 0 wild cards won. I have always felt that qualifiers, because of extra confidence and extra grass court practice, have far more chance of winning a round than do wild cards who have just been parachuted into the main draw!
Qualifiers had more chance also
because their rankings were a lot higher
But Coco and Qinwen and Jessica were all parachuted into the main draw as well
And all lost too - to players a lot lower ranked
As did tons of others, despite some having excellent warmup events
And Arthur and Jack PJ and Billy and Evo were all parachuted into the main draw as wildcards and won

Players whose rankings give them a direct place in the main draw are there by right. They work all year to have a place. It is those who are gifted a place that do not deserve to be there. It is those 7 British women who should have been in qualifying- not given £66,000 for a main draw loss!

Do you think Kvitova didn't deserve to be there either? Is it just British wild cards or wild cards in general that you object to? And if the wild cards had all won, would they have still not deserved to be there? And some of the British players would have needed wild cards to get into qualifying, so presumably they wouldn't have deserved those either.

-- Edited by 9vicman on Tuesday 1st of July 2025 10:44:48 PM

telstar · Club Coach

9vicman wrote:
telstar wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
telstar wrote:
5 qualifiers won as did 2 Lucky Losers. 0 wild cards won. I have always felt that qualifiers, because of extra confidence and extra grass court practice, have far more chance of winning a round than do wild cards who have just been parachuted into the main draw!
Qualifiers had more chance also
because their rankings were a lot higher
But Coco and Qinwen and Jessica were all parachuted into the main draw as well
And all lost too - to players a lot lower ranked
As did tons of others, despite some having excellent warmup events
And Arthur and Jack PJ and Billy and Evo were all parachuted into the main draw as wildcards and won

Players whose rankings give them a direct place in the main draw are there by right. They work all year to have a place. It is those who are gifted a place that do not deserve to be there. It is those 7 British women who should have been in qualifying- not given £66,000 for a main draw loss!
Do you think Kvitova didn't deserve to be there either? Is it just British wild cards or wild cards in general that you object to? And if the wild cards had all won, would they have still not deserved to be there? And some of the British players would have needed wild cards to get into qualifying, so presumably they wouldn't have deserved those either.

-- Edited by 9vicman on Tuesday 1st of July 2025 10:44:48 PM

I am not a fan of wild cards per se. If there have to be some then there should be a demonstrable means of qualfying for them. There could be a British-only qualifying system with the current wild card qualifying system as a Tier 3 moving into a Tier 2 held at Roehampton parallel to the current qualis. In addition there could be a points system for British players' performances in the pre-Wimbledon grass courts events. Players who come through to the main draw would feel a sense of achievement and would have had grass court practice!

indiana · Tennis legend

Just because it's been raised and I've not said it this year ( or last I believe ) - NO to Slam MD WCs, OK with Slam Qualy WCs - for reasons I have in the past argued with some folk at length and don't wish to repeat the nuances from my point of view / go round in circles again - other than at the heart of it I don't think players should be 'given' places in our greatest tournaments.

But we are are where we are, it is accepted all the Slams have them ( and I don't see that changing ) so pragmatically I don't expect Wimbledon to be unilaterally different, but to make use of them as best it can for GB tennis.

So yep, I end up joining in as to who should and should not get them even though I don't think they should really exist for Slam MDs.

thegingerlightbulb · Intermediate Club Player

Well of course Goran might think differently about the Wildcard process. Over the years we have seen some wonderful matches (some wins, some heroic losses) involving British wildcards. There have also been some terrible examples such as Jo Pullin losing 9 straight matches as a wildcard, or certain British females losing 6-0 6-0. I was recently going through archived results from Wimbledon from about 1984 to 1992 (when memories of Wimbledon become more crystalised) and boy did we suck as a nation at tennis in those years for the most part. On the men's side there was a five year period where I don't think a single player got to the third round let along the second week!

Lambda · ATP level

I don't usually wade into this whole for or against wild card debate because I have taken the view it is what it is and I think Wimbledon wild cards have been relatively fair when compared to other tournaments. But the awarding of 15 of 17 women's wild cards to British players this year is farcical.

I'm not opposed to wild cards for slams. There is a case, I think, for having a route for worthy players to get into the main draw or qualifying that may not have had the opportunity to accumulate the ranking points needed to get in directly, for example a strong junior, graduating college player or someone who persevered with development which is starting to pay off with a recent upturn in form.

But I do think there are too many wild cards and I am strongly opposed to the domestication of wild cards at slams which is grossly unfair and, for the other slams, the whole reciprocal thing. I'd be happy with at most 5 wild cards for slams. I would cut qualifying wild cards down to 4 earned wild cards. 9 is a joke. They should go to players in their region and affiliate region (regions without a slam) who have earned a place through a play-off, mini race or other fair transparent manner. Every player in every region should have the same opportunity for at least 1 slam wild card in a tour year. There's an argument slams should be owned by, or at least affiliated to, the regions and not owned by national associations or private clubs

I think what the AELTC has done for wild cards in the past has been the right approach - award some to "home" players, some to winners of grass events, 1 or 2 to names and don't award a wild card just for the sake of it. The direction that the new referee and management have gone in the last couple of years since coming in is a travesty. In my view theyve demeaned the AELTC and the tournament with awarding 15 of 17 wild cards to British players. Maybe that's why I haven't taken any interest in it this year.

The argument that wild cards are to award to players to attract media attention or generate ticket sales doesn't hold for slams. They'll sell tickets and get media coverage regardless. Wild cards could be there for players returning from injury or parental leave or the protected ranking rules could be changed to allow a player to enter any draw of a slam they would have got into had they not being out of the game (rather than the limit of 2 now).

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

thegingerlightbulb wrote:
Well of course Goran might think differently about the Wildcard process. Over the years we have seen some wonderful matches (some wins, some heroic losses) involving British wildcards. There have also been some terrible examples such as Jo Pullin losing 9 straight matches as a wildcard, or certain British females losing 6-0 6-0. I was recently going through archived results from Wimbledon from about 1984 to 1992 (when memories of Wimbledon become more crystalised) and boy did we suck as a nation at tennis in those years for the most part. On the men's side there was a five year period where I don't think a single player got to the third round let along the second week!

It is Julie Pullin not Jo.

9vicman · Futures qualifying

Interesting comments by everyone on wild cards - and thanks to Telstar for his direct response to my questions.

I think Wimbledon/LTA have gone round in circles on how to handle wild cards. Back in the 80s, they had Wimbledon main draw wild card play-offs. I remember one year it really backfired when two almost retire players (Glynis Coles, and current referee Denise Parnell) beat all the top juniors to earn their spots. That said, Glynis almost beat Carling Bassett in the first round.

Then we had the years of strict guidelines (Top 250 player, etc) so that players really had to 'earn' their wild cards. This led to lower British participation, but it also coincided with Britain's worst period rankings wise (British No. 1 ranked woman being around No. 200) so difficult to compare with applying the same criteria now.

Wild cards are inherently unfair - and don't pretend to be otherwise. That said, while I can see the argument for not having them or distributing to players around the world (eg developing nations), selfishly can't help loving having lots of Brits in the draw and getting excited when any win.

9vicman · Futures qualifying

Jajon wrote:
Do not want to dunk on her too hard but that genuinely dreadful from Jodie. First British wildcard who was below expectations I guess? Good luck fran!

I just read that Jodie rolled her ankle coming out of the media centre the other day, which explains her lacklustre performance, and I now feel slightly guilty for judging her performance without watching a ball. That poor girl can't catch a break.