British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

It was very interesting to read Indiana and Coup's posts on Hannah.

i can't help wondering though, how much of a pro or anti Hannah camp there will be on the committee that decides the wildcards for the main draw - my own take is that the wildcards for the Main Draw are hugely significant, but for the qualifying, they are almost a red herring, as so few players ever qualify for the main draw, if given a qualifying wildcard.

No-one knows the membership of the committee deciding the wildcards, and the only rules appear to be that there are no rules - they decide on who they want and that is it - the only things that have been consistently said over the years are that the selections are to help British tennis and increase spectator interest in the event - hence how for instance Venus or Serena Williams (spectator intesrest) could get a wildcard along with the Brits, but how a talented foreign player who has been rising up the rankings, but falls just short of the cut off would probably be overlooked.

Given those caveats regarding selection, I wonder whether they will simply look at Hannah and decide she hasn't made enough progress from a year ago, and therefore give her a qualifying wildcard.

Right now, I feel Fran (if she needs one) and Harriet because of her ranking are nailed on certs, and I think Mimi and Mika are almost sure to get one too - which makes 4 places sealed, for me.

After that it feels quite close - I think Alicia results have been very encouraging and that she has doen well enough to be ahead of Hannah for a place, and I think the results of Katie S will be monitored in the next few weeks, and if Jodie is playing andd winning, then maybe she could sneak a place, but it feels unlikely at this stage. I don't feel anyone else is in realistic contention for a main draw wildcard; Heather, Lily, Amelia and Rannah are a little too far away I think, though Heather could perhaps get one if others don't do enough, or if there aren't any obvious foreign wildcards given.

I hope there isn't a huge politics involving Hannah and that the decision is simply based on the rational decision of whether her career has progressed enough to deserve a main draw wildcard. Maybe Alicia, Hannah and Katie S could all end up getting wildcards - which I don't think would be a terrible outcome.

Agree re Venus

Andy P says Mimi is a cert - but it really does depend, obviously, on her fitness - she's played zero competitive tennis for months - but is down to play again in the next couple of weeks - so huge fingers crossed

Those who play BJK get a certain priority, I think (and fair enough) - but that just confirms Mika and Harriet, who aren't in question.
And Jodie if (big if) she can play singles - she's withdrawn from all the events so far coming up in May - otherwise both women's and mixed doubles seem a good choice
And Hev - who I think is a good shout for a MD card - there's a lot of goodwill for Hev, I think, and the crowd do like her

Mia Pohankova won Wimbledon Juniors last year - that'll give her a wildcard into qualis, I think, (assuming she still needs it - she's 350 or so at the moment) - she's not good enough or high profile enough to get a MD one.

I'd imagined that Meg Knight would be on the cards for a quali one this year (like Hannah/Mika were at the same age) but that doesn't seem to be happening and Dani Britton has got her wildcard sewn up, so that's the 'youngster' one done and dusted.

Although Andy is right about the committee's secrecy, the AELTC are definitely very swayed by the LTA's recommendations - I remember overhearing Bates talking about it at length about 10 years ago (I wasn't eavesdropping but if he chooses to talk about such things when I happen to already be standing there, I'm not moving away ). (He was really bitchy about Sam Murray, I remember, too (but even got her age wrong !) - one of my gripes I'll take to the grave )

The grass events will play a big part (and obviously RG etc) - both for our girls and any other who makes waves in the next two months

And there are old faves like Pliskova (previous finalist) who are suddenly playing well 

 

Just to add, Pliskova is up to WR129 in live rankings and a good run in Rome might put her into the main draw directly (but it would have to be a really good run !)

Brendan F wrote:

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the addict wrote:

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Just to add, Pliskova is up to WR129 in live rankings and a good run in Rome might put her into the main draw directly (but it would have to be a really good run !)

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 Wouldn't she have an SR anyway?

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 I believe she used SR to get into the AO this year, so yes I think you are right.

dodrade wrote:

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Last year a deliberate decision was made to give Hannah, Mika and Mimi wildcards each so none would be singled out. I expect they will take the same approach again this year Hannah's recent dip in form notwithstanding.

I would certainly give Alicia a WC ahead of say, Venus Williams who hasn't had a singles win since July.

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The difference this year is Hannah is singling herself out with her lack of form. She should have 6 weeks to show a fair bit more than she has tecently.

By the way, if there's a lot of politics fairly knowingly going on with different favourites, Scott Lloyd, the LTA CEO should be getting on top of that.

dodrade wrote:

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Last year a deliberate decision was made to give Hannah, Mika and Mimi wildcards each so none would be singled out. I expect they will take the same approach again this year Hannah's recent dip in form notwithstanding.

I would certainly give Alicia a WC ahead of say, Venus Williams who hasn't had a singles win since July.

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 Venus will bring in people. Alicia unlikely would unless she was playing a big name. 

 

Not saying its right but.