British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

emmsie69 · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Week 45 - ATP Challenger 75 - Matsuyama, Japan (hard)

Jonny D · Improver

Alex, I think he's on 223 points already for both French Open and Wimbledon qualies, so he'd only need 30-40 points to get in ........ if he stays fit he'll almost certainly make it

alex03maccy · All-time great

Jonny D wrote:
Alex, I think he's on 223 points already for both French Open and Wimbledon qualies, so he'd only need 30-40 points to get in ........ if he stays fit he'll almost certainly make it

Thank you, Jonny D! That should be doable. He had a miserable run last spring so a big opportunity for points there. He has already made circa $450k this year so another year or two of that would be fantastic. I, too, thought it was the beginning of the end before this week. Keep on surprising Billy!

indiana · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
alex03maccy wrote:
Wow - well done Billy! I know it is a while off, but does anyone know if he is already not too far off guaranteeing FO Qs? 2026 has not been a great year, so a really good opportunity in 2027 for him to maintain his GS Q level.
Last year he and others transitioned to clay in preparation for the French Open and it cost them. For 2027 I'd like to see them just stick with the hard courts and consolidate their rankings unless they actually can compete on clay. Sometimes you just have to be pragmatic for the greater good and there are good opportunities to pick up points on the hard court while everyone else plays the clay lead up tournaments.

I particularly felt frustrated last year for Billy when he nobly (?) played in all these pre French Open clay weeks ( if not that many mstches ) when I reckon that if he'd gone off to Asian hard court tournaments, top 100 would have been a shoo-in ( rather than replace not very many points with not very many points and stay out of the top 100 ). Perhaps top 100 isn't a biggee for him, perhaps he backed himself on clay ( against previous evidence ), I don't know.