Is there a 2018 tennis thread yet?

[Jimski]

It's also available for Edgbaston which has a stacked entry list; the 8 seeds are all in the top 16 in the world

Yes, I'm looking forward to next Saturday, when we have tickets to see the semi-finals. It's the first tennis event I'll have been to since 2005 (Barcelona), so I'm pretty excited about it. Has anyone here been to the Edgbaston event before?

[Janik]

The Nottingham Men's Challenger has been decently covered on this thread, but for the record as well as Dan Evans reaching the final where he will play Alex de Minaur, who was the runner-up in Surbiton, so, like Evans, is in good form, and James Ward getting to the QFs before losing to #4 Ilya Ivanshka (I think Etienne mentioned that one), Alex Ward went out in R2 to Marcel Granollers after beating Liam Broady in R1. George Loffhagen's R1 defeat to #6 Peter Polansky was also mentioned up thread, but I don't think Jay Clarke's R1 loss to Tobias Kamke was.
In the Doubles, in addition to Salisbury/Nielsen winninng the event, the Skupski brothers, who were top seeds, made the SFs (l to Salisbury/Nielsen). Bambridge/O'Mara, seeded #3 also lost to the British/Danish pair whilst Clarke/Willis, Broady/Clayton and McHugh/Norrie all lost in R1. Oh, and whilst on the Challenger doubles front did we mention that the Surbiton Men's Final was all-British? Bambridge/O'Mara beat the Skupskis.

We've talked less about the ITF event in Manchester, as that wasn't a great success from a British perspective. Only two survived through R1, Harriet Dart and Sarah Beth Grey and both did so by beating countrywomen, Emma Raducanu and Eden Richardson respectively. Youngster Raducanu pushed Dart to three sets, which is still a very encouraging performance. The most disappointing R1 loss was that of #7 seed Naomi Broady, though the player who beat her, Ons Jabeur, has subsequently won through to today's final. So it wasn't a great opening draw. The other R1 losses were Emily Appleton to Marie Bouzkova, Katy Dunne to #4 Nicole Gibbs (in three, 7-5 in the third, but still a loss) and Samantha Murray to #2 Luksika Kumkhum. Dart then beat Kumkhum in R2, which was the only British win over a non-Brit of the week as she then lost the QF to Ysaline Bonaventure and Grey was beaten in R2 by Jabeur.
More success was had in the Manchester doubles, with top seeds Broady/Muhammad currently competing in the final against #4 Kumkhum/Thombare. They are a set down though. Dart/Dunne made the semi in the opposite half to Broady/Muhammad, including beating the #2 seeded pair in R1. Grey/Nicholls won a match against non-Brits, but the other pairs with Brits in all went out at the first time of asking. They were Moore/Perrin, Webley-Smith/Zanevska, Barnett/Sainsbury and Appleton/Murray.

[Janik]

0/3 today for the Brits in the Nottingham finals.
Konta came the closest, going down 6-4 in the third with some ructions (unjustified according to my Dad, who was watching) towards the Umpire over a line call at 4-4 in the decider. And no post-match handshake either. The second feisty day in a row, which is a new thing for Jo and suggests she is feeling the pressure currently. Oh, and she is still to win a tournament on grass or at home. That too.
Watson/Buzanescu lost in straight sets in the Doubles, as did Dan Evans to Alex de Minaur in Challenger singles.

As for next week, Katy Dunne beat Jodie Burrage in the all-British qualifying tie in Birmingham (that they were playing each other next is something I never quite managed to spell out in the post above). Dunne faces Oceane Dodin in final qualifying for a place in the main draw. The final qualifiers take place tomorrow on Edgbaston's outside courts, and feature some decent names such as Genie Bouchard and Krystyna Pliskova, Dunne's match is the second on Court 1. The Ann Jones Centre Court is devoted to R1 action though, with Katie Boulter's tough match against Naomi Osaka the third one on.
I don't think I've mentioned the Birmingham doubles yet. Well, the only Brits in that are Boulter/Watson, who have a wild card.

Over at Queens two Brits will take to the main court to play their immensely tricky R1 matches, Cameron Norrie second on against Stan Wawrinka and Jay Clarke wrapping up the day vs Sam Querrey. Also both British pairs playing the doubles have their R1 matches on Court 1 tomorrow, Edmund/N.Skupski on first and J.Murray/Soares third up.

One Brit is playing the Halle event instead of Queens, Dom Inglot switching across from 's Hertogenbosch and playing again with Franko Skugor. But they don't start yet.


Down at ATP Challenger/ITF level, next week is at Ilkley for both the Men and Women. On the Men's side only Liam Broady made the main draw as of right; he will play #8 Sergiy Stakhovsky in R1. The wild cards this week went to George Loffhagen, Alex Ward, Aidan McHugh and Jack Draper. I must admit that Ward aside these are all players I know next to nothing about. I assume they are all young... Anyway Loffhagen has drawn a qualifier, Ward faces #3 Thomas Fabbiano, McHugh will take on Alexander Bublik and Draper plays Darian King. The chances of Loffhagen facing a fellow Brit are slim to none as basically all have been eliminated from the qualies. Billy Harris and Lloyd Glasspool lost in q2, Harris getting their by beating fellow British wild card Finn Bass in his opener. Luke Johnson and Jonathan Gray also lost in q1. All the Brits playing this needed wild cards to enter as the cut came at 291 for the qualies (which is high for a Challenger).

The Women's draw is a day or so behind, so we are yet to find out who is involved in the main singles event. None have made it in by right, but I would assume Gabi Taylor and Harriet Dart have main draw wild cards as they are not involved in the qualies. Naomi Broady is also not listed anywhere, so I'm guessing she will also have a main draw wild card, which she would need as a late entry rather than because her ranking was too low (probably a hedge on an Edgbaston wild card, which didn't come up when Svitolina claimed one of them). There may also be one for Maia Lumsden on the grounds that she was not in the qualifying. Those that were in the q-draw all needed WCs to get in; Freya Christie, Alicia Barnett, Sarah Beth Grey, Ella Taylor, Emily Appleton and Eden Silva. Barnett and Taylor lost in q1 (Taylor to Appleton), Grey's first match was done for by the Yorkshire weather so she starts tomorrow, but Christie and Silva both joined Appleton in q2 after wins over Aussies, getting some revenge for the Nottingham Finals losses.

[Jimski]

Aidan McHugh is the young Scottish player who is being mentored by Andy Murray. I recall reading an article about him.

[Etienne]

Yeah they are all young players. McHugh as jimski says above, Draper who is only 16 but very talented. Also has the advantage of his dad having been previously head of the LAT. Loffhagen is also very talented though has a tendency to lose focus at critical times.

[Etienne]

Today's British (singles) results in summary: everyone lost.

The plethora of wild cards given to British players in the short grass court season often throws up surprise results and can lead to big jumps in the rankings. But it can also lead to a lot of defeats against much better rated players. And that happened today.

Queens Men
L32: Stan Wawrinka (SUI) WR 261 defeated Cameron Norrie WR 80 by 2 & 3 (obviously in this instance the Briton was higher ranked, but probably the result most people would expect. I don't think Norrie's game is very suited to grass)
L32: (WC) Jay Clarke WR 220 lost to (5) Sam Querrey (USA) WR 13 3-6 3-6

Birmingham Women
Q3: DUNNE, Katy (GBR) WC 215 lost to DODIN, Oceane (FRA) 178 2-6 4-6 (Dodin is better than that ranking suggests, but she's not had a great season, but too strong for Dunne)
R1: BOULTER, Katie (GBR) WC 139 lost to OSAKA, Naomi (JPN) 18 1-6 2-6

Ilkley Women
Q1: GREY, Sarah Beth (GBR) WC 554 lost to ANDREESCU, Bianca (CAN) 2 185 5-7 5-7 (actually a pretty decent showing against one of the rising stars of the game)
Q2: CHRISTIE, Freya (GBR) WC 588 lost to SCHOOFS, Bibiane (NED) 1 174 3-6 2-6
Q2: APPLETON, Emily (GBR) WC 613 lost to FOURLIS, Jaimee (AUS) 8 209 1-6 0-6
Q2: SILVA, Eden (GBR) WC 485 lost to IMANISHI, Miharu (JPN) 4 189 3-6 3-6

Ilkley Men
L32: Liam Broady WR 167 lost to (8) Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) WR 133 6-1 6-7(2) 2-6 (Broady had 4 match points at *5-4 in the second set and frankly choked)
L32: Darian King (BAR) WR 169 defeated (WC) Jack Draper UNR by 4 & 2 (decent scoreline)

[Janik]

Heather Watson has gone the same way as all the others, beaten in two close sets by Lesia Tsurenko. The next to try are the respectively big names with quite large question marks against them, i.e. Andy Murray who is just about to get underway against Nick Kyrgios at Queens and Jo Konta who is in the very early stages versus Petra Kvitova at Edgbaston.

[Etienne]

Loffhagen and Alex Ward have both lost in Yorkshire too.

[Janik]

Konta lost 3&4.
Murray won his first set back 6-2. Kyrgios was a break up in set two, but Murray has just broken back. All of which is highly encouraging.

[Etienne]

Gabi Taylor blown off court by Yastremska 1&3.
Murray lost the second set in a tie break. He's already exceeded my expectations though.

[Janik]

Murray goes down 5-7 in the third. Bit of a weak finish; from 30-15 up on serve he played a drop shot that bounced before the net (and he looked stiff and tired in doing so), a mid-court forehand after a good serve that ought to have been a winner but was pushed fractionally long and wide, and then a big double fault. But 150 minutes of seemingly uninjured high level Tennis is way above expectations. The realistic feeling fear was that he would find the injury came back within half-an-hour and then retirement (not just from the match) would then have loomed.

[Etienne]

It looks like there could be no British winner in singles two days on the trot. McHugh has lost against Bublik 3&4 (respectable). So it's just Evans (already a break down) and Edmund left.

[Janik]

Edmund lost to Harrison in their only previous meeting, the Semi of Atlanta last year. Grass ought to favour the American, given the two players respective game style.

[Janik]

This years new stand around the Queen's Centre Court is bloody huge.

[Janik]

One out of god knows how many - Evans loses to Mannarino in three, 7-5 in the third, but Edmund beats Harrison 7-6 6-4. Edmund was the only one playing a lower ranked opponent, I suppose.

[Etienne]

Norrie as mentioned was playing a lower ranked opponent, but somewhat notionally.

W:1 L:17

That's pretty atrocious.

[Etienne]

Wimbledon decide not to give Evans even a Qualifying Wild Card, he'll have to go through the qualifying playoffs. So everyone there will be desperately hoping to be in the other side of the draw.

"This decision is based on principle in the immediacy of his return from a suspension from competition," the All England Club said in a statement.

"He will be competing in the pre-qualifying at the All England Club this week for the opportunity to secure one of the remaining places into qualifying."

Slightly surprised that James Ward only gets a QWC.

EVENT 1: GENTLEMEN'S SINGLES

1.Liam BROADY (GBR)
2.Jay CLARKE (GBR)
3.Alex DE MINAUR (AUS)
4.To be announced
5.To be announced
6.To be announced
7.To be announced
8.To be announced

EVENT 21: GENTLEMEN'S QUALIFYING SINGLES
1.Alejandro DAVIDOVICH FOKINA (ESP)
2.Jack DRAPER (GBR)
3.George LOFFHAGEN (GBR)
4.Anton MATUSEVICH (GBR)
5.Aidan MCHUGH (GBR)
6.Alexander WARD (GBR)
7.James WARD (GBR)
8.Wild card play-off place
9.Wild card play-off place

[Etienne]

While some of the men might be feeling a little hard done by, the British women have done pretty well:

EVENT 3: LADIES' SINGLES

1.Katie BOULTER (GBR)
2.Naomi BROADY (GBR)
3.Harriet DART (GBR)
4.Katy DUNNE (GBR)
5.Ons JABEUR (TUN)
6.Katie SWAN (GBR)
7.Gabriella TAYLOR (GBR)
8.To be announced

EVENT 23: LADIES' QUALIFYING SINGLES
1.Holly FISCHER (GBR)
2.Francesca JONES (GBR)
3.Claire LIU (USA)
4.Maia LUMSDEN (GBR)
5.Emma RADUCANU (GBR)
6.To be announced
7.Wild card play-off place
8.Wild card play-off place

[Janik]

Why would the Men feel hard done by, Evans aside? Everyone inside the top ATP and WTA top 250 has a main draw wild card, it's just very few British males are in that zone. q-draw WCs ought to go to youngsters on the way up, which appears to be the choice that has mostly been made.

One notable absentee from the Women's lists is Laura Robson. She is the highest ranked non-top 250 British Woman @ 330 currently. However there are two spots left TBA, one main draw and one in the qualies. Robson actually has a wild card in to the main draw of Eastbourne next week (others are Broady, Watson, Azarenka and Bouchard), so that might be a hedge. She gets the last qualifying place if she loses early on the South coast, as everyone would expect her to do. But should the slim chance of a good run that keeps her involved in Sussex until after Roehampton starts come true, that is used to justify upgrading her to the main draw.

[Etienne]

As well as Evans, I though James Ward might feel slightly aggrieved, though I think qWC was fair enough.

Robson has a hip injury, which is why she's only been playing doubles recently. I'm sure if she was fit enough she'd get some sort of WC.

[Janik]

So maybe Eastbourne (her WC for that appears to be the singles main draw) is also a test the water type of thing?

[Etienne]

You'd think. It's got to be fairly marginal if she's fit enough to play doubles.

[Satchmo Distel]

There are qualifiers for the Wimbledon qualifiers?

EDIT - apparently 16 Brits play off for two wildcards

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-a8407831.html

Do the other three Slam events have competitions for the host nation's wildcards?

Three games in two days is a tough schedule.

[Etienne]

Two qualifying wild cards (for both men and women) are held back by Wimbledon, which are given to the finalists of an 16 person qualifying tournament only open to UK players.

[Janik]

There is a set of pre-qualifiers for British players. 16 player draws, with nominally two spots available though sometimes the beaten 'finalists' also get given spots. Marcus Willis came through those in his breakout year. That was why his match against Federer was off the back of seven wins; three in pre-qualifying, three in qualifying and then over Berankis in R1. Willis only got into the pre-qualifying due to an injury withdrawal to boot.

Wimbledon isn't the only event to do something like this. The Aussie Open runs wild card play-offs, with parallel events for Aussies and Asia-Pacific region players, though the prize at the end of these is a main draw rather than qualifier WC. That means they can effectively work as dual elimination qualifying tournament for those ranked 100-250, as those who lose in the play-offs are still able to enter the standard qualifiers. Bernard Tomic opted to skip those last year and play the normal q-draw only (he lost in the final round). However the biggest pre-qualifying event around is that for Indian Wells. It has been up to 128 players/7 rounds in the past but this year it was limited to 64 male and 64 female (sign-up on a first come, first served basis rather than by ranking). I think the reduction was because they haven't had a full uptake with 128-player draws, leading to a number of R1 byes. It takes place over four days, so involves playing twice in a day in the early stages. And each event just offers a qualifying wild card to the winners. It's rare for established pros to play that, it's mostly high quality amateurs and college players looking to get a shot at playing against the pros.