D-Lite
Hall of Fame
As reported by The Telegraph in the below hyperlink, last year's champion of the WTA event at Queen's Club - Tatjana Maria of Germany - has been refused a wildcard into this year's main draw to defend her title.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/...ire-for-refusing-queens-champion-a-wild-card/
Maria is 38 years old and the mother of 2 children (I'm mentioning this as many active WTA players with children only have 1 and I think that's significant due to time away from the sport but also the impact on the body of a professional athlete). During last year's event, Maria came through qualifying and beat the following players to win the first women's tournament at Queen's Club since 1973:
- Fernandez, Muchová, Rybakina (2022 Wimbledon champion), Keys, Anisimova (soon to be 2025 Wimbledon finalist)
As noted in the article, in 2018 the LTA awarded their 2017 defending champion Feliciano Lopez (then 36) a WC to defend his title. Now this isn't a comparison of ATP vs WTA, but as the WTA event hadn't previously been held since 1973 there is no precedent to go off. Lopez had previously won the grass event at Eastbourne twice so he is of a higher grass pedigree for sure (he also won the Queen's event again a year later in 2019).
I believe Maria will likely get a WC into qualifying at Queen's but this has left a bad taste in my mouth as she isn't far off the top 50 and played an INSANE level last year to beat a high calibre of opponent in each round and surprise everyone to be the first Queen of Queen's since 1973. It's likely the LTA have outlined 2 WCs for Brits Boulter and Fran Jones (Kartal is out injured). That leaves 2 other WCs available for top players who didn't enter and exited RG early. I appreciate they may have their eyes on more top 10-20 players or more Brits but on this occasion I really believe Tatjana Maria should get a WC over them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/...ire-for-refusing-queens-champion-a-wild-card/
Maria is 38 years old and the mother of 2 children (I'm mentioning this as many active WTA players with children only have 1 and I think that's significant due to time away from the sport but also the impact on the body of a professional athlete). During last year's event, Maria came through qualifying and beat the following players to win the first women's tournament at Queen's Club since 1973:
- Fernandez, Muchová, Rybakina (2022 Wimbledon champion), Keys, Anisimova (soon to be 2025 Wimbledon finalist)
As noted in the article, in 2018 the LTA awarded their 2017 defending champion Feliciano Lopez (then 36) a WC to defend his title. Now this isn't a comparison of ATP vs WTA, but as the WTA event hadn't previously been held since 1973 there is no precedent to go off. Lopez had previously won the grass event at Eastbourne twice so he is of a higher grass pedigree for sure (he also won the Queen's event again a year later in 2019).
I believe Maria will likely get a WC into qualifying at Queen's but this has left a bad taste in my mouth as she isn't far off the top 50 and played an INSANE level last year to beat a high calibre of opponent in each round and surprise everyone to be the first Queen of Queen's since 1973. It's likely the LTA have outlined 2 WCs for Brits Boulter and Fran Jones (Kartal is out injured). That leaves 2 other WCs available for top players who didn't enter and exited RG early. I appreciate they may have their eyes on more top 10-20 players or more Brits but on this occasion I really believe Tatjana Maria should get a WC over them.
