LTA wildcard play-offs for Wimbledon qualifying -- will it take place?

Paul Epstein

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Apr 9, 2021, 1:38:34 PM4/9/21

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Does anyone know the status of the Wimbledon pre-qualies 2021?
Have they been cancelled again, because of Covid?

This is a yearly event at Aorangi Park (part of Wimbledon), and is restricted
to UK players who haven't made the cut for Wimbledon main draw or Wimbledon qualifying, and is an opportunity for them to win a wildcard for Wimbledon qualifying.

Two 16-player knockout best-of-3-sets take place, one for men, and one for women.
Sometimes, the finalists are given wildcards to Wimbledon as well as the winners, and sometimes the wildcards are only given to the winners.

Any info on this year's event would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Paul Epstein

Whisper

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Apr 9, 2021, 4:37:58 PM4/9/21

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Maybe do it over Playstation?

jdeluise

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Apr 13, 2021, 12:25:26 PM4/13/21

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The best I could find is this, but I'm sure you must have this
information seeing as you have contacts at the LTA, according to the
other thread.

https://www.lta.org.uk/play-compete/competing/adult-tennis-competitions/individual-adult-competition/british-tour/

It says at the bottom regarding the playoffs... "Information to follow."

Paul Epstein

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Apr 14, 2021, 5:28:22 AM4/14/21

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Thanks, jdeluise.
This link is very helpful and I hadn't in fact seen it before. Info on this event doesn't come up readily on google searches.
I got a message from my LTA contact saying something like "ask me in a few weeks" and I didn't really know what he meant.
He could have meant "We're limiting the spectators very tightly this year, so you can't come any more, but I don't know how to tell you that."
I'm glad to learn that he meant exactly what he said -- the info isn't there yet but will be there in a few weeks.
Since the info isn't there and since these playoffs are a large event, which require a lot of planning (a much bigger event than a Futures event
for example), and since we're only just over two months before Wimbledon qualifying, it would seem highly likely that the event has been Covid-cancelled
but they haven't prepared the notice yet.

Paul Epstein

The Iceberg

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Apr 14, 2021, 5:38:35 AM4/14/21

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expect they'll be played but at the National Tennis Centre or someplace similar and away from spectators, they used to kind of do that anyway, still wait and see.
Wimbledon qualifying will probably happen as usual at the Bank of England grounds as it's very open ground there + they'll be well past the May 17 date and not sure they get 4000 sized crowd there. On May 17th the plan is "Indoor events will be capped at 50 per cent capacity or 1,000, whichever is lower, and for outdoor events this will be 50 per cent capacity or 4,000, whichever is lower. The road map includes special provision for large, outdoor, seated venues where crowds can be safely distributed, allowing up to 10,000 people or 25 per cent of total seated capacity, whichever is lower."

Paul Epstein

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May 29, 2021, 7:34:00 AM5/29/21

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Actually
https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/play/professional-development/documents/wimbledon-wild-card-policy.pdf
reveals that the pre-qualifying event in the OP, that usually takes place at Aorangi Park to give
wildcards for Wimbledon qualifying, has been Covid-cancelled.

Wimbledon Qualifying takes place as usual this year. I'm not sure what the spectator provision is, though.

Paul Epstein