LTA tighten wildcard rules

THE drive to make British tennis players more hungry has led to a tightening up on the lucrative wildcard entries handed out for Wimbledon every year. This year a place in the main draw of the singles will be worth at least £30,000. The Lawn Tennis Association have announced that they are scrapping the scheme whereby they would automatically recommend that a wildcard be given to any British singles player, male or female, in the top 250. Instead, the special entries will be based on ‘attitude, professionalism, game development and recent form’. The new policy will also cover doubles: pairs with a combined world ranking of 400 or better will no longer be guaranteed a recommendation. The idea is to try to get players to aim higher than the 250 threshold and not to gear their schedules purely to making that mark. As ever, the final decision is in the hands of the All England Club, but they rarely go against LTA thinking. The move is part of a wider change in thinking that has seen funding cut by the LTA to try and increase the ambition of home players and drive up standards. While it may work in some cases there is also a fear that it will demoralise others who are already struggling to make ends meet as they try to establish themselves on the professional circuit. A number of prospects, such as 2011 US Open junior champion Oliver Golding, have recently dropped out of the game. One thing for sure is that there will be no more instances like that of one-time GB hopeful Alex Bogdanovic, who was given eight Wimbledon wildcards in his now-ended career and never won a match.