Still 14.

Dave Rice missed out by 3 spots this week, but with 8 points coming off next Monday, he will need to match his efforts of last week by qualifying and getting an R1 win this week if he is to crack the barrier.

paulisi wrote:

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The target is 20 men inside the top 500 at anyone time and is seen (by us) as the benchmark for depth in men's tennis

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It would also be a British record at a year-end (the previous best was 19 in 1975, when of course there was a lot less competition - indeed, there were only 428 players in the ATP rankings then) and the last time it happened at all was 10 years ago, on 24 October 2005 http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/rankings/singles?rankDate=2005-10-24&rankRange=1-5000&countryCode=GBR, when things were beginning to look quite encouraging.

However, that high was followed by many of those 20 players either retiring in the following year or two (e.g. Greg Rusedski, Arvind Parmar, Mark Hilton, Alan Mackin, Dave Sherwood, Martin Lee) or deciding to become doubles specialists (e.g. Jamie Delgado, Jonny Marray, James Auckland, Colin Fleming), with the result that just over two years later, the number of GB men in the year-end ATP singles top 500 equalled the record low of 8 and less than two years after that, it hit a mid-year low of just 7!

The current number of Brits in the ATP top 500 (14) is double the mid-2009 low and just above the long-term average.

 

paulisi wrote:

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Girls are down to 8 as Naomi Cavaday has dropped out

No-one in danger at present of dropping out, next three in line:

Katie Swan WR 514
Freya Christie WR 555
Laura Robson WR 558

Loughborough points not added for Freya until next week

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Today's rankings are the official WTA year-end rankings and sadly, 8 British women in the WTA singles top 500 is the all-time low for a year-end I think the dearth of women's 10Ks in the UK this year probably has a lot to do with that!

Hopefully this will mark a turning point in that stat though - fast-rising players like Katie(S) and Freya almost made it (and might well make it by the calendar year-end), injury-hit players like Laura, Lisa and Katie(B), currently outside the top 500, would be ranked much higher if they could remain healthy for a sustained period and the upsurge in GB girls going to US colleges was always going to have a temporary effect in the years between the start of the upsurge (taking away GB girls who might otherwise be in the top 500 by now) and the year the first batch of players from the upsurge returned, but with any luck, the "Borwell effect" (as I like to call it, though it's not due exclusively to her, obviously) will pay dividends in the longer term.

On the plus side, this is the 5th year end in a row when the year-end GB no. 1 has been a WTA top 50 player - quite a turnaround when you consider that for 23 year-ends before that (1988-2010), there had been no British women in the year-end WTA top 50 at all!

Also, JoKo is the 6th different year-end GB no. 1 in the last 8 years! http://bit.ly/gbwtayef 

 

steven wrote:

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 this is the 5th year end in a row when the year-end GB no. 1 has been a WTA top 50 player - quite a turnaround when you consider that for 23 year-ends before that (1988-2010), there had been no British women in the year-end WTA top 50 at all!

Also, JoKo is the 6th different year-end GB no. 1 in the last 8 years! http://bit.ly/gbwtayef 

 

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 It's good to be reminded of that, thanks Steven; whilst it has been disappointing that Laura and Heather for injury and health reasons have been thwarted on what appeared to be a march on up into the top 20 as many of us hoped (and some of us...well me mainly so mea culpa for any jinx effect ...predicted on another forum) it really has been a comparative golden age for followers of the GB Tennis Girls in quality at the top even if the strength in depth is maybe dangerously thin. Looking forward to Katie Swan being top 50 fairly soon too

paulisi wrote:

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There are a few in danger of dropping out

Ed Corrie WR 461
Marcus Willis WR 476
Richard Gabb WR 491

Next three in line:
David Rice WR 503
Joe Salisbury WR 577
James Marsalek WR 626

Tipton points will not be reflected until next week

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Both Ed and Marcus are safe for the year end with neither having any more points to come off this year.  The problem for Ed, is that 65 of his  86 points will come off in the first 3 months of next year.  That will be very tough to defend.  Marcus on the other hand, only has 16 points to come off in those 3 months.

Rich is more borderline for this year.  He has 14 points to drop off before the end of the year although 2 will come back from current "non-counters" plus of course anything he gets from this week.  I am nervously watching his match with Sam Barry right now as 8 points for a 15k SF would be a big help.  It would guarantee him 75 points at the year end.  Currently the player ranked 500 has 76 points.

Not much change - I can see 4 potentials in Dave, Lloyd, Evan and Neil breaking through into the top 500 fairly quickly. From their it is a bit of a lottery.

Joe - all those points from Togo to defend (55pts) in Dec
Marzi - 10pts to defend this year, will be a bit of an ask
JWH - 24pts to defend in December from his Tunisian trip

Then we are looking at Bambo, Toby and Nozza(still studying) plus potentially Farris who is due to finish soon. Jonny O'Mara is an outside shot. I'm not sure any of the others are ready yet.

Someone on another forum was claiming about a month ago that Dan Cox has retired.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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paulisi wrote:

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Not much change - I can see 4 potentials in Dave, Lloyd, Evan and Neil breaking through into the top 500 fairly quickly. From their it is a bit of a lottery.

Joe - all those points from Togo to defend (55pts) in Dec
Marzi - 10pts to defend this year, will be a bit of an ask
JWH - 24pts to defend in December from his Tunisian trip

Then we are looking at Bambo, Toby and Nozza(still studying) plus potentially Farris who is due to finish soon. Jonny O'Mara is an outside shot. I'm not sure any of the others are ready yet.

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Think with Joe you are looking at his doubles points.  He has 10 singles points to defend in Dec (from that Togo trip) but after that, he only has 7 points to defend in the 1st 5 months of next year.  I would add him to your list.

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 You are correct - I forgot ATP defaults to the higher of the two rankings.