[ProdigyEng]

So I've just read that 2014 girls winner Ostapenko will get a MDWC to the Women's draw of Wimbledon, which is fair enough as she's done okay this season and I think it's good to give MDWC to the junior winners from the year before. However there's no wildcard to the main draw for the 2014 boys winner Noah Rubin, despite him having an amazing year in college.

I find this rather unfair on Rubin who's a great talent. If he doesn't at least get a QWC it will be a disgrace.

 

[GasquetGulbis]

So I've just read that 2014 girls winner Ostapenko will get a MDWC to the Women's draw of Wimbledon, which is fair enough as she's done okay this season and I think it's good to give MDWC to the junior winners from the year before. However there's no wildcard to the main draw for the 2014 boys winner Noah Rubin, despite him having an amazing year in college.

I find this rather unfair on Rubin who's a great talent. If he doesn't at least get a QWC it will be a disgrace.

How do you know they didn't offer it? He could have turned it down, it wouldn't be the first time. Also Grand Slams normally look at if the player has been competing on tour. Quinzi didn't get one because he was like 400 on tour, and that seems wasteful to the tournament organizers. Same thing happened with Peliwo the year before. Saville got offered a QWC the year before.

Wimbledon organizers are smart and give it to people with a realistic chance. If a kid wins Wimbledon and then does nothing on tour, they're not going to let him play in their event, when there's 300 people above him who could take that wildcard too. Ostapenko is Top 150, and she'll probably win a few rounds.

 

[benji47]

Why would Rubin turn it down? He has just turned pro recently, and said that he will start playing pro events this summer. There's no reason (we know of) that he would not want to return to a tournament this important to him.


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[Johnny Isner]

Rubin is not eligible to play in juniors anymore. The guy is 19 years old already.

 

[Arsenalex]

Rubin is not eligible to play in juniors anymore. The guy is 19 years old already.

Which is why we talk of main draw

 

[Brit Tennis Fan]

Wimbledon pretty much always offer the previous years' junior champ a qualifying wild card so my guess is that Rubin simply turned it down. Perhaps he has plans for the summer (training blocks, futures tournaments, etc) and that flying to London for what would probably be a single grass court match just didn't seem worth it.

EDIT: First week of Wimbledon main draw he is playing a 15K futures in Kansas.

 

[AnnaK_4ever]

Maybe it has something to do with the simple fact that Ostapenko is World No.144 and Rubin is No.1012?
Do you really believe a player outside the Top-1000 should be getting wild cards into Grand Slam main draws?

 

[NID]

Do you really believe a player outside the Top-1000 should be getting wild cards into Grand Slam main draws?

Tio Toni would approve.

 

[Chris Kuerten]

Maybe it has something to do with the simple fact that Ostapenko is World No.144 and Rubin is No.1012?
Do you really believe a player outside the Top-1000 should be getting wild cards into Grand Slam main draws?

This. Fine and all that he is doing well with college tennis, but the level there is below Futures. It makes no sense to waste a main draw wild card on him.

 

[Comebacktoli]

Ostapenko is on track to finish year inside top 70, Rubin still in college - pretty much answers the question.

Though I do agree there should be an agreement to give the previous junior winner at MDWC for every slam.

 

[Chris Kuerten]

Ostapenko is on track to finish year inside top 70, Rubin still in college - pretty much answers the question.

Though I do agree there should be an agreement to give the previous junior winner at MDWC for every slam.

Why? It made sense in the past, but these days a Juniors champion is less likely to be ready for the main tour a year later. The last five Wimbledon champions are Fucsovics, Saville, Peliwo, Quinzi and Rubin, none of which are ready even years later. Although Saville humiliated Thiem :lol:

 

[Comebacktoli]

Why? It made sense in the past, but these days a Juniors champion is less likely to be ready for the main tour a year later. The last five Wimbledon champions are Fucsovics, Saville, Peliwo, Quinzi and Rubin, none of which are ready even years later. Although Saville humiliated Thiem :lol:

I think if a MDWC place was assured for next year, it would provide a solid link between the junior and senior tour which is currently - as you said - pretty thin.

If junior's knew they would be fighting for spots in bigger tournaments the level of competition would rise

 

[Chris Kuerten]

I think if a MDWC place was assured for next year, it would provide a solid link between the junior and senior tour which is currently - as you said - pretty thin.

If junior's knew they would be fighting for spots in bigger tournaments the level of competition would rise

I doubt that would make any difference. The best 17 and 18-year-olds aren't playing the Juniors Grand Slams to begin with and it has always been basically a coin toss if they will be able to make the jump to a successful pro career. There are loads of champions who have never even made it to the top 200, throwing them a main draw wild card would have been a waste and wouldn't have made a difference in their career trajectory.

 

[Kateoz]

I doubt that would make any difference. The best 17 and 18-year-olds aren't playing the Juniors Grand Slams to begin with and it has always been basically a coin toss if they will be able to make the jump to a successful pro career. There are loads of champions who have never even made it to the top 200, throwing them a main draw wild card would have been a waste and wouldn't have made a difference in their career trajectory.

Yes but one of the reasons they aren't bothering is that it wins them nothing - change that and they might!

I do think a presumption in favour of a md, or QWC if they are too low ranked for it to be realistic, is a sensible move.

It was pretty outrageous, for example, that Zverev didn't get one for the AO given his ranking at the time was in the top 150.

 

[GasquetGulbis]

I think if a MDWC place was assured for next year, it would provide a solid link between the junior and senior tour which is currently - as you said - pretty thin.

If junior's knew they would be fighting for spots in bigger tournaments the level of competition would rise

Wimbledon used to be the only slam that would guarantee the Junior Champion a wildcard spot, all the other 3 would only offer a qualifying spot. That is until the junior crop started getting weaker and weaker because of the change in the sport. Kuznetsov was the last one to get a maindraw spot, after him it would have been Fucsovics who was struggling to make it on the futures tour, so they decided to cut it.

 

[pesto]

It was pretty outrageous, for example, that Zverev didn't get one for the AO given his ranking at the time was in the top 150.

It sounds as though he had a much, much better case than Rubin, and equivalent to Ostapenko. I wouldn't expect any slam to consider a player ranked outside the top 1000, unless they had an arrangement already set in stone.

 

[GasquetGulbis]

It sounds as though he had a much, much better case than Rubin, and equivalent to Ostapenko. I wouldn't expect any slam to consider a player ranked outside the top 1000, unless they had an arrangement already set in stone.

He would have gotten a qualies wildcard, because the Aussie Open always does qualies instead of main draw to their Junior champions unless they're also Australian.

 

[Kateoz]

Wimbledon used to be the only slam that would guarantee the Junior Champion a wildcard spot, all the other 3 would only offer a qualifying spot. That is until the junior crop started getting weaker and weaker because of the change in the sport. Kuznetsov was the last one to get a maindraw spot, after him it would have been Fucsovics who was struggling to make it on the futures tour, so they decided to cut it.

Yes but we now know that it was a generation useless effect, not really a genuine change in the nature of the game.

Last year Kokkinakis, for example, had the option of playing juniors at the USO after he failed to qualify for MD but could not be persuaded to do so. If a wc the next year had been on offer maybe he would have (not that he would have needed it as it turns out but still). And if you look at last years winners (Zverev, Rublev, Rubin and Jasika), Rubin aside, they are all moving up relatively quickly and on the face of it worth a wc.

 

[Kateoz]

He would have gotten a qualies wildcard, because the Aussie Open always does qualies instead of main draw to their Junior champions unless they're also Australian.

But he didn't need a qualies wc, got into qualies by virtue of his ranking. The whole slam wc system is shonky in my view, but it would a pretty small and positive reform for the four slams to commit to giving their junior champs a wildcard of an appropriate level.