Out of the players pictured in the OP, Emma hasn't yet encountered Danielle, Olga, Magdalena, Anna, Barbara, Ashlyn and Yulia. I would'nt mind having them for Emma's 1st round opponent. Although I don't know which ones are the clay court specialist.

 

Barbora won the French Open and has a much better record on clay overall. However, she hasn't played all year due to a back injury. Collins won Charleston, demolished Iga in Rome and overall is much better on clay.

Olga's best record is on clay. Ditto Yulia.

Magdalena is similar on clay and hard court.

Anna and Ashlyn are better on hard court.

 

 

 

The draw should be on Saturday?

 

There is no easy draw in this tournament.

 

Hopefully she gets a lucky loser. 😃

No matter. It's all good practice.

 

 

Hello xenosys I like the photos of the players who have entered. 🙂

GO EMMA GO! 😍

 

The draw is still pretty stacked for a 500, but if Emma can win one or two matches, there will be players (more likely seeds) that she may be projected to meet who will withdraw to save themselves for RG, so she might end up picking up some free points without even having to play.

 

I can't remember if Emma has ever benefited from a walkover.

 

Only one I think. Fran Jones gave Emma a walkover for their Nottingham quarter final last year.

She has also benefitted from two retirements: Yastremska at Indian Wells last year and Kessler at Miami this year.

I think Yastremska also retired on her a few years ago - almost on match point. I can’t remember the tournament- was it Portoroz?

 

Yes, Yastremska was down 2-6 3-5 0-30 when she retired. The 2022 Slovenia Open at Portoroz.

 

Does anyone know how the court speed is? I’m assuming quite slow but possibly a little faster than Rome?

 

WTA500's are starting to get stronger now, this was the idea though, to encourage more players to play them. Sydney use to have super stacked fields, I found the Australian ones were the strongest, Stuttgart was often overrated because they were able to get most the top10's at times but had a weaker tail end. I reckon Charleston will start to be become the WTA500 to play soon, if there is one thing the players like its prizemoney.

Here is what the EL's looked like last year.

 

Stuttgart has in past paid a lot of appearance fees to top 10 ...on a recent Aussie tennis podcast they were saying that Barty said one year she got more than 4m AUD in Stuttgart winnings and appearance fees there because they were paying top 10s upwards of 1m AUD to appear.

 

There is always a big fuss made about the possibility of winning a Porsche. Jelena Dokic on Australian TV said that in her day top players got a Porsche for just showing up (she got one), so if you won you got two.

 

The Wildcards here are:

Pegula
Rybakina
Raducanu
Parry

 

As it stands, the top 4 seeds to get 1st round byes will be,
Pegula.
Navarro.
Badosa.
Rybakina.

 

Drova and Danilovic have withdrawn

 

Where are you getting this from?

 

Quali draw should be out this afternoon, likely to include some rather low-ranked players. Main Draw is being made at 3pm local time Saturday, 2pm UK time. If Emma draws a Qualifier, she will play on Monday. If not, she could play either Sunday or Monday. The schedule shows that there would be another day off (Tue or Wed) prior to the QF.

Here is the weather forecast from the BBC. Putting all four QFs on Centre Court on Thursday might be a tad optimistic.

 

If Emma can play as early as Sunday, then I hope she arrives today and get a couple of days to get used to the courts.

 

Quali draw should be out this afternoon, likely to include some rather low-ranked players. Main Draw is being made at 3pm local time Saturday, 2pm UK time. If Emma draws a Qualifier, she will play on Monday. If not, she could play either Sunday or Monday. The schedule shows that there would be another day off (Tue or Wed) prior to the QF.
View attachment 376529

Here is the weather forecast from the BBC. Putting all four QFs on Centre Court on Thursday might be a tad optimistic.
View attachment 376536
[/QUOTE]
Gosh that’s freezing. It’s 42 here so I don’t understand those thermal wearing conditions at this time of the year

 

Emma practicing in Strasbourg today

IG

 

Oh that was a very short trip back home.

 

Qualifying draw

(1)Kessler v Burrage
Bucsa v (5)Zarazua

(2)Bouzkova v Maria
(wc)Iliev v (7)Dolehide

(3)Lys v Paquet
Strakhova v (8)Pera

(4)Blinkova v (wc)Malygina
Jacquemot v (6)Lamens

 

Jodie Burrage has snuck into the Quali Draw!! https://www.tennisforum.com/posts/85664914/

Jodie had been scheduled to play in the middle of nowhere in South Serbia, this is certainly an upgrade although she has drawn the top seed Kessler. I think that Kessler being #1 seed means that all the Direct Entries in the MD are currently ranked above Emma. Lamens and Bouzkova are also clear threats in Qualis.

The Quali WCs are ranked #450 (Malygina) and #618 (Iliev).

 

Good to see Emma practising already and getting there in good time.

Depending on the draw, I think she's got a good chance of winning a couple of matches. I wonder whether Emma herself would pull out of an event like this to prepare for RG if she went deep, or if she'd rather bag the extra points on offer there.

 

Strasbourg 2025: Dates, draws, prize money and everything you need to know

The Internationaux de Strasbourg will start on Sunday, May 18, with Emma Raducanu, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula among the field. Here are the key facts you need to know about the year's last WTA 500 clay-court event.

www.wtatennis.com

 

Also Cornet has a main draw WC so one of Pegula/Rybakina/Parry withdrew

 

Also Cornet has a main draw WC so one of Pegula/Rybakina/Parry withdrew

My money is on either Rybakina or Parry.

 

From FB

I think that’s Tom Welsh

 

From FB

I think that’s Tom Welsh

View attachment 376595

Yeah looks like him.

 

While I'm here, when is the draw?

 

Oops, wrong thread. While I'm here, when is the draw?

Tomorrow 3 PM local time.