[tennisbiz] Wild wild-cards

I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me on the rules governing
tournament wild cards. The vast majority of wild cards at the Grand
Slams seem to go to local players and nobody seems to think that
anything is wrong with that.

This is particularly evident at Wimbledon where most wild cards are
given wildly to random, unknown British players whose ranking fall far
below the world elite and who invariably are 'mince-meated' in the first
rounds. The tournament organisors will probably argue that local players
are crowd pullers..... but I would counter that watching one of my
countrymen with a ranking of 367 get hammered 6-0, 6-1 by an unknown top
40 player is quite embarassing!

Why not use these wild cards to highlight some players in countries
where there are no major tournaments at all: Africa, Asian countries,
South America. It seems unfair that they dont get a chance to compete in
Grand Slams just because they dont stage one.

Any thoughts?

All the best

Phil Azar


 
Received on Wed May 15 2002 - 09:31:34 CDT