Quote Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee View Post
Not sure if increasing the number of players taking part is going to make much difference. I can only presume this has been done to cash in on ticket sales, possibly even at the request of the sponsor to create more betting markets.
Whatever the reason, it'll be promoted as being bigger and better but I think they've overestimated the strength in depth looking at the first round draw. The novelty of the women players will be of some interest but it's going to be a slow start to the tournament. Instead of one qualifying game then three seeds in the early sessions, it's going to be three qualifying games then one seed for the first week and some of those sessions will be a tough sell if the seed is Wattimena, van de Pas, Wilson, West etc. Extra afternoon sessions too which will take it further off the radar. Even the second round looks so-so, Cross v de Zwaan and Clayton v van den Burgh should be good but it all looks a bit like Russell Slade organised the early stages.