Mervatron2 wrote:

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Kaia has too much power for Heather really.

Not a bad start to the year.

Is she playing next week?

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 Heather is down for Hobart qualifying, yes. She won the title there in 2015, but this year she may be happy simply to be in the main draw. 

nickw811 wrote:

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I think we've seen some encouraging signs from Hev this week! Tom Madden has written an interesting article looking at her service stats and how they're not as bad as they seem. She just needs to be more accurate on her first serves as her 1st service points won so far this year has been excellent!

Here's the article if you'd like to have a look: thebigracket.org/2017/12/31/has-heather-watsons-serve-improved-over-the-years/

It'd be great if you could let him know what you think by commenting on the article! Hope you enjoy!

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Thanks Nick, an interesting article. 

What though is unclear is how much she has been relatively swinging on first serve. I wonder what her first serve speed has been like in this tournament. Concentrating more on first serve accuracy will usually reduce its average potency so bring down the first serve percentage won. They are clearly very far from mutually exclusive stats. In general it's trying to get the right balance for the player, maybe varying on occasion say taking account of the opposition,

Now improve first serve accuracy and maintain % won - that's a very good trick if you can manage it.

Jo playing well - both girls holding serve skilfully so far
*3- 4

Very, very close.
Jo took the only BP of set 2 to level things up.

Yes, Happy New Year!
Now, Jo, make it very happy, and finish the job, please.

-- Edited by blob on Monday 1st of January 2018 06:34:41 AM

That was a very tough battle throughout, for the first match of the year. Jo did really well to come back; she looked a narrow second favourite for much of the first two sets.
4-6 6-4 6-3

(WC) Ajla Tomljanovic next.

But first for GB fans, Heather's lifeline; can she beat the #1 Estonian, having failed in qualifying to best their #2?

blob wrote:

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That was a very tough battle throughout, for the first match of the year. Jo did really well to come back; she looked a narrow second favourite for much of the first two sets.
4-6 6-4 6-3

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 Fabulous win for Jo. A very encouraging start to the new year!

Estonia 2 Hev 0
Could be a difficult year again for her, too good for ITF, increasingly distant from week-to-week competitive at WTA. Best chance is perhaps some good runs in Internationals to pick things up a bit. But there's going to be a lot of good players dropping down this year given how competitive the top 40 is shaping up to be; those International points are going to be hard to come by.

R32: Johanna KONTA (GBR) [5] 9 defeated Madison KEYS (USA) 19 4-6 6-4 6-3
R32: (LL) Heather WATSON (GBR) 75 lost to Anett KONTAVEIT (EST) 34 0-6 3-6

R16: Johanna KONTA (GBR) [5] 9 v. (WC) Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (CRO/AUS) 118 (CH 47, Feb. 2017)