Week 28 - ITF ($25K) - Getxo, Spain Clay

Michael D · All-time great

RE: Week 28 - ITF ($25K) - Getxo, Spain Clay

Michael D · All-time great

A much more positive result today from Emily on her European tour. She finally picks up the extra 5pts for a first round win, in addition to her 1pt for qualifying. In terms of her ranking, she is due to fall 69 places at the end of Wimbledon to her loss of a 6 pointer from this time last year, so all this win will do is restore her ranking the week after back to approx its current position. She'll need another win if she is to make upwards progress, and that may be aided by the fact that the 6th seed who she likely would have met next has withdrawn and been replaced by a LL, and so instead of the 6th seed Emily will now face a fellow qualifier. So this may just be her lucky week...

R32: Emily ARBUTHNOTT (GBR) [Q] 723 beat Laura PIGOSSI (BRA) 534 (CH:247 July 14) 6-2 6-1

R16: Emily ARBUTHNOTT (GBR) [Q] 723 vs Andrea LAZARO GARCIA (ESP) [Q] UNR (CH:651 Oct 13)

Michael D · All-time great

This Emily is at least marching onwards this week... Potential SF opponents will play soon... Now in, gotta love that second Spanish surname...

QF: Emily Arbuthnott/ Romy Koelzer (GBR/GER) 926 (551+375) beat Verena Meliss/ Paula Ormaechea (ITA/ARG) 1818 (1237+571) 6-1 6-1

SF: Emily Arbuthnott/ Romy Koelzer (GBR/GER) 926 (551+375) vs Marina Bassols Ribera/ Gulomar Maristany Zuleta de Reales (ESP/ESP) 1380 (705+675)

-- Edited by Michael D on Thursday 12th of July 2018 07:36:15 AM

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Emily has lost the first set, 4-6

indiana · Tennis legend

Emily is now a double break down in the second set.

4-6 0-3*

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Last Brit lady standing for the week in singles. Will we even make it to Friday

indiana · Tennis legend

Emily broke twice herself for 4-3* but has just been broken again.

4-6 4-5*

indiana · Tennis legend

R16: Emily ARBUTHNOTT (GBR) [Q] 723 lost to Andrea LAZARO GARCIA (ESP) [Q] UNR (CH:651 Oct 13) by 6-4 6-4

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

That rounds out a pretty dreadful week 28 for the GB ladies in singles.
6 wins and 13 losses in total: 4 wins and 11 losses in MD; 2-2 in Qualifying
No one got past the R16.
The draws everywhere we played this week were very weak.

The grass court slump - induced either by too high a level of competition offered to our players on the surface, or, to my mind, and data, more acccurately, our being rubbish on the stuff - has infected us elsewhere!
Last year we never really recovered after the damage of the grass. Hope this first indication for 2018 is but a blip, and we'll come again in the late Summer & Autumn.

Michael D · All-time great

The trouble with the grass court season is that virtually all the women players that have played this week hardly get to play any matches on the grass, since they are forced to play at too high a level for them! I think a lot of momentum gets lost as a result, it's not just the surface, but also playing much higher ranked players, and so there is a double adjustment afterwards, to different surfaces again, as well as players nearer their own level. One possibility is that the GB players have then perhaps lost their edge and got used to losing matches instead of being able to tough it out when the matches require digging deeper. One can conjecture that the LTA run grass court season now actively harms our players outside the top 300 rather than helps them in any way now.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, as you say Michael the way the grass court season is constructed is no real help at all and arguably a harm to our players outside the top 300. It's a rather non inclusive grass season, concentrating on providing for the upper echelons and pitching lower ranked and aspiring unranked Brits hugely against it if they attempt to participate.

Though Emily Arb has been doing her own thing so not really relevant to her. She's simply generally not been showing the form she would have no doubt hoped for.

It has though been very good competition for our top 10 players ( well, our current top 8 at any rate ), in particular our group of 5 rising stars who have had really good experience in victories and defeats and Katie B, Harriet and Katie S continued really good points momentum through the grass season. And that's clearly very good.

It's again the apparent lack of thought regarding providing for these further down the food chain that is a concern. I would agree a lot is to do with the competition level being faced as opposed to relative grass court ability. Though yes them switching surfaces for actually little real competition on grass and then back again to then face players who have taken no part in the grass season must be unhelpful.

So it works for these who we are generally pinning most of our hopes on for the coming years and that is clearly very important. But there remains more to consider, LTA!

How about a couple of grass 15Ks in the 2 weeks before the Wimbledon Q WC play-off week ( men and women )? Chances for some decent competition and maybe wins on grass, chances to see some youngsters competing vs seniors on grass.

#stillnotguaranteed25rankedplayersbyyearend

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 12th of July 2018 11:37:11 PM

Michael D · All-time great

Not having anybody more with a ranking, save for Nell who gained her 3rd counter through 1 q win in the first tournament seems a criminally wasted opportunity to me. We don't even have the enlightenment of having a Poor Law in tennis any longer.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Between the AELTC & the LTA you have to get your priorities right with the money.
Thankfully, the annual £486K required for the invitiational doubles at Wimbledon is secured - that's not going anywhere. We can all breathe easy.
Otherwise that might have paid for 42 $15K's, and who would want, or benefit from that!?

the addict · Tennis legend

£486k - and that's 19k per pair for just turning up and taking part. A fair number of the participants are there working anyway. But we can rant all we like, nobody at the LTA is going to take any notice are they !

indiana · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
£486k - and that's 19k per pair for just turning up and taking part. A fair number of the participants are there working anyway. But we can rant all we like, nobody at the LTA is going to take any notice are they !

I've often wondered whether they have anyone at the LTA who has as part of their job the duty to scan the Internet for such as forum and social media feedback in addition to looking at mainstream media. They could then take note of clear trends regarding concerns and feed back to whoever. Maybe to be ignored but it wouldn't in theory seem the worst use of someone's time - keeping in touch with fans of the game and their thoughts.

But I guess it's more than possible that they prefer just to live within their own bubble ...