AO R1 Melanie South vs Marion Bartoli

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

AO R1 Melanie South vs Marion Bartoli

dougie · Club Coach

Thats not so bad considering Bartoli retired against Mel South this week in Sydney

johnnylad · Tennis legend

rematch eh!

Vandenburg · Futures level

bloody frog

Tutu · Club Coach

LOL.

steven · Tennis legend

Oh dear, that's going to set Mel's chances of a top 100 place back a bit unless Bartoli does a repeat of what happened in Sydney!

Peter too · Tennis legend

I don't know if a lot of point scorers from last year's AO have already fallen by the wayside or not played yet but I see that TBE has Mel at 95 in the latest projected rankings.

Peter too · Tennis legend

TBE lists about a couple of dozen players with 50 points below Mel and maybe another 18 players on 5 points. They probably account for all the players who could overtake Mel at the AO. Perhaps a dozen or so will overtake her unless of course she produces another shock win.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

It's a tough draw.

Lets hope Mel gives it everything.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

forgot to say Mel always draws a seed in grandslams.

in all 4 MD she has drawn a seed

gjr · Club Coach

Whatever happens let hope Mel keeps working Bartoli's back.

:)

Drew · Jan 18, 2009

Monday OOP out...

Second on show court 3 (Anne follows 2 matches after on same court)

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Terrible display from Mel, losing 2-6 4-6 to an unimpressive Marion Bartoli. Both players were guilty of some wild errors, the ball missing its target by 6 ft or more on occasion.

In the first set Mel's backhand was on fire, producing four clean winners, but the rest of her game was abysmal, with her forehand rarely finding the court.

4-1 up in the second set looked promising. This time it was the forehand, especially crosscourt, that was creating problems for Bartoli, seven winners from that wing during the set, but Mel's hot spell lasted about 10 mins and then her level fell away dramatically, gifting Marion the vast majority of the points.

She saved one match point with a winning forehand crosscourt but a backhand into the net ended the contest.

On this display Mel looks a long way away from being a top 100 player. Her movement was poor, and that's compared to Marion Bartoli whose own movement comes in for a lot of criticism. Return of serve was careless and error prone, with a lot of second serves unreturned. Mel's aggressive approach on return did win her points but far too often it simply gave away the point.

Serve misfired with just 10 unreturned serves compared to 20 from Bartoli. Nowhere near enough penetration on the first serve and she was fortunate that Marion dumped a few returns of inviting second serves into the net. Add in 5 double faults and the serve, which should be a genuine weapon, was a real let-down on the day.

There was enough potential on view to suggest that Mel could become a top 100 player at some point in the future but a lot of hardwork will be needed. Her clean hitting can produce some stunning winners and had she been able to sustain her hot form for 30 mins rather than just 10, then she could well have taken the match into a third set.

Overall very disappointing against a seemingly out of form Bartoli. Against a top 20 player the scoreline may not have been much of a surprise but the standard of performance was.

-- Edited by kundalini at 05:06, 2009-01-19

steven · Tennis legend

Elsewhere on the boards, the consensus seems to be that Mel played better than Anne ... though perhaps that's not saying much, I'm not sure.

Bartoli's take on all this:

"I just played my first round match and won against Melanie South, 62 64. She was the player I retired against in Sydney, which was quite the coincidence! At the beginning of the second set I felt some pain in my calf and thought, 'Gosh, it's going to happen all over again!' I was so scared. I started playing badly and was actually down 4-1 in the second set. It was hard mentally for me to come back from that, but luckily I was able to come through in straight sets. I'm really happy about this win. After I finish writing the blog I'll go and get some treatment on my calf, then go back to the hotel and see what my dad says about it (he's a doctor!)"

Peter too · Tennis legend

Mel shouldn't feel too bad about losing 2-6 4-6 to Bartoli, she got one game more than the No. 1 seed Jelena Jankovic.