AO R2: Elena Baltacha v Amelie Mauresmo

dougie · Club Coach

RE: AO R2: Elena Baltacha v Amelie Mauresmo

dougie · Club Coach

Baltacha to serve at 2-5

0-15 good return and she hits smash
15-15 mo goes long
30-15 mo goes long
40-15 mo comes in and goes wide on the volley
40-30 bally bh goes long
duece netted bh
adv mo wild fh
duece lovely fh cross court winner
adv mo wild fh! again!!
game df!!

4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Really disappointing loss there! She was up in so many of Mauresmos service games and her own only to lose them!

S&V · Club Coach

Well Elena looked good for a lot of that, not the worst showing.

deacrt · Junior player

I got to watch the third set and I thought it was a very disappointing end. Losing six games in a row with almost every point being an unforced error is not a good way to go out. I understand the heat must have been brutal, but that was a complete capitulation.

The other frustrating part was her reluctance to go to Mauresmo's backhand at times when it was the correct location to hit to. When you hit a great slice serve out wide in the deuce court and you get a short crosscourt medium height return, you should hit an aggressive approach down the line, yet Elena kept trying to go behind Mauresmo, and lost alot of points from very winnable situations.

Sorry to be negative and I want to congratulate Elena on her tournament and I hope she can break the top 100 soon, but I really thought she should have won that last set.

steven · Tennis legend

It turnedout not to be out of the question that she had the ability to win this, which is good, but she did seem to run out of steam when Amélie started to play better. It's been a great run from Elena though and she still has a fair chance of making the top 100 over the next two months.

wolf wrote:
Here's a random one for you stat freaks. Bally hasn't lost a match when winning the first set since July 2007!

Oops

-- Edited by steven at 06:14, 2009-01-22

Peter too · Tennis legend

Four wins in a row against top 200 players is good. Starting the run at R1 next time instead of Q1 would be even better.

wolf · Tennis legend

I stayed up to watch it all the match (regretting it a bit now after being dead at college) and was really gutted with that. She played so well in the first set and that drop shot on set point was incredible. But if you win the first set it is always important to win your first service game of the next set and she was always playing catch-up after that. Some really good signs in the match for and she definately has the ability to establish herself in the top 100 but the wheels came off in the end as her range went.

gjr · Club Coach

I was at the match and I was gutted. The match was there for the winning but she just tired at the end I think.

Was hot early on but the wind was all over the place. Changed directions several times during the match. The right of the umpire was really hard to hold at the start and the wind changed and it was hard to hold from the other end. Mauresmo was a great player but is close to her sell by date and the wind was a great leveller today but just not quite enough.

I really thought she was going to win but a good week or so none the less.

-- Edited by gjr at 14:25, 2009-01-22

wolf · Tennis legend

Good news from tonight is both Moore & Karatantcheva lost so Mel will be at the very worst #99 in the rankings (#98 is Dokic doesn't reach the QFs).