Week 20 - Womens Roland Garros Qualifying

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 20 - Womens Roland Garros Qualifying

helki · Futures qualifying

Well done Bally. Good to have a couple of women making it to the FQR. biggrin

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Well done to both Katie and Elena - some very good points earned there. Best of luck for the FQR or fingers crossed for a LL spot if not.

Portsey · Intermediate Club Player

To those more in the know - how do you rate their chances? Despite Haynes fighting hard it looks like the No1 seed is up next for Bally. I don't know about Katie's opponent or their history.

To me, Bally has a style that can blow any under-strength opponent off court on a good day, dominating sets seems her forte as well as a huge amount of unforced errors on a bad day! But put her up against asimilar player who hits it hard and is physically strong and she struggls. Is this fair?

(Shvedova it is)

-- Edited by Portsey on Thursday 21st of May 2009 05:32:46 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Q2: BALTACHA, Elena (GBR) 15 124 beat VONGSOUTHI, Stephanie (FRA) 307 6-1 7-5

Q2: O'BRIEN, Katie (GBR) 8 111 beat FUJIWARA, Rika (JPN) 162 7-6(3) 6-2

FQ: BALTACHA, Elena (GBR) 15 124 v SHVEDOVA, Yaroslava (KAZ) 1 96
FQ: O'BRIEN, Katie (GBR) 8 111 v RUS, Arantxa (NED) 143

Shvedova has a scary 12-2 record against Brits, woth two of those wins coming on grass last year, beating Sarah Borwell in Wimby Q and Katie in Birmingham, both in 3 sets.

The good news is that those two losses were both against Bally - 2-2 ret. (ok, that doesn't really count!) in Eastbourne qualifying in 2007 and 7-6(3) 6-3 in Jersey in 2005. Elena has lost to her once too, the week before that Jersey win, when Shvedova beat five Brits including both Katie and Elena on her way to reaching the Bolton 25K Final from qualifying.

Former world junior no. 1 Rus has only played one Brit at senior level, losing 4 & 4 to Anne in Fed Cup this year. She lost to Naomi Broady in Roehampton Juniors last year too, but like Shvedova, I fear she's far more dangerous on clay courts.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 21st of May 2009 05:46:12 PM

steven · Tennis legend

WHAT A DAY!

Bally's win completes a fabulous day for the GB girls - 6 of our top 14 were in action today and they all won! They weren't just any wins either - to summarise:

- in Warsaw, Anne became the first GB woman in more than a quarter of a century to reach a WTA semi on clay

- wins for Katie and Elena mean that we have two women in the FQR at RG for the first time in years

- in the 25K in Korea, Naomi Cavaday beat the no. 1 seed to reach the QFs

- in the 10K in Turkey, Amanda Carreras beat the no. 1 seed to reach the SFs (*)

- Laura Robson reached the QFs of her junior event in Italy too

(*) extending her winning streak to 8 matches and her record in May to W 11 L 1!

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

ok that doesn't inspire confidence but i feel both bally and KOB are stronger players this year and will be tough to beat. i think they will both be tight 3 setters either way.

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

Arantxa Rus is extremely aesthetically pleasing.

I don't want her to win though.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Well done to both girls. It would be terrific to have 4 women in the first round next week next week. When did that last happen at RG? If only the men could replicate this.

Smidster · Challenger level

How do the LL places work here?

I assume it is like Wimbledon where it is random draw of last round losers.

dougie · Club Coach

Jus wondering on the womens ranking table its gives Katie 50 points for FQR and Elena 40 points. Is there a reason for the difference?

http://www.britishtennis.net/gbtop25f/currentf.htm

-- Edited by dougie on Thursday 21st of May 2009 06:51:18 PM

DavidC · Tennis legend

The last two Brits in final qualifying here were Louise Latimer in 2000 and Karen Cross in 1998.
The last time we had two Brits in final qualifying was in 1982 (Elizabeth Jones / Kate Brasher)
The last qualifier was in 1983 (Kate Brasher, daughter of London Marathon founder Chris + grand slam winner Shirley)

Both have tough matches, but Katie's chances have improved by Arantxa Rus beating Julia Schruff. The German challenger girls are generally very good at qualifying for slams, whilst Arantxa, though having more potential than Julia, is relatively new and inexperienced at this level - whilst Katie should now derive confidence from Australia, and has a good record against top teenagers recently.

The weather may be a key factor for Bally, who probably needs the ball to fly in warm conditions in order to impose herself on Shvedova

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

bally 3rd on court 7 again after a mens match and a womens match.

DavidC · Tennis legend

DUSTY DICK wrote:

Well done to both girls. It would be terrific to have 4 women in the first round next week next week. When did that last happen at RG? If only the men could replicate this.

In 1991 when we actually had 6! (Sam Smith, Monique Javer, Sara Gomer, Jo Durie, Sarah Loosemore and Clare Wood) However they all lost in round 1. The last time we had 3 was in 1992.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Smidster wrote:

How do the LL places work here?

I assume it is like Wimbledon where it is random draw of last round losers.

From the Grand Slam rule book:

"i. Lucky Losers
Lucky Losers are those players who have lost in the final round
of the Qualifying competition or, if more Lucky Losers are
required, those players who have lost in the previous qualifying
rounds. Lucky Losers shall be selected based on the computer
rankings used for the determination of qualifying seedings as
follows:
The order of the four (4) highest ranked players shall be
randomly drawn, thereafter the order shall follow the players'
rankings, unless there are more than two (2) main draw
withdrawals at the time the Qualifying competition is finished
in which case the size of the random draw will be the number of
withdrawals plus two (2)."