Week 1 - Hopman Cup

MiloTheCat · Lower Club Player

RE: Week 1 - Hopman Cup

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Fantastic Laura!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Laura loses the second set 3-6 cry

Sheddie · administrator

http://www.freedocast.com/forms/PopOut.aspx?sc=530C426A31DD213F109B

this is a fine stream I discovered to watch today's matches

Sheddie · administrator

only seen bits of it but Shedova has big serve and forehand and Laura is feeding that forehand too much atm.

timmoore46 · Admin:moderator + Club Coach

The Shedman wrote:

http://www.freedocast.com/forms/PopOut.aspx?sc=530C426A31DD213F109B

this is a fine stream I discovered to watch today's matches

I used
http://www.livescorehunter.com/Livescores/Livescore-Tennis.html

for Laura's last set - ouch !

Any maybe on at 13.30 gmt today using the same link.

smile

Tim

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I think you have mixed up your time conversion, Tim. Andy was due on at 11.30 GMT and is knocking up now.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Watched most of Laura's match and it was definitely won and lost on serve.
Laura 1st serve % was well below 50 and she also served approximately 10 double faults.
Her serve lacked a bit of power compared to Wimbledon and she was just narrowly missing that first serve which led to her losing a bit of confidence on it and thus the double faults.
In the first set Laura appeared to be just hanging on struggling to hold serve saving many break points . She then lost her serve in the fifth game which led to a 4-2 scoreline to Shvedova. This is where the match was turned on its head with Laura winning the next four games to take the set . A combination of great groundstrokes from Laura and unforced errors/poor serving from Shvedova made this possible. Shvedova appeared to be really struggling with the remnants of a cold picked up here soon after arriving from her home country. She called for a medical timeout during which the doctor helped to stop a nosebleed.
At this stage Laura had all the momentum but frustratingly played two very poor games to relinquish that momentum and give Shvedova cause for hope. The rest of the second set was very competitive but Laura was unable to get the break back losing it 6-3.
The less said about the final set the better. Laura lost a pivotal game at the start lost confidence and her head went down coupled with exceptional play from Shvedova.

Positives
1. Her movement if anything was slightly better.
2. Her groundstrokes were hit at times exceptionally well.
3. She hit a difficult smash away with aplomb.
4. She was able to stay in the baseline rallies for the most part and didn't look outclassed.
5. Clearly been trying to work on a backhand slice which a WIP at the moment but will be useful in future.

Negatives
1. Poor serving.
2. If things don't go her way in a match she lets down mentally leading to worse play.
3. Appeared to fade phsycially/mentally during match. Something which with her physical training done offseason I thought might have been better.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Andy won 6-26-2

I *tried* to watch Andy's match, but the livestream was buffering so much it was virtually unwatchable. Plus the live scoreboard only updated every 90 seconds, so it was a toss-up which score was the most recent. . .

Sheddie · administrator

Madeline needs to get a faster internet connection

indiana · Tennis legend

I didn't see or even follow either of these matches, so thanks to philwrig for his report and analysis.

I think we look again as if it's going to be a year of ups and downs with Laura.

But I still see many really encouraging signs.

When she is good she is very good and competitive against some really pretty high quality players. Her potential for the future lies so much in how good she can be then how bad, for the bad be it technical or emotional, can be worked at over time. Clearly even the good aspects of her play can be continually improved.

Here, still short of her 16th birthday, she took a set off a player ranked 50, OK maybe suffering a little with the remanants of a cold, competed in the second and then seemingly had one of the no shows in the third set that she has quite often put in in the past.

But if indeed this match was basically "won and lost on serve" and she "didn't look outclassed" in the baseline rallies then considering she was playing a top 50 player then that to me is very encouraging.

It would be good if one thing she develops soon is the physical and maybe more the emotional ability to stay with matches and not be dishearetened.

To me, Laura remains an outstanding prospect who will hopefully during this season grow into a more complete player. I expect she will still have some unexpected downs in some matches and during matches, but in time I expect less so. Laura still very much has time on her side.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 4th of January 2010 02:09:30 PM

timmoore46 · Admin:moderator + Club Coach

Laura and Andy doubles has started, live here:-

http://www.livescorehunter.com/index.php?option=com_lsh&view=lsh&event_id=12169&tid=76&channel=0&tmpl=component&layout=popup&Itemid=207

Miriambee · Futures level

Brits 5-3 up in first set of mixed doubles.

indiana · Tennis legend

Goood stuff smile

Hopefully Jamie M's advice to Andy has helped here, and that he is also allowing Laura an occasional hit.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Andy seems to be struggling with hip/groin injury.