Heather Watson

ROSAMUND · Futures level

RE: Heather Watson

flamingowings · All-time great

Urgh, what an article.

I like Jo's restrained reactions (Kyle is kinda the same). Heather has done well in her career. She's got titles in both singles and doubles at ITF and WTA level, she's been in the top 50 before and top 100 fairly consistently (in the top 100 area).

ROSAMUND · Futures level

flamingowings wrote:
Urgh, what an article.

I like Jo's restrained reactions (Kyle is kinda the same). Heather has done well in her career. She's got titles in both singles and doubles at ITF and WTA level, she's been in the top 50 before and top 100 fairly consistently (in the top 100 area).

I have reread this article and it reads like a personal attack on Heather. I feel as article it is awful and should never have been published. Scott Lloyd must be a friend of the writer Oliver Brown who is not the Telegraph tennis correspondent. The day before Mike Dickson in the Mail reported Scott Lloyd saying he didn't recognise much of Heather's interview. Well it was in plain English and honest wasn't it.

emmsie69 · Top national player

ROSAMUND wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Urgh, what an article.

I like Jo's restrained reactions (Kyle is kinda the same). Heather has done well in her career. She's got titles in both singles and doubles at ITF and WTA level, she's been in the top 50 before and top 100 fairly consistently (in the top 100 area).
I have reread this article and it reads like a personal attack on Heather. I feel as article it is awful and should never have been published. Scott Lloyd must be a friend of the writer Oliver Brown who is not the Telegraph tennis correspondent. The day before Mike Dickson in the Mail reported Scott Lloyd saying he didn't recognise much of Heather's interview. Well it was in plain English and honest wasn't it.

I'm probably going against the grain but I though Heathers attack on the LTA was as much an indictment of her. The timing IMO was more about taking the focus away from her poor performances in the slams rather than anything else, meanwhile we have 3 juniors in the last 16 and 2 if those already have shown they can mix it with the Seniors.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
I commented in another thread that Dan is 11th (really 10th with Fed out for the season) in the Mens Race, with Joe and Jonny both top 8 pairings in doubles. All stand a chance of reaching the Tour Finals, if they happen.

Well, Heather isnt too far off herself, she is 17th (something I had forgotten) and could reach the WTA Tour Finals or, more plausibly, the Elite Trophy Finals, both of which are planned to take place in the revised calendar.

live-tennis.eu/en/wta-race

It could very well require just two or three really strong weeks, and given the big events coming up there are lots of points on offer in a short period of time. Heather's biggest issue maybe making the draw of some of the Premier events (as she is 50th in the rankings) but she should have a shot of playing most events that she attempts to play. The US swing and later Asian/Chinese swing will be where she will focus her efforts no doubt, time to come out of the blocks quickly I would say

Jon

You commented this in June and obviously there's no WTA Tour Finals or Elite Trophy finals now. There is however a WTA ranking list just for 2020 and Jo is still the top ranked British female player. Jo has 658 points after the French and Heather 515. That gives Jo a ranking of 32 and Heather 51. Heather's year fizzled out after her Acapulco win. Jo had 8 wins and Heather had 9 wins in main draw tournaments in 2020. Jo's points for a semi final in Cincinnati count for alot. In 2020 Jo reached the semi final of 2 tournaments on outdoor hardcourts i.e Monterrey and Cincinnati. But since her win in Miami in April 2017 and the end of 2019, the only other outdoor hard court tournament where she won more than 2 matches was the 2019 US Open. So she actually managed it twice in 2020.

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Sunday 11th of October 2020 03:39:03 PM

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Friday 16th of October 2020 07:39:57 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

emmsie69 wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Urgh, what an article.

I like Jo's restrained reactions (Kyle is kinda the same). Heather has done well in her career. She's got titles in both singles and doubles at ITF and WTA level, she's been in the top 50 before and top 100 fairly consistently (in the top 100 area).
I have reread this article and it reads like a personal attack on Heather. I feel as article it is awful and should never have been published. Scott Lloyd must be a friend of the writer Oliver Brown who is not the Telegraph tennis correspondent. The day before Mike Dickson in the Mail reported Scott Lloyd saying he didn't recognise much of Heather's interview. Well it was in plain English and honest wasn't it.
I'm probably going against the grain but I though Heathers attack on the LTA was as much an indictment of her. The timing IMO was more about taking the focus away from her poor performances in the slams rather than anything else, meanwhile we have 3 juniors in the last 16 and 2 if those already have shown they can mix it with the Seniors.

I havent read the article but and it maybe too early, there is only really one person who is qualified to run Elite British performance tennis & that is Andy. Unlike Scott he has complete insight into what is required to develop and support elite athletes. The Lloyds have been very successful in tennis but I would argue are well qualified to run the recreational aspect as opposed to elite performance. He an appreciation of the level of commitment Kyle had for his craft even as a junior and knew exactly what he needed to do to make the step up to elite senior and helped facilitate it, similarly he has always been very supportive of Heather.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Heather's match win over Elise Mertens in Hobart was the longest match of the WTA Tour in 2020

www.wtatennis.com/photos/1602731/marathon-marvels-2020-krejcikova-s-cracker-in-linz-makes-the-list

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Heather's match win over Elise Mertens in Hobart was the longest match of the WTA Tour in 2020

www.wtatennis.com/photos/1602731/marathon-marvels-2020-krejcikova-s-cracker-in-linz-makes-the-list

Jo Konta was 23rd longest at the US Open

Harriet Dart was 25th longest, versus Doi at the Aussie Open

ROSAMUND · Futures level

New Battle of Britain event to be held between 20th and 23rd December at Roehampton. Heather is the leading female entry.

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Wednesday 16th of December 2020 03:29:50 PM

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Heather's name is headlined in a couple of articles about Hawk-Eye in todays papers 14th February. Heather is in favour of Wimbledon switching to the digital line-calling system Hawk-Eye Live instead of line judges. It was however pointed out by Simon Briggs that the automated system might interrupt the evolution of officials. James Keothavong's experience as a line judge at Wimbledon in 1999 when he was 16,made him consider umpiring as a career.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

I first started listening to music on cassette, then CDs came out. It didnt stop me buying them or then downloading music. Ive often thought it odd that tennis has so many officials when technology is there.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Coming out? I don't remember 'coming out'.....

But I agree - no reason to keep in obsolete stuff just because it has some educational benefit - better to work on how to provide that educational benefit via a different route

I love the automatic linecalls

christ · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
I love the automatic linecalls

Agreed, but they need to fix the system for those that are a foot out, and missed by the umpire. (Ref: Ms Jones last week)

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Coup Droit wrote:
Coming out? I don't remember 'coming out'.....

But I agree - no reason to keep in obsolete stuff just because it has some educational benefit - better to work on how to provide that educational benefit via a different route

I love the automatic linecalls

Its took me a while but I finally left got what you meant there CD. smile

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Has Heather had the type of career you expected when she surged into the top 100 in 2011 ?

Career high 38

Highest year end ranking 49

So far 8 years finished inside top 100 (2021 will be her 9th)

Since breaking into the top 100, her worst year end finish is 119th

4 titles (Acapulco, Monterrey, Hobart, Osaka) 1 final (Tianjin)

Grand Slams R32 (Aus, Wim x 3)

---

Her consistency seems incredible to me. But other players of similar ability, perhaps even less, have managed to achieve superior career highs and year end rankings, even if just for one or two seasons, and made a Grand Slam QF at some stage.

Not sure I gave that much thought to Heather back in 2011 as I was far more excited by Laura's tennis. I can recall the time when she decided her brick wall approach had got her as far as it could.