British Tennis Forum

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

RE: Fed Cup 2010: Europe/Africa Zone Group 1

jb288 · Satellite level

A little harsh. Ouagadougou perhaps.

steven · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
I thought that Anne could have been risked against Belarus given that I gave Katie little chance of beating Govortsova given her head to head record. I just thought that Anne must be say 80/90% fit to have remained a selection but clearly after this display she is not even that. But in a match like this were Katie did have a realistic chance of victory the risk to go with Anne was clearly daft.

Yes, the whole point of even considering Anne for the match against Govortsova was because of what had happened in the past against that player. That same argument was massively in favour of Katie playing Mayr instead of Anne, and when you add in the other reasons for picking Katie over Anne at the moment, then as I said before, I didn't even think there was a decision to be made there.

If there is more to this than meets the eye, I hope somebody sheds some light on it.

Anyway, with Bosnia so weak, it's hard to see anything other than the whole Austrian team coming down with food poisoning stopping them from going through now.

indiana · Tennis legend

And Belarus will still be around next year

philwrig · Hall of fame

On the way to losing the doubles as well
4-6 1-2*

wolf · Tennis legend

Sarah/Anne lost doubles 4-6 4-6 to Mayr/Meusburger.

indiana · Tennis legend

Anne playing the doubles indicated she was in reasonable shape after her singles ( though I guess would have been very bad if she couldn't play doubles ), further confirmed by her tweet a little while ago :

"What a day! Credit to the Austrian girls who all performed well today. It's good to be back and my body held up at least. Only way is up"

What's more interesting of course is what Anne's level of play was.

The issue very much remains that whilst she may have been physically in reasonable shape to expect her to immediately turn a switch and play top 100 tennis in this situation was asking an awful lot and very arguably too much.

The fact that it ended 3 - 0 is not much salvation, the tie had gone with the girls also knowing that Austria just had Bosnia to play and if Anne wasn't quite up to it in the singles was she even best doubles alternative though whether she would have been chosen for a more live match who knows.

It will really be interesting to know if there were any issues with Katie. Steven said at outset "I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye". Was there or is it more simply as was discussed just a brave / bizarre / unbelievable choice which didn't work out ?

However well Mayr played, and of course she may have beaten Katie, as we stand now, this looks a winnable tie that may well have been lost in selection.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 4th of February 2010 11:25:45 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

From the LTA site:

"Naturally I'm disappointed," says Nigel. "We were beaten by a better team on the day. It was a lot to ask from Annie K. I took a risk putting her in after being out for a long time, but she had been playing so well in practice I thought it was worth the risk and I knew that to get through perhaps the later stages of this group she would need to have some matches behind her and unfortunately she couldn't come up with it today, although Mayr played very well. It was a risk I took that didn't co.me off. It's a reflection of the strength of the Austrian team that they've won both singles against Belarus and us. I think the girls gave it their very best."

philwrig · Hall of fame

At least Nigel did have a semi plausible explanation for what seemed like a mad decision.
Anne playing very well in practice but needing match practice in order to be a force in the knockout round. Unfortunately you have to get there first so a lesson learned.

indiana · Tennis legend

So did Nigel actually notice the result of the Belarus v Austria match ? Has Azarenka even been playing today ?

At least he seems absolutely honest about things here, he's there and a hell of a lot more experienced than us. But I still doubt it was worth the risk and based on such as yesterday's results was it even a risk that really needed to be considered ?

indiana · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

At least Nigel did have a semi plausible explanation for what seemed like a mad decision.
Anne playing very well in practice but needing match practice in order to be a force in the knockout round. Unfortunately you have to get there first so a lesson learned.

Without any other known situation re Katie what he said was virtually what I had thought the thinking was. Muddled thinking to me, and I agree lesson learned.

A lesser opponent than Mayr possibly a risk worth taking, but that was to me asking far too much, especially with Katie there.

However well Anne was playing in practice ( which I am sure he was well aware is quite liable to be so different from a first competitive outing in 6 months ) I am afraid in this situation it was time to decide that Elena and Katie would be our singles players for the rest of the group and any KO that might follow.

Strikes me at least that Nigel fronts up though more than some we might name

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 4th of February 2010 11:56:19 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Your last sentence is spot on! Lloyd woulod have never even commented if this had been him - he would have blamed Anne for lying to him telling him she was fit - claimed she only wanted to the - play the tie for money and recognition and completely absolve himself of any blame.

steven · Tennis legend

johnnylad wrote:
Your last sentence is spot on! Lloyd woulod have never even commented if this had been him - he would have blamed Anne for lying to him telling him she was fit - claimed she only wanted to the - play the tie for money and recognition and completely absolve himself of any blame.

Funnily enough, at the time Indiana was writing that, I was writing much the same thing on AM.com, where somebody who lives in Portugal and was actually there had been writing about the day. Full marks to Nigel Sears for taking responsibility for the decision, even if next to no marks for the decision itself.

baxi2 · Lower Club Player

We are not talking about winning or losing Fed Cup or Davies Cup here,this is about the richest federation in the world not being able to get our teams up from the very lowest leagues . This is about complete ineptitude from both captains regarding team selections.The Fed Cup girls and the Davies Cup Men are not even coming close to beating below average teams. Where is the huge improvement in British Tennis that Roger Draper keeps on telling the world about. Is Mr Draper really getting over £400k pa ....for doing what ? I'd like to know what the Head of the Austrian or Bosnian Federation gets paid. For Davies cup I still say Flemski,Goodall,Bogo who are on paper still our best players behind Murray,should have been somewhere in the picture but instead favourites were chosen,the same has happened here where Ann was chosen over Katie. Its the fault of the Captains in both cases and ultimately the LTA is embarrassed once again. What a joke

wolf · Tennis legend

RBBOT wrote:

From twitter, Anne can't play until the next round because of the protected rankings rules

What twitter feed did you find this on, btw?

I don't doubt you because otherwise picking Anne yesterday would have made even less sense, I just can't find it anywhere.