Hopman Cup RR - GB v Germany

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Hopman Cup RR - GB v Germany

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Good for them to get another win today and with Russia being upset by the Kazakhs, it means we are looking good for a spot in the final, given that you would expect Murray to beat Andreev without too much difficulty.

Another good performance by Laura by the sounds of things to push Lisicki as close as she did and these are promising signs from her that she is given top 50 players very good matches, and if she can reproduce that form in Aussie Open qualies then she should easily qualify, and once she starts to close out these matches against the top players she will become a very good player.

indiana · Tennis legend

Although it was a great performance by Laura, and I am if anything even more excited by her potential, I suspect an inconsistency of performance will remain for some while.

To that extent, performing similarly in the Aussie Open qualifiers, especially say in a tight final qualifier and / or if some things go wrong is far from a given, thus neither is qualification. I do hope she does qualify as she is capable of doing so but if she did not and still performed to a decent standard I'd be disappointed but still very optimistic for the future.

But yes, performances such as close her level against Lisicki throughout should be more than enough.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Laura said in her post match press conference that she plays better against the top players because she just relaxes and plays free flowing tennis. So Aussie open qualifying will be a different kettle of fish knowing that everyone is half expecting her to qualify. But as Indy has said previously to evaluate her progress you must look at her best performances not her offdays because with growing maturity and physical strength she will overcome the pressure which she feels when she is expected to win.
In another development after turning Andy down for the 2012 Olympics yesterday she said she will now think about it again.

philwrig · Hall of fame

A link to an interesting article in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jan/06/laura-robson-hopman-cup

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

philwrig wrote:

Due to a shock Russian loss today if my calculations are correct we can lose against Russia and as long as Andy wins his match in straight sets and Kazakhstan don't have a blowout victory against Germany we will be in the final.

I believe it works as follows:

1. If GB win, we are through

2. If Rus and/or Kaz win 3-0 one of them will be through

3. If Rus win 2-1 and Kaz win 2-1 or lose, it goes to the percentage of sets won/sets lost with the match tie-break in doubles counting as a set. For friday's matches this means the best % from the following list goes through:

GB    4 of 8    144%
GB    3 of 7    133%
Kaz    5 of 7    133%
GB    4 of 9    130%
GB    2 of 6    122%
Rus    5 of 7    122%
Kaz    4 of 6    122%
GB    3 of 8    120%
Kaz    5 of 8    120%

4. If two tied percentages occur in the above list, it goes to % games won.

-- Edited by RBBOT on Wednesday 6th of January 2010 07:49:20 PM

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

oh thank you Rbbot, I was desperately trying to find the rules of how the winner is chosen if it goes to a tie and I really should have come here first!!

One small question though, can you explain the percentages in your above post? I'm not sure how 4 from 8 is 144%?!

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

It's total sets won / total sets lost * 100 across all 3 ties. So 4 won, 4 lost on friday added to the 9 won,5 lost we already have will give 13 won, 9 lost = 144%. Daft way of expressing it if you ask me but its what they use in the rules / tables on the tournament site.

Also, BBC have an interview clip: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8443891.stm

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

thank you, that makes sense, as you say daft way of expressing it but there you go.

indiana · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

A link to an interesting article in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jan/06/laura-robson-hopman-cup

Thanks for link. Nice article. I like the way Laura seems firm in always making very clear where her roots are now, almost especially I've noticed to Aussies ( although I guess it's them that like to bring up the issue smile

)

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 6th of January 2010 10:01:48 PM

Bolt · Lower Club Player

Whats anybodies take on Laura saying no to Andy about 2012
Just there normal banter or does anybody think she may not have really decided which country to represent?

indiana · Tennis legend

Banter !

Drew · Jan 6, 2010

I just love this girl...glad she seems to be well mentored and looked after....listened to the clip on BBC of her and Andy getting onto to each other....very funny.

hope she goes far in the game....very good chance we could have a solid top 20 player in Laura

philwrig · Hall of fame

Watched Sky Sports last night and Laura's coach was interviewed twice. The two most interesting titbits were that they were going to focus alot again on practising on clay to help to develop her game and that he thought the maximum number of tournaments she could play next year was 13 not 17 which is what I thought.

Link to off the court activity piece with a local Aussie rules football team.
Note the reference to her preference to Aussie rules over English football.

http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/tennis/teen-star-takes-on-dockers-20100107-lwfp.html