Week 16 - ITF ($50K) - Dothan, AL, USA - clay

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 16 - ITF ($50K) - Dothan, AL, USA - clay

Josh · Challenger level

A quick hold to love and into a TB. If only they could have done that last time.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

good low volley there by heather
4-2 tb

Josh · Challenger level

*1-0 - good return from laura right at coco's feet
*1-1 - coco goes down the line and heather cant cover it with the volley sailing long.
2-1* - return from spears just long
2-2* - good serve from spears
*3-2 - coco nets easy volley
*4-2 - serve and drop volley from heather, coco cant reach it

Maza1987 · Challenger level

good win
im off to bed

Josh · Challenger level

4-3* - hev s+v again right at coco but she returns it just past her
5-3* - laura finds an incredibe angle right at the net, impossible to get to
*5-4 - spears cuts off laura's groundstroke with a smash
*6-4 - poor return from coco goes wide
7-4 - coco misses a smash

girls win 6-4 7-6(4)

airsmashers · County player

good stuff, staying up was worth it

Tutu · Club Coach

nice. Some great volleys from Heather and some great groundstroke winners from Laura (bar in the game she served for it lol). So far so good!

SMC1809 · All-time great

The Oop shows Wabson v Gallovits/Perry. Didn't Perry withdraw, or was this just from the singles (which would be very odd).

johnnylad · Tennis legend

I spy a walk over...

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

On the stream it said she had a minor leg injury and inteded to still play doubles.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

RBBOT wrote:

On the stream it said she had a minor leg injury and inteded to still play doubles.

D'oh!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Enjoyed watching the doubles last night eventhough it was very late, the music was patchy and the picture was very dark at times.

First time I had seen Heather play since Wimby last year and what a change. True she started off slowly in the first set showing only glimpses of her potential but during the second set she showed the tennis which makes us so excited about her future. First of all her speed around the court was very impressive and her forehand has come on leaps and bounds since last year. It looks to me as if she has remodelled her stroke using a far more extreme western grip. She now takes a much bigger swing at the ball and using that grip still retains control over the shot. The result much more power without losing consistency on the stroke. The only obvious negative I saw was a serve without any bite which got broken on both occasions in the first set.

Laura is a completely different type of player who owned the first set from the back of the court. Elegant groundstrokes which are timed to perfection. We just need her to get a bit quicker moving around the court.

As for todays matches both are winnable IMO. Laura has got lucky with the draw here with Perry withdrawing. Brengle her opponent is not in great form and won against Chan last night about as easily as Laura had in qualifying. That probably makes this match 50/50 and I might just give Laura the edge assuming she has enough energy left in the tank. If she was to progress to the QF the draw is pretty kind there as well. Heather has a much more difficult match on paper against Rodina. Rodina is also not in great form but is cpable of playing top 100 tennis when on her game. Another close call but I would give Rodina just the edge. The draw is not kind if Heather can progress to the QF.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

I agree, it is 50/50 tho Chan entered Laura's match with 2 good matches under her belt, so was arguably more confident and with more momentum than being called in as a last minute LL, so if I was to truly clutch at straws I would argue maybe Laura has the slight edge there. wink

I also agree about Rodina being the favourite for Heathers match, but I'm not sure what to expect from her. Its clear her game is surprisingly well suited to clay (albeit green) which is nice to see from a Brit. I think a player with consistant groundies, good movement, confident and clearly on the rise is a terrible match up for a player with low confidence whose ranking is on the slide, so Im hopeful Heather can frustrate her into self-destruction biggrin

Either wins would be a bonus though really, more pressure on Laura to make the most of an easier draw.

Tutu · Club Coach

philwrig wrote:

Enjoyed watching the doubles last night eventhough it was very late, the music was patchy and the picture was very dark at times.

First time I had seen Heather play since Wimby last year and what a change. True she started off slowly in the first set showing only glimpses of her potential but during the second set she showed the tennis which makes us so excited about her future. First of all her speed around the court was very impressive and her forehand has come on leaps and bounds since last year. It looks to me as if she has remodelled her stroke using a far more extreme western grip. She now takes a much bigger swing at the ball and using that grip still retains control over the shot. The result much more power without losing consistency on the stroke. The only obvious negative I saw was a serve without any bite which got broken on both occasions in the first set.

Laura is a completely different type of player who owned the first set from the back of the court. Elegant groundstrokes which are timed to perfection. We just need her to get a bit quicker moving around the court.

As for todays matches both are winnable IMO. Laura has got lucky with the draw here with Perry withdrawing. Brengle her opponent is not in great form and won against Chan last night about as easily as Laura had in qualifying. That probably makes this match 50/50 and I might just give Laura the edge assuming she has enough energy left in the tank. If she was to progress to the QF the draw is pretty kind there as well. Heather has a much more difficult match on paper against Rodina. Rodina is also not in great form but is cpable of playing top 100 tennis when on her game. Another close call but I would give Rodina just the edge. The draw is not kind if Heather can progress to the QF.

That's very interesting actually. When I saw Heather at Sutton I actually thought her forehand was her better shot. But she has some wicked angles off both sides. It's definitely very exciting for both girls.

And yeah, her serve was definitely lacking power. But again,when I saw her serving at Sutton she was getting a lot of free points. And she has personally stated that she has a good serve. She could really do with getting more knee-bend in it, anyway.