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

philwrig · Hall of fame

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

steven · Tennis legend

L32: (Q) Laura Robson WR 315 v Yuliana Fedak (UKR) WR 192

No results yet, the above is on tomorrow's OoP.

Laura avoided Gallovits but also missed out on the Q v Q draw and the winner of her match v Fedak is likely to play top seed Shenay Perry (or Madison Brengle) in R2.

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 20th of April 2010 10:51:42 PM

Tennis36 · Masters Series Champion

heather won in three

steven · Tennis legend

L32: (JE) Heather Watson WR 353 beat Lindsey Lee-Waters (USA) WR 199 by 6-7(7) 6-3 6-0 biggrin

L16: (JE) Heather Watson WR 353 v (3) Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) WR 112

Confirmed that Laura won her FQR match 4 & 4.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Ah but there is now and great news Heather fought back from a tough first set to win going away.
6-7(7) 6-3 6-0.

Bonus viewing for late birds tomorrow will be Heather and Laura's doubles on the stadium court via livestream probably around 1.45a.m.

Laura's match is first up but not on a televised court.

Edit beaten by 7 seconds. Is that a record?

-- Edited by philwrig on Tuesday 20th of April 2010 11:04:08 PM

Tutu · Club Coach

Excited to see their doubles! Hopefully they will put on a show.

indiana · Tennis legend

Good to see Heather getting that win smile

Lee-Waters may seem to have been largely off-form this year so far, and was really thumped by Sophie Ferguson last week, but she is a top 200 ranked player, largely because she was beating many top 200 players last year.

Heather has certainly been a very good third set player this year. That's now 7 - 2 when it's gone to 3 sets, indeed she often wins clearly in 3rd sets and even in the two she lost was very competitive in the 3rd set.

Her third set scores have been, chronologically :

6 - 3 5 - 7 7 - 6 (4) 6 - 2 6 - 2 5 - 7 6 - 3 6 - 1 6 - 0

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 20th of April 2010 11:54:35 PM

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Good stuff.
I'll enjoy the dubs match tommorow.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Just thought I'd post a video link giving a summary of yesterdays action from Dothan. It does include a very very brief clip of Heather in action.

http://www.wtvy.com/video/?clipId=4719548&topVideoCatNo=52894&autoStart=true

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks for the clip, Phil.

Wonder if they've taken time with the kids clinic to teach some of them to be ball kids

Is it not rather unusual for a 50K event to operate without ballkids, particularly for main draw matches on the Stadium Court ?

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Yeh it is, they have live stream & video reports but not ballkids, I find it very strange. They even said on the end of that video there was a kids clinic with 300 children involved, so they cant complain that there isnt the staff available!

philwrig · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:

Thanks for the clip, Phil.

Wonder if they've taken time with the kids clinic to teach some of them to be ball kids

Is it not rather unusual for a 50K event to operate without ballkids, particularly for main draw matches on the Stadium Court ?

I just think it depends on the particular event. I'm pretty sure at Barnstaple last year there weren't alot of ballboys present either. When the tournament gets to the latter rounds the likelihood of ballboys increases.
The two night matches scheduled for tonight will have ballboys I'm pretty sure.

I myself wonder how much longer a match lasts because the players have to retrieve there own balls. I noticed during the match yesterday that the players didn't look overly chuffed with the situation.

I must admit a few weeks ago when a couple of people started to mention Heather's three set record I was a bit sceptical as I thought it was too early to commit to such a theory. I couldn't remember in juniors Heather having a particularly stellar three set record. However there is no doubt now that she does have a dominant record the longer the matches go on. Similar to Oudin last year, which without doubt can become a habit digging deep knowing you've done it before. Personally I think that Heather wears her opponents down with very long intense rallies. Whereas Heather can sustain this type of play her opponents start to wilt under the continuing bombardment.

Finally regarding the coverage of tonights doubles match I hope they don't turn the live feed off following the singles match. Yesterday they showed the scheduled doubles match during the afternoon but then turned the feed off for another doubles match which had been transferred from another court.

Tutu · Club Coach

philwrig wrote:

indiana wrote:

Thanks for the clip, Phil.

Wonder if they've taken time with the kids clinic to teach some of them to be ball kids

Is it not rather unusual for a 50K event to operate without ballkids, particularly for main draw matches on the Stadium Court ?

I just think it depends on the particular event. I'm pretty sure at Barnstaple last year there weren't alot of ballboys present either. When the tournament gets to the latter rounds the likelihood of ballboys increases.
The two night matches scheduled for tonight will have ballboys I'm pretty sure.

I myself wonder how much longer a match lasts because the players have to retrieve there own balls. I noticed during the match yesterday that the players didn't look overly chuffed with the situation.

I must admit a few weeks ago when a couple of people started to mention Heather's three set record I was a bit sceptical as I thought it was too early to commit to such a theory. I couldn't remember in juniors Heather having a particularly stellar three set record. However there is no doubt now that she does have a dominant record the longer the matches go on. Similar to Oudin last year, which without doubt can become a habit digging deep knowing you've done it before. Personally I think that Heather wears her opponents down with very long intense rallies. Whereas Heather can sustain this type of play her opponents start to wilt under the continuing bombardment.

Finally regarding the coverage of tonights doubles match I hope they don't turn the live feed off following the singles match. Yesterday they showed the scheduled doubles match during the afternoon but then turned the feed off for another doubles match which had been transferred from another court.

I agree. I don't think she's a "grinder" in the idea that she gets every balla back (well, she does do that too) and just waits for the opponent to make the errors. But she has quite the arsenal of shots and i'm sure that her aim is to move the opponent left, right, up, down til they're just completely finished. I really hope we get to see the Rodina match.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I think its unlikely we see the Rodina match as there are 12 matches scheduled for tomorrow with 6 likely to be played on the stadium court. If Rodina had been American the chances would have been much greater. If you look at todays OOP every match on centre court involves an American.
Maybe we'll just have to wait for her quarter final match.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Noticed that Laura is reverting back to junior tennis following this week and next.
As per last year she has entered the grade A in Italy on the red clay before I assume playing the juniors at Roland Garros. I had wondered whether there was an outside chance she might be given a wildcard into the qualifying for the senior event at Roland Garros.