Week 17 - ITF ($25K) - Brescia, Italy - Clay

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

RE: Week 17 - ITF ($25K) - Brescia, Italy - Clay

steven · Tennis legend

Superb ... this must feel like such a breakthrough for her, very excited about the rest of her year now

steven · Tennis legend

I make this the first singles title for Cav since Orange CA in 2007, her first doubles title since the same week in 2009 and the first 'double' at 25K level or above for a GB woman since Melanie South did it at the Sorrento 25K in 2008.

indiana · Tennis legend

Absolutely tremendous news to come in to and such convincing wins by Naomi all week culminating in the final biggrin

As murray says, her net rise in points is 42 taking her to 316 points which would represent 174th place in this week's rankings. She is virtually certain to pass her CH of 183 on Monday week.

That CH was set over 2 years ago so it has been a long wait, but if this truelly signals her finally beginning to rise again towards the top 100 where I'd think most folk thought in the past she was quite probably going, then it's hopefully going to be good to follow.

Naomi does relatively have a lot of points ( 132 ) to defend up to and including Wimbledon, but this gives so much more confidence that she may do that and indeed progress through the rest of the year. I really hope so.

It would be great to see yet another of the girls firmly on the rise. This has indeed generally been a really good first four months of the year for the GB females and as Steven suggests elsewhere it may well be success spurring success.  And, yes, oh to to develop even close to that momentum among the guys.

Good advert too for finetuning your practice on the British Tour   smile

Though how appropriate for others and whether we'll see Naomi back there soon again is debatable.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 2nd of May 2010 06:12:28 PM

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
It would be great to see yet another of the girls firmly on the rise. This has indeed generally been a really good first four months of the year for the GB females and as Steven suggests elsewhere it may well be success spurring success. And, yes, oh to to develop even close to that momentum among the guys.

Good advert too for finetuning your practice on the British Tour Though how appropriate for others and whether we'll see Naomi back there soon again is debatable.

The new improved British Tour does seem like it's worth playing these days (I never used to think it was), and of course Naomi isn't the first player to do well this year after fine-tuning on it - Sean Thornley is a very good advert for it too!

It does feel like it has been a very good first few months for the girls, doesn't it ... but oddly if you look at the blue and pink on the 2010 changes on the top 25 tables http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/gbtop25m/current.htm v http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/gbtop25f/currentf.htm, the immediate impression is that the opposite is the case - 11 GB women up in 2010 so far, 13 down, 1 unchanged cf 18 GB men up, 6 down, 1 unchanged.

The movers table at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/stats/mv-c.htm?n=1 tells a similar story.

I think the differences (the differences that do make the women's moves more impressive) are:

1) Although 9 men and only 4 women are up over 10% (though both Naomis and Lisa will also be up over 10% or very close on Monday week), of the 9 men, only Chris Priddle (who came from such a low level that the "% closer to world no. 1" formula is not as good a measure as it is for those in the top 1000, I don't think) is up more than 20%, whereas the 4 women are all up over 30%.

2) The big moves for the women are coming at the levels where it's most important, getting towards or moving through the 25K+ level, whereas the bigger men's moves aren't really getting them out of Futures level yet and can be the result of one or two big weeks rather than a consistent improvement.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 2nd of May 2010 06:50:30 PM

Happycynic · Pro player

Must be a good result, even the beeb managed a write up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8657164.stm

Well done cav.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Steven, although the numbers rising in the rankings are as you show undoubtably better among the men, the excitement is nearly all in the women.

After Priddle at 40.4% the next 4 ( and only others over 20% up ) are all girls, all over 30% up and all rising in areas that are really significant especially at the relevant stages in their careers ( Watson, Smith, Robson and Baltacha ).

The next 7 after these 4 are all guys rising between 10 and 20% ( Inglot, Smethurst, Thornley, Eaton, A Ward, Morgan, Baker and Aldridge ). These guys have not had the same impact yet they maybe would if they'ed sustained short spells of success over a longer term. That is what is largely separating the girls mentioned above from these guys. Clearly progress from the guys but sometimes just when you think they are really taking off it somehow doesn't really hugely follow through. Unfortunately Dom and Wardinator seem the latest to have just cooled a bit after some very promising weeks, hopefully to come again.

It is the sustained success of the 4 girls that has been impressive and brough them the big ranking moves. Hopefully such as the Naomis, Lisa and some of the higher ranked guys can find that consistency that really moves your ranking upwards and makes an impression.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Quite an unbelievable effort from Cav this week. Where did it come from ? Was it just a matter of confidence or did the venue and the playing conditions have something to do with it. I really do hope she can kick on from here because on this form she should move into the top 150 sooner rather than later. Clearly Cav is a bit of an enigma in that she can go from zero to hero within the space of just one week. Or maybe that is the unpredictability of sport that something like this can happen.

She shouldn't be too tired from her exertions this week so I am hoping for some great performances this week as well.

I must admit I don't understand why when Cav loses its always because its either indoors or its on clay. I hope now that she has produced a career best performance on clay there will be no more excuses. In my opinion if you are good enough you should be able to deliver on all surfaces and in all types of conditions.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

I know, such a straight series of wins makes me sceptical as to where the catch is! Hopefully Naomi has just stepped her game up a level, though I did wonder whether this virus of hers, like all viruses, would take time to get out of the system fully & despite Naomi feeling better it may have just held her back from maximising her game and training.

With any great week, its only as good as her next win. We need her to back it up now, which her draw next week wont make easy though her winning streak has to be amazing for the confidence. Perhaps cutting the doubles out now shes comfortable would be a good idea.