Week 18 - ITF ($50K+H) - Jounieh, Lebanon Clay

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 18 - ITF ($50K+H) - Jounieh, Lebanon Clay

SMC1809 · All-time great

This looks to be a good first round opponent for Katie. Milevskaya seems to play only $25K and $50k events but hasn't gone beyond the second round since last June. In fact, she'll be losing approx 50 points in the next few weeks, which will see her ranking drop to around 560.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Milevskaya was a top junior (reached no. 2) but hasn't yet made a breakthrough on the Pro circuit, stagnating in the 300s for some time.

Two years ago Anne made her breakthrough on clay winning the tournament to claim direct entry to Wimbledon. If Katie can follow her example then she would have a good chance of direct entry this year. That's a big ask though with Voracova and others blocking her route to the final.

JT · Junior player

Looking at her results Katie seems to like the clay. I was surprised by the ease of the loss to Voracova last week but hopefully she can get it going this week.

Come on Katie!!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Katie lost 46 64 64

Just hideous.

wales1994 · County player

Horrible! Nothing else to add to that.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Very disappointing just when I thought Katie was starting to turn the corner.

Silver · County player

I desperately want to say something encouraging for that but... I just can't

PaulM · Tennis legend

Its so sad. I mean her results haven't been great, but this is the first that is truly awful, even on clay its absolutely miserable to lose to someone ranked 370.

She's hardly had a week off all year, playing 13 events already. What is Billy doing to sort this out, she seems to be going backwards under him!

She needs some time off too take stock, work out what's wrong on the practice court and start playing the tennis she was last year.

She is so much better than this and these results genuinely scare me. I have no doubt she dropped serve at *4-5 in each set!

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Ksen-sational result for the Belarussian

Ok i accept that was a really poor result for Katie and that it probably wasn't the right time for one of my terrible puns...

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The Knight wrote:

Ksen-sational result for the Belarussian

Ok i accept that was a really poor result for Katie and that it probably wasn't the right time for one of my terrible puns...

So why did you bother? Feel the need to "show off", did you?

JT · Junior player

I'm really gutted for her, her confidence has been taking a hit each week and there's not been much to pick it up all year.

She's played 17 matches this year (outside Fed Cup) and has only won 5 matches with 3 of them being against players ranked lower than 170.

A while ago Nigel Sears talked about finding the right coaches for the right players, I'm not sure this has been the case for poor Katie - she's had 3 different coaches in the last year and has probably had to do a lot by herself. It must have been a big knock not being selected to play Fed Cup infront of Anne and now the results have really taken a tumble.

Does anyone know of anything she's changed in her game recently? Technique, style of play, fitness etc. It's just strange that a year ago Mel was top 100 and took a training block in the middle of March / April. Was that her choice or did the LTA say she had to be in better shape for Wimbledon to look good for them? She did get a lot fitter and looked great at wimbledon but it hasn't done her tennis any good as she's now 230. Maybe that was the case with Katie - she made top 100 then then LTA started changing her game.

If this is the case they should stop worrying about the stats of players in the top 100 and just make sure that when the players get there they are good enough to complete - look at Baltacha - breaks into the top 100 and because she's good enough she keeps going, nothing in her game changed just the belief that she could compete at that level.

Thoughts anyone?

Silver · County player

Giving her a coach that knows her game and knows what to do with it. Sounds like a simple answer but to be honest, how many players do you know of who don't have a regular coach? Most of the tour have a coach who sticks with them all year round and has usually coached them for long periods of time. It's about time someone went up to Katie and committed their time and effort to her. She's going to need someone by her side to help her all the time, not just whenever it's felt it's needed. We can't let one of only four girls to have made the top 100 in 12 years slip down when she clearly has the talent to make that level. It's unfair to her and unless Katie is an absolutely horrible beast to work with (which I HIGHLY doubt), it is beggars belief that a system with as much money as the LTA hasn't seen it fit to help her with this.

If it's mental fragility, find her someone who can curb it. If it's fitness, find her someone who can help that. If it's anything else that they have pinpointed perhaps they find someone for that.

Or maybe they find her a coach who will be with her for anything she needs. Don't let her stagnate. She's been top 100 and she should damn well be there again. Bloody well get your fingers out of your arses, LTA, and do your bloody job. Don't just think it'll sort itself out, it probably won't.

[/rant]

But I agree with every sentiment, despite its rantiness.

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh, c'mon, Silver, say what you think, stop beating about the bush LOL.

So much of that made sense !!

One thing I would say is that I have heard this thing that JT refers to of Katie's non selection in the Fed Cup being mentioned before. Much as I disagreed when Nigel Sears put Anne in instead of Katie I would be extremey worried re Katie's mental fortitude if that was an issue of any significance. You have got to be able to cope with things like that. So I do hope that that is a red herring.

Anyway, whatever issues there are need adressed quickly. Katie is capable of so much better than this.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 4th of May 2010 10:23:23 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Knew I meant to say something else...

Wasn't there some talk earlier in the year that Katie seemed to be taking on a more aggresive approach and fair enough folk at the time were saying it might take a little while for her to get happy with to some extent changing her style ?

Just I haven't seen any mention of this lately.

That said, there would now appear to be more serious issues at play.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 4th of May 2010 10:16:09 AM