Week 19 - ITF ($50K) - Raleigh, NC, USA Clay

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 19 - ITF ($50K) - Raleigh, NC, USA Clay

philwrig · Hall of fame

She won pheww!!

Tennis36 · Masters Series Champion

er apparently she's waving the aussie flag.....?

Peter too · Tennis legend

On the other hand it might be an Austrian flag

indiana · Tennis legend

If some supporters fling her an Aussie flag, I hardly think she's going to fling it back and say I'm turning British, I want a Union Jack smile

Anyway, great stuff !! smile

The 70 points takes her up about 80 places in the rankings to probably around 264. And whilst she has got quite a lot of poiints to defend (64) in the next 6 weeks, that 70 points is more than she had to defend in total for the whole of the rest of the year including these next few weeks.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 16th of May 2010 07:34:33 PM

DavidC · Tennis legend

Fascinating interview with Jo afterwards, where she confirmed that she is becoming British (I think she said she applies for citizenship in August) and is looking forward to playing Fed Cup and Olympics for Great Britain if asked. She is now coached by Billy Wilkinson - I don't know whether that means as well as Katie, who the last I knew was working with him.

Jo has no plans to play the grass court season because her ranking isn't high enough, but sounded open to persuasion via wildcards (Ken 'offered' an Eastbourne one for Olympic tickets biggrin

)

SMC1809 · All-time great

After watching her playing at Indian Harbour Beach via the streaming, all I can say is roll on August.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Tennis36 wrote:

er apparently she's waving the aussie flag.....?

I'm sure she was trying to wave just the top corner. wink

JT · Junior player

Superb win Jo, I think she's going to really push on the rest of this year and I wouldn't be surprised if she gets close to 150 by the end of the year.

philwrig · Hall of fame

SMC1809 wrote:

Tennis36 wrote:

er apparently she's waving the aussie flag.....?

I'm sure she was trying to wave just the top corner.

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't in fact the Union Jack.

steven · Tennis legend

SMC1809 wrote:

Tennis36 wrote:

er apparently she's waving the aussie flag.....?

I'm sure she was trying to wave just the top corner.

LOL good one! What a fantastic week though biggrin

- she'll be up about 75 places into the 260s and if she was representing GB at the moment, she'd be up to GB no. 7 behind Laura.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Fantastic. Never mind August. We'll claim her now. When you think of the future with Laura, Heather and fingers crossed Jo things are more than looking positive.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

WOHOOOOO.

My day of sports just keeps getting better.

Firstly, well done on the win Jo.

Secondly, let's stop all the "is she, isn't she stuff now", she's deffo gonna be a brit and I will support her just as much, if not more, than Rusedski, seeing as she has actually been here since she was a young teen.

philwrig · Hall of fame

This is how I read Jo's situation re. her GB qualification.
This link explains the process http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5691421.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

She will qualify for British citizenship in August this year but it will then take a further 12 months before she can apply for her British passport. So it will be sometime shortly after August 2011 before Jo will be playing tournaments with GBR after her name. Hence probably why she said in her interview that the objective is the Olympics in 2012.

Regarding her likely rankings progression and potential two factors which standout for me are one her ability to avoid further niggly injuries and two consistency in form. During the second halfs of 2008 and 2009 she inexplicably completely lost her form for long periods. She cannot afford a repeat of that this year. Injuries have blighted her progress. Already this year she has suffered niggly injury.

She has entered a very weak event w/c 24/5 and should on this form be looking to win this event as well or at least reach quarters/semis. Following that the road will get tougher as the fields get stronger again and during that period we will be able to judge much better where her career path is heading. IMO top 200 by the end of the year would be an exceptional effort given she doesn't qualify for juicy wildcards into Grand Slam tournaments. Outside chance though she may be given Wimby QWC.

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks very much Phil for that info and link. I think quite a lot of folk have wondered just where the process was at, so that's good to see.

Yes, I really do hope that this year Jo can have a good second half to the year after the strange falling away before.

Actually with already by far the majority of her points gained this year, if she could actually maintain this overall level of points gathering WR 200 would be attainable this year.

WR 200 is currently on 252 points. Jo has now gathered 116 points from 6 counting tournaments this year. If she was to attain just a quarter final place in the 50K starting 24/5, which I agree looking at the field is quite possible, then she would be more than halfway to the likely number of points required for WR 200 this year.

It would still represent a really good feat and at the moment the main thing I would like is for her to gather decent points from a number of ranking tournaments. It was great getting the 70 points here but you want good back-up and not be at real mercy of a big drop down the ranking when your big counter comes off like Evo and Wardy were on the men's side.