Week 24 - WTA Premier 600k - Eastbourne (grass)

wolf · Tennis legend

RE: Week 24 - WTA Premier 600k - Eastbourne (grass)

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

I'm more demanding - I'd be happy with two respectable + 1 win.

Wow, they've even outstripped Steven's demanding critera smile

Great Eastbourne, folk !

indiana · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:

And Bally beats the world number 24 6-2 1-6 6-3!

Fantastic to see Bally carry her form onto home turf.

French Open finalist, world number seven and 3rd seed Sam Stosur next.

Any chance this will getr onto Centre ?

Peter too · Tennis legend

QF: BALTACHA, Elena (GBR) WC 62 v STOSUR, Samantha (AUS) 3 7

Josh · Challenger level

I think a Bally win would see her into the top 50.

Armchair · County player

Bally has such guts and to see her get a win like this is fantastic.
It's so well deserved. Anyone got a spare camerman at the Beeb ?
There must be one who isn't covering the World Cup.

steven · Tennis legend

Up to about WR 52/53 (i.e. 52 but Flipkens could realistically catch her), (3) Stosur WR 7 next, H2H 1-1 both on grass (Bally won at the Surbiton 25K in 2003, Stosur won more convincingly at Birmingham the following year but they haven't played for 6 years), and a you know what place up for grabs.

Edit: I see Josh has let that cat out of the bag anyway wink

Not that Bally is one to get fazed by stuff like that ... or indeed by anything!

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 16th of June 2010 05:23:08 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

FANTASTICO BALLY.
Bally has been under the radar this week due to Heather's great run, but this reminds us that Bally is still our clear number 1 and will take some pegging back. Still improving and so much more consistent than she once was.

Stosur is not unbeatable either as she isn't as good on the grass as on the clay. Still it will be very tough.

Shame for Heather but Vika clearly on her game you would think, I suspect nerves and a major step up in class are the main reason for this one sided scoreline. No quotes yet from Heather on the match so it will be interesting to hear what she says. Overall an exceptional week for Heather and a good chance she may not need her QWC for the US open.

Wardy as well, means its probably been our best week in terms of tennis results for the year.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Excellent week for Heather, and a not too surprising end, which shouldn't dishearten her. Great win from Bally responding very well after Jie Zheng took control in set 2

philwrig wrote:
Shame for Heather but Vika clearly on her game you would think, I suspect nerves and a major step up in class are the main reason for this one sided scoreline. No quotes yet from Heather on the match so it will be interesting to hear what she says. Overall an exceptional week for Heather and a good chance she may not need her QWC for the US open.

Here's some quotes to the LTA

After the match, 18 year old Watson was philosophical in defeat, "Azarenka played really well, she hit hardly any errors. In both sets I won the second game but wasn't able to stick with her.

"I've learnt a lot, I'll try not to let it happen again. But it's been really, really good, it has really prepared me for Wimbledon, I wasn't nervous at all about any of my matches, and I've really enjoyed it."

"I'm not worried about who I draw at Wimbledon, I'm excited to play whoever it is that I'm playing. The support here was great and I love playing with the crowd. Wimbledon has such a great atmosphere, I always think of strawberries and cream and Pimm's.

"I think I was 10 or 11 when I first went. I was obsessed with tennis and my mum's friend took me to watch Venus Williams. I thought this is what I want to do, I want to play here."

Drew · Jun 16, 2010

Well done again to Bally.

Does anyone have any highish hopes for Wimby?

philwrig · Hall of fame

Thanks David for that. It appears Vika was just in top form and there were no excuses. We know Heather is a quick learner and fully believes in her talent, so a bad loss like this in terms of the scoreline is likely to be more of a positive( a great learning experience) than a negative.

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks David.

Sounds very much as I sort of thought that Azarenka had played well, indeed "really well" according to Heather.

She does not give the impression of being really disappointed by her own performance or indicate any other factors , though yes frustrated that she couldn't keep with Azarenka after winning an early game in each set.

She is just still in the verty early stages of builiding a pro career and I would suggest has done more already this year than most of us expected.

No shame at all in just simply getting well beaten by that scoreline by Azarenka who when near her best will still be simply too good for Heather at this time.

She shows good signs of simply moving on, having really enjoyed the experience this week, and having maybe learnt some things to "try not to let it happen again".

Good stuff.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Drew wrote:

Well done again to Bally.

Does anyone have any highish hopes for Wimby?

Can we dare for one fourth round spot and a further two third round spots. Just got to avoid the really big names and anything is possible.

Wouldn't it be typical if we really have a great Wimbledon that due to the world cup coverage it doesn't get the amount positive coverage it would deserve. I think I just got way too far ahead of myself.

Drew · Jun 16, 2010

philwrig wrote:

Drew wrote:

Well done again to Bally.

Does anyone have any highish hopes for Wimby?

Can we dare for one fourth round spot and a further two third round spots. Just got to avoid the really big names and anything is possible.

Wouldn't it be typical if we really have a great Wimbledon that due to the world cup coverage it doesn't get the amount positive coverage it would deserve. I think I just got way too far ahead of myself.

Maybe slightly but i would be happy with several players going into the second week.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

So good to see players taking advantage of their wildcards this week. Well done to Heather for a promising senior career and an extra well done to Bally for her grit and determination in beating players with such high rankings. Actually, that has to apply to Heather too - brilliant week for both. What a great tournament Eastbourne is turning out to be.

Good Luck Elena for Thursday. This has to be live surely.