Week 25 - Wimbledon R1 top half of draw

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Week 25 - Wimbledon R1 top half of draw

Maza1987 · Challenger level

when you see the stats from heathers match http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/stats/day9/2130ms.html
you would think she won. less unforced errors, more winners, more aces and more total points won.

oprandi started to come up with some winners when it mattered.

Armchair · County player

Couldn't agree more, Heather's stats were really impressive. But obviously the points
she lost were the ones that counted.
I think Heather met my expectations, Bally and Anne well what a shame...

philwrig · Hall of fame

The odds of all our girls losing their matches using pre-match bookies odds were 23/1 so quite long odds.

DavidC · Tennis legend

It's a scenario which has been waiting to happen for many years. On several occasions there has been just one winner (Lucie Ahl, Karen Cross, Jane O'Donoghue and last year Elena Baltacha all come to mind) You have an excellent chance of getting at least one winner if you have a banker seeded player (as Tim, Greg and Andy for the men) or a fair sprinkling of Tour level players. You have to go back to the early 1990s to find a time when the latter scenario last occurred and it's unlikely that we will see either scenario again until hopefully Laura and possibly Heather establish themselves as seeded players.

Anne has always struggled with nerves at Wimbledon, not helped by inability to win many free points from her serve, while Bally has good years and bad. We're not the only nation with a number of female players who struggle with nerves at their home grand slam. There are a lot of French women who underperform at Roland Garros, but of course there are enough of them, and enough who are highly ranked, to at least ensure home interest into the third round.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Totally disappointed with Bally and Anne. Both should be round 2 and nerves or not it is a real let down from those two. I find it hard to have any sympathy right now. It's the same for every player. Laura and Heather on the other hand are showing so much promise for the coming years.

Tutu · Club Coach

I was live at both matches. I posted this on TF so i'll just Copy and Paste. It's long.

Heather was so nervous out there. In the first set she was just rolling balls down the middle and still shanking the majority of her shots as well as missing practically every return, it was horrible. In the second set she did loosen up a bit and constructed some nice points but even then, whenever she would make an error she would revert back to the same old pushing. At the beginning of the third set she did seem to loosen up her shoulders; she was aggressive and came in quite a few times to great effect, but after Oprandi won a few points and she hit a few errors it was back to being passive.

Ah well, this whole first year on tour has been simply about gaining experience and learning and she has done that so well and has bounced back impressively every time she has been knocked. This is just another one of those situations, and hopefully the next time she does play in a big match she won't shy away and will step up and play in a way she's more than capable of. I won't even bother trying to contest iPatty and sammy01's posts because they're right, she did look ordinary today bar a few moments. I just hope that in the coming weeks and months she'll be able to prove them all wrong and put to bed any doubts about her ability. With all of that said, I don't think this match says anything about her mental strength. She has won so many tight 3 setters this year against higher ranked opponents and it's not like being *2-1 up on the WTA tour means anything at all.

One positive is that her first serve is pretty good for her height. She was smacking down so many unreturnables/aces down the T and it was the drop in first serve % that really hurt her in the end.

jb288 · Satellite level

I don't think these performances are symptomatic of any underlying malaise, it's just unfortunate. Katie is the star of the show for me, totally gutted for her. Mel was simply playing badly, not the same player I saw at Nottingham at all, though lack of a plan B is probably a real weakness for her. I'm sure she'll bounce back, it's just a matter of time - she's not doing anything majorly wrong, she just must be at rock bottom confidence wise. What Katie will take from her defeat - who knows? I hope it is something positive.

philwrig · Hall of fame

The problem was that the players who outperformed say Katie and to some extent Laura had no realistic chance of victory so we gained no reward from their performances.

Interested to hear from Tutu about Heather's performance as he knows her game inside out. I thought that watching it she wasn't quite aggressive enough but showed alot potential for the future, especially as she appears to give her all and then some. Her work ethic is second to none and you just know she will maximise her career wherever that takes her. Liked her first serve average first serve speed comparable to Laura's. Her opponent was so annoying basically forfeiting the second set but then coming back to life in the third when you might have expected her to wilt further. I think Heather was a little nervous but still performed up to a satisfactory level.

As for Anne what worries me most is her serve which has really lost its pop over the last few months. Average first serve speed only 92mph. To be fair to Anne the better player won and she was lucky to be up 4-0 in the final set having lost the initiative to the pesky Aussie in the second set. So I expected the other girl to make a fightback but not to ultimately win because 4-0 is a significant advantage.

Looking at the positives we can't do any worse next year.