Week 29 - ITF ($25K) - Wrexham, Hard

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 29 - ITF ($25K) - Wrexham, Hard

Maza1987 · Challenger level

yess, well done heather.

and congrats to lisa, too.

indiana · Tennis legend

Well done Heather and Lisa.

Good to hear Heather apparently stepped things up today and that Lisa was mentally strong, which she hasn't always been in the past.

Anyway, think we will be guaranteed a tweet or two about their semi final smile

philwrig · Hall of fame

A bit more from todays matches:
I arrived a little early as the tournament office told me yesterday play would start at 10 am today. Heather was practising with her American coach and Naomi was practising with Daneika.
Mirza's match was over in a flash so Heather's/ Naomi's match started just as Lisa's/Tara's first set was coming to a close. I watched most of Lisa's first set and the third set from 2-3 whilst I watched Heather's first set from 2-1 and up until 3-1 in the second. I must admit I hadn't seen Tara in action all week so didn't know quite what to expect from her. But my word she can hit a tennis ball and was overpowering Lisa slightly for the most part. Lisa fought very hard though and somehow won the first set, Tara giving Lisa a couple of easy games when Lisa needed them from 4-3 up in the first set to go 4-5 down. On this display though Tara should be top 300.

Heather was very impressive today cutting out the silly unforced errors but at the same time showing her top 50 potential by overpowering Naomi at times. Naomi didn't play badly and can strike the ball very well as well . Naomi's major weakness is her movement.

Mirza will 100% beat Laine and will start favourite against Heather assuming of course Heather beats Lisa which she should do. I feel Mirza is still vunerable if Heather were to make it a battle though . Just got way ahead of myself. Heading off tomorrow so won't see much of the SF action.

Doubles final will be between Tara/ Fran (watch out for her) and Mirza/ Laine who provided a doubles clinic in their SF against Lisa/ Nicola.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

if heather wins tommorow, is she almost safe for us open qualies?

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Surely Heather will get a WC as last year's junior champion

indiana · Tennis legend

Maza1987 wrote:

if heather wins tommorow, is she almost safe for us open qualies?

According to Steven earlier : "The USO qualifying cut-off last year was 223 initially, ending up at 234."

If Heather reaches the final, she would go to 221 points on Monday week, which would currently represent 233rd place in the rankings.

Maybe just win the title to make sure smile

Although as goldfish says, as US Open junior champion, having spent so much time in the USA and being at least very close to a qualifying place, I would have thought a WC ( qualifying one at least ) would be very likely.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 23rd of July 2010 09:42:01 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

It's an ITF rule that she will get a qualies wild card as the previous years junior winner.

Tutu · Club Coach

Yep. A QWC is 100% certain but maybe they would consider boosting her upto a MDWC if she did make the cut.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Tutu wrote:

Yep. A QWC is 100% certain but maybe they would consider boosting her upto a MDWC if she did make the cut.

They can't because Heather has used her quota of 3 WTA/Grand Slam MDWCs in 2010 (Miami, Birmingham and Wimbledon). However an advantage of making the cut on ranking is that it frees up her one remaining WTA/Grand Slam qualifying wildcard for this Tour year, so she could still accept an invite from a WTA tournament into qualifying (could be relevant for the lead-up tournaments to the US Open which are likely to have high cut-offs).

Tutu · Club Coach

Oh ok, thanks.

C'mon Heather!

embee · Junior player

Heather won 6-1, 6-3 according to BBC results page.

And as expected will play Mirza in the final. She beat Laine 6-1, 6-4.

-- Edited by embee on Saturday 24th of July 2010 01:30:56 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

SF: (1) Sania Mirza (IND) WR 131 defeated (8) Emma Laine (FIN) WR 335 by 1 & 4
SF: (4) Heather Watson WR 252 defeated Lisa Whybourn WR 318 by 1 & 3 smile

Could be one helluva final...

indiana · Tennis legend

Well done Heather smile

It looks as if she has been building up her performances as the week has progreseed.

Hope now for a good final, and a Heather win !

philwrig · Hall of fame

Matches were played simultaneously just before more rain came.
Heather played as per her match against Naomi very consistent whereas Lisa was too erratic and served a number of DFs.
Heather has a decent chance in the final but Mirza's very best level is just better than Heather's but Mirza struggled a bit in her second set against Laine. Mirza I believe won here back in 2004 and is the just the favourite going into the final. Should be the best match of the week and Mirza's first real test, likely to be a three setter and hopefully a win for Heather.