Week 38 - ITF ($75K) - Shrewsbury, UK Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 38 - ITF ($75K) - Shrewsbury, UK Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

YEP GSM HEV. 6-2 in second.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

heather wins 76 62

biggest win of her career?

philwrig · Hall of fame

It's up there for sure, Lisicki nowhere near her best, because of injury, poor confidence, family bereavement, but still a huge win for Heather. Lisicki at the beginning of the year was a strong tip to reach the top 10 WTA rankings.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Maza1987 wrote:

heather wins 76 62

biggest win of her career?

Pironkova and Wozniack were quite big too.

Absolutely wonderful - well done Heather. I saw her beat Mirza so knew she had a good chance today.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Moreover, I think she has broken into the top 200.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Just twigged why she is not down for Barnstaple - Commonwealth Games would have clashed?

philwrig · Hall of fame

She probably wishes she was down for Barnstaple now !
30 juicy ranking points for both of them.
Naomi has a tricky QF matchup against Manasieva, now I will get excited if she can win that one.
As for Heather, not a gimme, as her opponent is a former top 100 player and in very good form.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Heather should hopefully be in the top 200 in Monday's rankings with her two wins to date. Cav too has hopefully slipped back into the top 200 and has added on another 2 net points so far this week in Australia for Monday week's rankings.

5 girls in the top 200 would be pretty good smile

I see that it is 1998 when we last ended a year with 5 women in the top 200.

And behind them, we have Laura currently at WR 227 and Naomi B now probably up to about WR 236 with her 2 wins.

And who says both Heather and Naomi B ( and indeed moreso Naomi C ) are finished for this week. I hoped for at least the one Shrewsbury win today and they have produced two, but why not get greedy smile

It's good to see Naomi B come out with such a good looking win today. I kind of have disagreed a bit that she has been as poor at times or for so long as maybe Phil does. I think overall she was probably doing at least as well as she did last year up until she was injured in July last year, just to me she did have some pretty bad results and hadn't pushed on as much as I hoped. But now she has gone to a CH and this week is pushing it up quite a bit further and has made 30 points of the 74 points that loomed late on in the year that she has coming off. Basically I think she had more plateaued a bit this year and if this week is a sign of moving on again, that will be good. Her best though is some way off both Heather and Laura's as shown in her comparative lack of really big wins compared to them, so I don't quite know how high she can go.

Although Lisicki is maybe more of the name and a player I really have enjoyed seeing playing some great tennis, I would say in tennis terms Heather's Eastbourne victories against Pironkova and Wozniak were bigger. Both were in better form going into their matches with Heather, particularly Pironkova, who also of course two weeks later was beating Venus Williams in the Wimbledon QFs. Also they were ( and are ) ranked higher than Lisicki is currently, although Lisicki was out from April through to early August, which no doubt partly explains her form, and indeed her ranking which I am sure will pick up again quite soon.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 22nd of September 2010 05:17:31 PM

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Yes, Heather should hopefully be in the top 200 in Monday's rankings with her two wins to date. Cav too has hopefully slipped back into the top 200 and has added on another 2 net points so far this week in Australia for Monday week's rankings.

5 girls in the top 200 would be pretty good I see that it is 1998 when we last ended a year with 5 women in the top 200.

We'd better not get too carried away (I did too initially, because both Hev and Cav now more points than the player who was WR 200 on Monday) because a lot of players around the 200 area have been doing well this week and didn't have lots of points to defend, so Heather is only 'virtual' WR 200 at the moment.

Those who could realistically catch her if she stops here are Kremer if she beats Vrljic in the Shewsbury QFs, el Tabakh if she reaches the Final in Saguenay, Siguemund if she reaches the semis (may need Final, I'm not 100% sure) in Albuquerque and others like Naomi Broady if they win titles.

Cav is virtual WR 205 and can't improve on that for next Monday but is obviously still in with a chance of getting back into the top 200 the following Monday if she does well in Alice Springs.

What fantastic results for Hev and Broady today though - I was holding out some hope that one of them might manage to win, but both doing so convincingly is brilliant. biggrin

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks Steven. Those peskey other players, why can't they just allow our players to serenely take their places in the top 200.

Ha, well it's only delayed, and next year Laura's coming and maybe Naomi B and Mel will be back. Hey, if Georgie was to manage a full year at her best... They won't know where to look for our top 200'ers biggrin

Incidentally, was just looking at the top 25 table for 52 weeks ago. WR 736 on 26 points, a certain Heather Watson smile

SMC1809 · All-time great

And Lisa W wasn't even on the table.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Excellent pair of wins, with Heather now just one win away from being the second highest 1992 girl

Nigel Sears commenting on Naomi's win said "it showed how effective she can be with her big serve on an indoor court."

Doubles

QF: BROADY (GBR) / WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) defeated ELLIOTT (GBR) / FITZPATRICK (GBR) by 1 & 5

SF: BROADY (GBR) / WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) v FEUERSTEIN (FRA) / MANASIEVA (RUS) (2)

Peter too · Tennis legend

QF: BROADY, Naomi (GBR) 265 v MANASIEVA, Vesna (RUS) 4 155
QF: WATSON, Heather (GBR) 216 v BIRNEROVA, Eva (CZE) 8 188

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Watson said: "I played very well today, much better than I did yesterday, but I am still getting back into playing matches after a bit of a break.

"This result gives me huge confidence, to know that I can go out and beat a top player. Now I've just got to go out and use that feeling and take it into the next match.

http://www.sportinglife.com/tennis/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=tennis/10/09/22/TENNIS_Shrewsbury.html

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Wednesday 22nd of September 2010 07:43:49 PM