Week 39 - WTA Premier ($2m) - Tokyo, Japan - Hard

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Week 39 - WTA Premier ($2m) - Tokyo, Japan - Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

I predict a 4 and 4 defeat.
Forecast for more wind today but for it to drop later in the day, could be crucial.

indiana · Tennis legend

DavidC wrote:

Excellent win for Laura, much needed to boost her chances of making the Australian Open qualifying.

Play starts at 2.30am BST tomorrow with Bally second on. Laura has to wait for Halep and Flipkens to play (also second on - delayed because the Belgian was playing, and being hammered by, Petrova in Seoul) so will I guess start between 7 and 9 am

So Halep having to wait a day for Flipkens to arrive, sort of similar to how Heather had to wait for Daniilidou to get from Istanbul to Copenhagen at the beginning of August.

On that occasion it didn't disadvantage Heather in having to play 2 matches on the same day because she never got past Daniilidou.

In this case hopefully Laura can gain some advantage in meeting a player who has already played that day.

The potential real sufferer is the player who has their Q1 match delayed for no fault of their own and then potentially has a Q2 match against a rested player. There was quite a bit of adverse comment on this in the Copenhagen thread.

Apparently though the WTA rules allow for this and it is not that unusual.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 24th of September 2010 10:13:21 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Maybe tempting fate for our girls, but I had a look at the main draw :

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2010/603/MDS.pdf

It's a 56 women draw with the top 8 seeds getting byes, so they are avoided in R1.

The 8 qualifiers are drawn against :

(15) Petrova ( RUS) WR 19
Pennetta (ITA) WR 22
Dulgheru (ROU) WR 27
Safarova (CZE) WR 30
Zakopalova (CZE) WR 39
Govortsova (BLR) WR 47

and the wildcard, Qualifier vs Qualifier, winner to play (1) Wozniacki !

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 24th of September 2010 10:39:06 PM

gjr · Club Coach

Looking at the draw if they both do qualify, it might be good if they drew each other in the Q v Q match. At least one would be guaranteed the 70 extra points.

The only road I can see for Bally to get to R3 is through Pennetta and then probably Li Na.

gjr · Club Coach

Halep beat Flipkens 6-4 6-0 in 1:10 mins

-- Edited by gjr on Saturday 25th of September 2010 04:22:49 AM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

gjr wrote:

Halep beat Flipkens 6-4 6-0 in 1:10 mins

-- Edited by gjr on Saturday 25th of September 2010 04:22:49 AM

Maybe Flipken's recent wrist injury was a factor here. So Halep for Laura - the 18 yr old Roumanian hmmmmmmmmmm

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Saturday 25th of September 2010 05:38:38 AM

Smidster · Challenger level

Bad start for Bally

Bally 0*-4 and BP down

steven · Tennis legend

gjr wrote:
The only road I can see for Bally to get to R3 is through Pennetta and then probably Li Na.

At this rate (getting hammered *0-4 and having trouble holding in the 5th game too), she'll be lucky to get to R1 ashamed

steven · Tennis legend

Both 50% 1st serves, Arn winning 80% on both 1st and 2nd, Elena winning 38% on both 1st and 2nd.

steven · Tennis legend

DFs to go 0-5* down

Maybe once she's eaten a bagel for breakfast, she'll find some energy ...

Smidster · Challenger level

Double fault for 0-5*

Lets hope she can put this set behind her and refocus for number 2

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Oh dear, poor Bally cry

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Hope Laura's not watching this

steven · Tennis legend

Elena holds to get on the board at last then gets a bp after an Arn df, but the Hungarian holds on, winning the game with an ace.

0-6 *1-1