Week 41 - WTA ($220K) - Osaka, Japan Hard

Josh · Challenger level

RE: Week 41 - WTA ($220K) - Osaka, Japan Hard

Josh · Challenger level

Stuck on *3-2 15-15 now.

Josh · Challenger level

And straight after I posted that it has jumped to 5-3* 15 all.

philwrig · Hall of fame

4 dfs though, I wonder if she served for the match.

philwrig · Hall of fame

YES

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Both players' serves went to pieces in the 2nd set. In the medium-longer term, I'm hoping Laura's serve will be a serious weapon for her, allowing her to win sets with just a single break.

-- Edited by kundalini on Monday 11th of October 2010 04:18:42 AM

Smidster · Challenger level

R1: (Q) Laura Robson WR 212 v (6) Kimiko Date Krumm (JAP) WR 57

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Well done Laura for Qualifying smile

Well done the 'man with the hat' for predicting she would win in straights biggrin

Am not so enamoured with the 1st round match up ! hmm

Kimiko has been playing extraordinarily well recently I believe...... Knocked out someone big (forget who*) on her 40th birthday a week or so back

I actually thought all the 1st round possibles looked pretty impossible

But, yay, Laura is very talented. We know that, so anything is 'possible'

*(Shazza, and I think she still hasn't got over it biggrin

)

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Monday 11th of October 2010 09:13:38 AM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Laura playing 3rd up on CENTRE COURT tomorrow. She will be happy about that I feel. Presumably the Livescore might be working a bit better there too !

Peter too · Tennis legend

Oh Dear! I shouldn't have made my comment at the bottom of page 6, it was bound to temp fate.

indiana · Tennis legend

Another good win for Laura. As long as she was able to play pretty close to her best that always seemed to me a match she was quite likely to win.

However, when I said that some of the possible main draw options gave Laura a decent opportunity of winning any potential first round match, Kimiko wasn't really one I had in mind

After, as Julia said, beating Sharapova in 3 sets in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago, I see she served a bagel to Hantuchova in their second set before at 4 - 0 in the 3rd Daniela retired. But basically her year in general has been very impressive.

Although I would heve preferred what I would have considered a more winnable match-up, it will certainly be very interesting to see how Laura gets on here. I hope she can be pretty competitive, but I take Kimiko to win in straight sets.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 11th of October 2010 10:39:57 AM

gazzpash · Club Coach

This has got to be up there in records as biggest age gap between competitors?

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Peter too wrote:

Oh Dear! I shouldn't have made my comment at the bottom of page 6, it was bound to temp fate.

Hmmmm yes, we had noticed wink

steven · Tennis legend

gazzpash wrote:

This has got to be up there in records as biggest age gap between competitors?

23 y 115 d is a very big gap, but Navratilova played into her late 40s (coincidentally getting her last win at Wimbledon against Castano, the player Laura beat today, when the age gap was just under 23 years) and Martina is more than 28 years older than Dulko, who beat her in R2 that year, so I would guess that is the record.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Krumm was the only potential matchup which didn't provide a potential winning opportunity. Krumm has been on fire during this Asian swing and is playing like a top 30 player, if she was to revisit her summer form Laura would have a chance. I still think Laura will be competitive as she performs best when the pressure is off. Laura's serve will always help to keep the score competitive. Good experience as well as it will be the first time she will have played the hometown favourite on their own turf.

Now wait for this, the only 'Krumm' of comfort about this draw is that the potential second round matchup offers a very winnable opportunity.