Week 2 - Australian Open (Women's Qualifying)

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 2 - Australian Open (Women's Qualifying)

Maza1987 · Challenger level

I'm off to bed.
If Heather plays to her best then she can still beat Mladenovic. I get the feeling Heather's game style is the correct method to combat Mlad's style.

I'm hoping for good news tomorrow.

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Wednesday 12th of January 2011 11:54:06 PM

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Moreover, I hope Heather has had enough time to discuss tactics for this match with her coach, as Mlad's style is disparate from Zhou's.

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Thursday 13th of January 2011 12:05:23 AM

Smidster · Challenger level

Play was called off without a ball being hit in anger.

New Schedule for Friday

Anne - 4th on Court 7
Heather - 3rd on Court 8
Katie - 4th on Court 11

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Maza1987 wrote:

Moreover, I hope Heather has had enough time to discuss tactics for this match with her coach, as Mlad's style is disparate from Zhou's.

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Thursday 13th of January 2011 12:05:23 AM

Wonder if Mlad will do that 'taking an age' to start serving thing that she did against Laura. It will be hard to tell from the scoreboard, but Alex and C.Note will hopefully be tweeting (and cheering on) courtside.

Deano · Improver

Ahh tough for Heather :(! Still think she can pull through this one tho, she'll be much more consistant than Laura was when she played Kristina, she'll make more returns as well i think! When laura was using the width of the court, Mladenovic was struggling and and i think from watching Heather VS Peng, hev uses the width of the court well. I dont think Mladen will like when heather flings the ball up deep either! Anyways COME ON HEV!

COME ON ANNE AND KATIE :)

philwrig · Hall of fame

The problem for me is that Heather will have to overcome 3 tough opponents back to back now, over a short period, maybe having to play two matches on Saturday. For me Heather will be able to get more balls back than Laura and Mlad's achilles heel is definitely her inconsistency. It's also possible though that Mlad feeling good about somehow getting into the draw with a ranking in the 300s plays without any nerves and makes very few unforced errors.

Weather forecast suggests a delayed start, but for it to dry up as the day goes on, probably resulting in the middle of the night start say 4-5 a.m.

LordBrownof · Futures level

At this point Heather should be less concerned about making the draw just to make the draw and concentrate more on using the qualies to pick up some points. She shouldn't be too downhearted if she only makes QR2, that's 40 ranking points.

indiana · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:

At this point Heather should be less concerned about making the draw just to make the draw and concentrate more on using the qualies to pick up some points. She shouldn't be too downhearted if she only makes QR2, that's 40 ranking points.

Yes, one match at a time. What comes around will come around. I agree it is important that she gets that 40 points in the bag. With it of course comes continued participation and I still think she has a decent shot of making the main draw.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Yes, but I felt like the 40 points were as good as already in the bag if it were Zhou. Now it's Mladenovic, it seems like a 50-50. I don't want her to go away with nothing.:(

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Thursday 13th of January 2011 05:37:45 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Maza1987 wrote:

Yes, but I felt like the 40 points were as good as already in the bag if it were Zhou. Now it's Mladenovic, it seems like a 50-50. I don't want her to go away with nothing.:(

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Thursday 13th of January 2011 05:37:45 PM

This may of course jinx her, but I think your worrying too much biggrin

philwrig · Hall of fame

Yes first and foremost the 40 points is very handy, but because of Heather's impressive performance last week I am looking at the bigger picture and hoping she can make an impact at this slam, which means qualifying and maybe making R3 given a favourable draw in the main event. If she falls short so be it but thats the sort of target I would be setting her if I was her coach.

indiana · Tennis legend

Now that is aiming high, Phil. Nothing wrong of course necessarily in that.

Think most of us would be rapidly wanting to seriously redo our predictions for her year if Heather reached R3. She'd have presumably ( unless her R2 opponent did it for her in R1 ) beaten a seed and be up to about WR 110 by the end of January.

She had a very good week last week, but that's quite an ask and a step-up again for someone who has experienced just one match yet in the main draw of a Slam ( Wimbledon last year ).

I wouldn't mind it though smile

philwrig · Hall of fame

If I was making my predictions now I would be going for top 75.
I just think the formline from last week is watertight, especially the form against Peng who is a very good yardstick at the moment. I don't think the form was a fluke as her first proper offseason training stint has made a huge difference to her fitness with further power being added to her groundies as well. Her strong mentality gives her an even stronger base to produce performances such as what I'm hoping for. I just think its such a shame that shes been handed such a tough qualifying draw, which means she is going to have to be firing on all cylinders from the first point later tonight.

airsmashers · County player

The main draw is about to be made