Week 24 - WTA Premier series - AEGON International, Eastbourne ($618,000) - grass

Mikeduke · County player

RE: Week 24 - WTA Premier series - AEGON International, Eastbourne ($618,000) - grass

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

After the first few games, the scoring looked pretty even in that set, so hopefully Heather can keep it up and make the 2nd set even closer

Mikeduke · County player

Heather 2-0 down in the second set

Mikeduke · County player

My scoreboard is behaving but it is now 4-1

Mikeduke · County player

5-2*

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Zvonareva getting 80% of first serves in - not exactly giving Heather a good chance of causing a shock

Maza1987 · Challenger level

good effort.

indiana · Tennis legend

I am sure that was a great experience for Heather, and it looks a very decent effort.

Looks as if she herself has served pretty well, but so has Zvonareva on the day. I got quite interested just at the end there at 5 - 3 30 - 30 2nd serve then looked at Vera's second serve stats

6 - 3 6 - 3 ( 68 points to 52 ) does strike me as I said as a very decent performance.

Now, get a better draw at Wimbledon, Heather !

philwrig · Hall of fame

It looks as if Hev played much more aggressively to stay with Vika which is very encouraging for the future.
Only drawback from this loss is a drop back outside the top 100, which should be temporary, but still would have been nice to have retained that top 100 status.

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: WATSON, Heather (GBR) WC 93 lost to ZVONAREVA, Vera (RUS) 1 3 3-6 3-6
R1: BALTACHA, Elena (GBR) WC 61 beat REZAI, Aravane (FRA) 52 6-2 6-1

R2: BALTACHA, Elena (GBR) WC 61 v AZARENKA, Victoria (BLR) 3 5

DavidC · Tennis legend

The Williams sisters claim the 2 Centre Court spots, so Bally has to make do with court 1 again - 11am

Anne/Heather play their doubles at 1pm on court 5 (and return 5th match on court 3 if successful)

Jajon · Club Coach

Just read Zvonaerva's comments about the match and heather, not sure if you was just saying it or genuine feeling but hey ho.. "I was a little bit inconsistent but I didn't expect my best tennis in the first match of the tournament and on a new surface," Zvonareva said. "Heather is a good up-and-coming player. She's a fighter and a great mover. She needs experience but she has very good potential. We'll be hearing a lot more about her."

Probably more importantly Heather feels like she belongs at top level:

"Vera's obviously an amazing player and last year she made the final of Wimbledon. I was nervous on the first point but I got over it and really enjoyed it today," Watson said. "A few blips of concentration hurt me in the match, but I've learnt a lot from it and I can't wait for Wimbledon next week. She was the highest-ranked player I've ever played and I felt I was really with her."

philwrig · Hall of fame

I think you have to remember that both are Bollettieri proteges and will know each other well.
I know that Hev was routing for Vera at the Aussie open earlier this year, but still nice to read.

Ratty · County player

Far be it for me to take a contrary view, but ....

I think that Heather's 6-3 6-3 loss tells us one thing only: she is not as good as Zvonareva. The history of British tennis is is littered with the plucky defeats of players who went on to do diddly squat.

And let's get real, the only players who ever say anything remotely interesting about their opponents are Federer and Serena Williams.

What Vera REALLY thought would probably be along the lines of: "I don't know anything about Heather Watson, and to be honest, I couldn't really care. But I'm a nice person, so I'll blather out the customary meaningless platitudes for the British Press to over-analyse."

-- Edited by Ratty on Wednesday 15th of June 2011 09:22:30 AM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Ratty wrote:
Far be it for me to take a contrary view, but ....
I don't think that Heather's 6-3 6-3 loss tells us one thing only: she is not as good as Zvonareva. The history of British tennis is is littered with the plucky defeats of players who went on to do diddly squat.
And let's get real, the only players who ever say anything remotely interesting about their opponents are Federer and Serena Williams.
What Vera REALLY thought would probably be along the lines of: "I don't know anything about Heather Watson, and to be honest, I couldn't really care. But I'm a nice person, so I'll blather out the customary meaningless platitudes for the British Press to over-analyse."

They both train out of the same academy so they know each other very well.