Week 29 - ITF ($25K) - Wrexham, UK Hard

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 29 - ITF ($25K) - Wrexham, UK Hard

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
steven wrote:
Naomi goes down 5 & 2

Muguruza has now won 24 of her last 26 matches, most of them at 10K level before last week's 25K title in Caceres, but even so, what a nightmare draw for a no. 1 seed

Oh dear
After chankev's post I did go off and look at Murguruza's record and although a very good win / loss record I must admit that I didn't see it as being as fantastic as he did. I thought she was a young ( will be 18 in October ), probably improving ( don't know if I put probably if Ratty yet accepts the word "improving" with tennis players ) player and was certainly underranked ( I forget if that one is quite allowed )
Before last week's excellent efforts ( beating 3 seeds in a top 400 player and then two top 300 players ), her really excellent win / loss record this year as Steven says basically came from futures and she had lost all 4 of her previous matches this year against top 400 players. She'd actually had a few better results rankingwise in the previous 2 years.
Basically, I must admit I still expected Naomi to win this, particularly as I understood we had significantly faster courts this wee, well certainly as comnpared to last week.
Alas...
It will be interesting to see how Murguruza does in the rest of the week.

I would still have made Naomi the slight favourite too, but Muguruza's run to the title last week still meant it was a very unfortunate draw for a no. 1 seed to get her before the QFs. As it was, Naomi might well have won had she edged the 1st set, which was extremely close by the looks of it.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Just to add that I watched Sirotkina in Bath earlier this year, and was very impressed. So much so that I suggested Naomi's result against her was more a reflection on Marta's ability rather than Naomi's poor form. I also won a little bet after her win over Anna-Lena Grönefeld.

A quick read of those threads and you'll see that we're very aware of her ability.

http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/t41676755/week-11-itf-10k-bath-uk-hard/

http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/t41812879/week-12-itf-25k-bath-great-britain-hard/

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Jade Windley lost 6-3 3-6 4-6. Unfortunately she couldn't quite beat Gronert but that represents a continuation of some impressive scores from her over the last two weeks.

philwrig · Hall of fame

what a nightmare of a day for the british tennis fan, only saw 90 mins of play today due to a family lunchtime appt.
arrived to hear that jo had scratched and although i am greatly impressed with lucy's progress jo had a realistic chance of taking home another title, left thigh the problem, not sure if thats a recurring problem she has, but it didn't look a bad injury yesterday, but clearly didn't want to risk making it worse.
anna played well at times but we won't see the best of her until her foot injury fully heals.
mel scrapped her way to another ugly win, and it will be interesting to see how she gets on tomorrow against a higher class opponent.
watched the whole of the first set of naomi's match and the key here was the spanish girls ability to neutralise naomi's first serve with devastating effect, unless naomi served an ace the ball however hard naomi served it came back deep and the rallies started with naomi having no advantage, the spanish girl made very few ues but at the same time had no major weapons, just wore naomi down in the long rallies, awful draw in hindsight. naomi still though looked alot sharper than this time last year.
jade has really improved and should all things being equal get into the top 500 sooner rather than later.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Thanks for the updates. Let's hope tomorrow brings some more positive (for Brits) surprises. Looks like I won't get to see any matches this time. Though if the line up for Sunday's (?) final really inspired me I might borrow a vehicle and get over.

chavkev · Intermediate Club Player

SMC1809 wrote:
chavkev wrote:
Looking at the next game, Naomi's opponent has a fantastic record. This could be a really hard game for her. I would go as far as making Naomi 2nd fav, despite what the rankings say.
Thanks for the info chavkev. I lost out on Anna Fitzy but made a bit more back on this one.

No problems. The main reason I thought this was momentum. Very important in the ladies game as a lot of the younger players tend to be very streaky. Adding to this Naomi struggling recently. Young players can be very good value, providing you get the right ones. Sad for Naomi a little bit, but it got me £50 which was nice to come home to after work!

Peter too · Tennis legend

Summary:-

R2: BROADY, Naomi (GBR) 1 220 lost to MUGURUZA BLANCO, Garbine (ESP) 447 5-7 2-6
R2: WINDLEY, Jade (GBR) 676 lost to GRONERT, Sarah (GER) 6 287 6-3 3-6 4-6
R2: SOUTH, Melanie (GBR) 4 266 beat BOBUSIC, Bojana (AUS) 478 7-6(3) 6-4
R2: BROWN, Lucy (GBR) 803 beat KONTA, Johanna (AUS/GBR) 350 w.o.
R2: FITZPATRICK, Anna (GBR) 391 lost to AKITA, Shiho (JPN) 5 284 6-7(1) 1-6
R2: VICKERS, Samantha (GBR) WC 1120 lost to WIENEROVA, Lenka (SVK) 2 238 2-6 2-6

QF: SOUTH, Melanie (GBR) 4 266 v STANCIUTE, Lina (LTU) 7 332
QF: BROWN, Lucy (GBR) 803 v SIROTKINA, Marta (RUS) 3 263

jb288 · Satellite level

philwrig wrote:
anna played well at times but we won't see the best of her until her foot injury fully heals.

Is she moving badly then? She seems to come back a lot and then get injured again...bit worrying :s

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Mel's match against Lina Stanciute about to start, and bet365 can't separate them, offering 10/11 on a win for either player.

Personally, I would make Lina the favourite, it would be a good result for Mel if she could beat her opponent who is enjoying a good run of recent results and who was a point away from beating Laura last week.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: (1) Mel South & Lenka Wienerova (SVK) WR 365 defeated Katerina Kramperova & Janina Toljan (CZE/AUT) WR 1034 by 4 & 4

QF: Anna Fitzpatrick & Jade Windley WR 837 defeated Shiho Akita & Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (JAP/THA) WR 1436 by 2 & 2

QF: Julia Moriarty (IRL) & Alexandra Walker WR 1830 lost to (2) Ksenia Lykina & Marta Sirotkina (RUS/RUS) WR 543 by 2 & 0

SF: (1) Mel South & Lenka Wienerova (SVK) WR 365 vs (3) Bojana Bobusic & Alenka Hubacek (AUS/AUS) WR 661

SF: Anna Fitzpatrick & Jade Windley WR 837 vs (2) Ksenia Lykina & Marta Sirotkina (RUS/RUS) WR 543

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Rain stops play with Mel behind 2-6 *1-0

GaJo1 · Social player

Thank you for this information. Would you pls keep us up to date?

-- Edited by GaJo1 on Friday 22nd of July 2011 10:13:54 AM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

They have started playing again and it is now 2-6 *2-1

You can follow the live score of the Mel v Lina game on Bet365

ITFTennis · Newbie

According to the LTA Naomi Broady was offered a 2011 Team Aegon contract:
http://www.lta.org.uk/NewWebsite/LTA/Documents/Fans%20News%20and%20Major%20Events/Press%20Centre/Press%20Releases/2010/December/2010-12-09%202011%20Team%20AEGON%20Announcement.pdf
Has that since changed?
It remains a fact that LTA funding (which gives access to play more and a wider range of tournaments) and home tournament wildcards provide a massive ranking boost (relative to actual playing level) for British players compared to those from countries where there is no federation funding and limited wildcard opportunities.
steven wrote:
Naomi is not a good example to quote, by the way, because she isn't funded by the LTA ... but good luck to Sirotkina generally - her site is nicely set up and her blog is quite fun.