Week 7 - WTA Premier - Doha, Qatar - Hard

Julia Carrot · All-time great

RE: Week 7 - WTA Premier - Doha, Qatar - Hard

RCD · Intermediate Club Player

Julia Carrot wrote:
Well, hopefully Anne v Heather will be competitive, though I am expecting Anne to win that.

This match must have been pretty awful for both of them.

Yeah same here - I don't quite understand what went on in that match, if Laura's injured surely she would have retired otherwise she may have worsened an injury.

Doesn't do Anne any good beating Laura in those circumstances - but game on for AK v Heather!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Certainly worrying how little impact Laura made in that game - if she did just have a bad day then it's better that it's against Anne than anyone else I suppose but it seems more than a coincedence that she lost so heavily after retiring last week.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Clearly not fit, and after game 3 looks like she decided she couldn't win , hence the lack of points she won after that game.
Serving stats point towards the back problem.
1. Why did she play when clearly unable to give anywhere near 100% ? Obviously she can play as many tournies as she wants this year, so maybe this was a factor.
2. Why didn't she retire ? Maybe her coaching staff want her to get into the mentality that she shouldn't retire unless badly injured.

Finally a limited preseason, and further injuries point towards a difficult upcoming period for Laura. I hope I'm wrong and that she can get back to her best form ASAP.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Who is her coaching team at the moment? Doesn't seem like she's made much progress on her movement or consistency since we saw her at Wimbledon.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Anne's been playing better of late. Probably a combination of the two factors.
I think she will also win tomorrow, but it should be closer.

indiana · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
Who is her coaching team at the moment? Doesn't seem like she's made much progress on her movement or consistency since we saw her at Wimbledon.

Well, to my mind, Laura did have a really pretty good second half to 2011, with from memory ( the WTA profiles aren't coming up for me, saving us both smile ) quite a number of very decent wins, and on ranking points it was top 100 form.

2011 :

Pre Wimbledon : 74 points from 7 counting tournaments ( at the end of which she was WR 254 )

Wimbledon : 100 points ( up to WR 185 )

Post Wimbledon : 327 points from 8 counting tournaments ( ending 2011 at WR 133 and now with her Aussie Open qualification WR 118 )

Toyal : 501 from 16 counting tournaments

I thought she was showing much more consistency.

It would be no surprise that this has been set back by basically having her close season totally interupted by dealing with the stress fracture, early though it was caught. Indeed, she was evidently still on crutches a week or so before Aussie Open qualifying. What I am sure players, particularly in Laura's position, would like to do in the close season is hit many balls and work on that consistency, this she couldn't do and if anything seems clearly to have lost consistency since second half 2011.

She herself made clear she had no great expectations at the Aussiue Open and seemed absolutely delighted just to qualify for the main draw.

Without being able to practice or do any really proper training in the close season it is no surprise to me that she isn't looking great at the moment.

Re the injury issues, back and / or wrist, I wonder if to an extent she with her team are trying to play catch up a bit and get court time in. But I do tend to agree with others that it does seem a dangerous thing to play with minor injuries, especially if by the looks of it she couldn't do herself justice, though again I think part of that must must be due to her general lack of preparation for the 2012 season.

Hopefully the injury issues will subside and she will get in decent matches and make progress again.

But I more just think she has been unfortunately set back by having no real close season and like Phil I think may relatively struggle for a bit.

But overall last year her consistency was certainly getting better and I know some folk thought her movement too, although it still has some way to go and will maybe nver be great.

steven · Tennis legend

RCD wrote:
Anne serves it out to love, a 6-1 6-1 win to AK. Nice to see Anne win but not in these circumstances.

Not sure what's going on with Laura - hope she's not aggravated an injury...

Laura has just tweeted: "Being sick is annoying."

Julia Carrot · All-time great

And I'll say it again. Healthy diet vital !! "When will they ever learn; when will they evverrrr learn?"

philwrig · Hall of fame

Nice to hear that there was an explanation for her poor performance today, always difficult to make judgements when you only have limited amounts of information.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Perhaps it depends on the matches you see. From those odd occasions I saw Laura last year and despite the french coaching not working out, her movement was improving under them. Since then it seems to have stalled somewhat.

I have to say that her forehand looked more consistent at Wimbledon than the 4 or 5 times I've seen her play since. There's also a bit of "if you put yourself out there you're good enough" - she was fit enough to be in the Fed Cup team, to play Pattaya and Doha so she should be judged accordingly.

There's no doubt that she's not up to scratch, my concern is her body, both naturally and with injury is stalling her progress. But perhaps I'm being a typical British pessimist!

indiana · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
There's also a bit of "if you put yourself out there you're good enough" - she was fit enough to be in the Fed Cup team, to play Pattaya and Doha so she should be judged accordingly.

Sounds a good phrase. Not sure it stands up to much scrutiny. There can certainly be reasons, which are more than just excuses, why someone performs less well generally or in certain areas. Why should these be ignored ?

It certainly looks as if there was at least one contributory factor this week.

That is on top of the big thing, which I can only repeat is her having virtually no real close season training or practice, which was inevitably going to effect her consistency early on this season.

Anyway, yes, consistency and movement need worked on. I just honestly feel she did significantly progress last year after Wimbledon, and her stress fracture problem has then set her back coming into the new season.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Protracted game. Hev trying.

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Sunday 12th of February 2012 03:58:42 PM

LordBrownof · Futures level

I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just concerned about how awkward she's looked recently. Of course, injuries do play there part and there is no doubt that she'll get better, I guess I'm just revising my original optimism slightly.

I hope that she brings in a coach who has experience of working with players with similar issues - Davenport, for example. If she can maximise her movement potential, she'll be able to get close to the top 20.

steven · Tennis legend

Strangely, this win means Laura will be GB no. 3 on Monday week when Hev's Memphis WTA Q+QF points come off.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 12th of February 2012 05:04:25 PM