Week 12 - ITF ($25K) - Bath, UK Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 12 - ITF ($25K) - Bath, UK Hard

Miriambee · Futures level

JoKo won 6-2, 7-6 (5).

sarah gronert lost in 3 sets.

Josh · Challenger level

philwrig wrote:
Strange match that from JoKo, dominant first set and at the start of the second, and then really struggled in the end to win it in a second set TB.
There was a long injury timeout at the end of the first set, so would be interesting if Josh could add his observations on what actually went on in that match.

Wasn't an injury, they just both went to the toilet which is a bit of a walk away.

Van Uytchank (??) was awful at the beginning, could barely keep the ball in court, JoKo was solid but didn't have to do anything spectacular to be 4-0 up. Jo played a poor game at 4-3 up to be broken back in the 2nd set, although she wasn't helped by a couple of dodgy line calls from the umpire. After that the Belgian really improved, was hitting winners from everywhere on the court. It was lucky Jo was serving well or else she would have lost the set and probably the match if the Belgian could have maintained that form. Close TB, and after a DF at *5-4 I thought JoKo had blown it but she did well to take her first match point.

It was a bit of a strange match really, although most of that was down to the Belgian's various hot and cold spells, which I guess is to be expected of the younger players. She'll be some player if she finds some consistency though.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Thanks for that Josh, I was very impressed with Van Uytchank last year at Sunderland, exceptionally athletic for someone so tall and loads of weapons. An absolute cert to be a future top 100 player IMO.
Trying to get an impression on a match from just viewing the livescores is a dangerous thing to do. Seems that JoKo may have to play a little better if she is to win the title this week though.

Josh · Challenger level

I was probably a bit harsh on joko, she did play well, just that the large momentum swings were down to Van Uyvchank

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: Mandy Elliott & Jade Windley WR 865 defeated Martina Gämperle & Julia Kimmelmann (SUI/GER) UNR by 6-1 2-6 [10-5]

*****

Other pairings:

R1: (1) Julie Coin (FRA) & Mel South WR 343 bye

R1: Lenka Jurikova & Kristina Kucova (SVK/SVK) WR 1386 vs Lucy Brown & Fran Stephenson WR 1066

R1: Martina Borecka & Petra Krejsova (CZE/CZE) WR 935 vs (4) Sam Murray & Emily Webley-Smith WR 552

R1: Julia Glushko & Jo Konta (ISR-AUS/GBR) WR 705 vs (2) Tatjana Malek & Stephanie Vogt (GER/LIE) WR 455

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Josh wrote:
Van Uytchank (??) [...]

Uytvanck

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: (1) Julie Coin (FRA) & Mel South WR 343 vs Mandy Elliott & Jade Windley WR 865

steven · Tennis legend

One win today and two surprisingly heavy defeats, so R1 finishes:

R1: STEPHENSON, Francesca (GBR) WC 544 lost to STANCIUTE, Lina (LTU) 7 225 by 1 & 0
R1: WEBLEY-SMITH, Emily (GBR) 295 lost to GATTO-MONTICONE, Gulia (ITA) 293 by 2 & 1
R1: KONTA, Johanna (AUS/GBR) 8 230 beat VAN UYTVANCK, Alison (BEL) 288 by 6-2 7-6(5)
R1: BROWN, Lucy (GBR) WC 578 lost to VOGT, Stephanie (LIE) 263 by 1 & 1
R1: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) WC 367 beat LECHEMIA, Elixane (FRA) Q 499 by 2 & 4

R2: KONTA, Johanna (AUS/GBR) 8 230 v VOGT, Stephanie (LIE) 263
R2: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) WC 367 v BERTENS, Kiki (NED) 2 153 or KUCOVA, Kristina (SVK) 265

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 21st of March 2012 03:25:39 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

huntley93 wrote:
stop whinging if we had that on the men's side we'd be delighted

Hey, I'm a British tennis follower. It comes with the territory wink

I love our successes but don't ignore what's not looking so good.

And re depth on the men's side, it is much the same, I'd say better in some ways :

We have 5 men in the top 300, OK will be 4 after the Miami fortnight with Evo dropping a lot of points. So one less than the women.

But we have 14 men in the top 500 as against 10 women, and more teens currently coming through than in the women.

If Anna Fitzpatrick were to drop outside the top 500, that would be 9 in the top 500. 9 is the lowest we have ever had in the top 500 at year end in Steven's records, going back to 1975, in the stats section.

Great to have Bally, Anne, Laura and Heather doing their stuff ( and ultimately top end success is I imagine what most of us look for and really want ), which clearly well outdoes the men ( excl Andy ), but just saying...

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 21st of March 2012 05:36:47 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
R2: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) WC 367 v BERTENS, Kiki (BEL) 2 153 or KUCOVA, Kristina (SVK) 265

Sam, perhaps not unsurprisingly, will face the second seed in the last 16.

indiana · Tennis legend

Pity. The two wins we would have been looking for. but would have also hoped maybe snatch a win from one of the other three but nowhere close.

With her points coming off, EWS's defeat seems quite likely to drop her out the top 300.

This would mean the top GB top 5 being in the top 200 ( with 2 in and 2 young challengers to the top 100 ) and then noone ( ignoring JoKo for now) in the 200 - 300 range.

I would think it must be quite some time since we've had such a lack of serious depth in the women's rankings.

Last year at this time we had 9 rather than the likely 5 in the top 300. Katie and Naomi C have retired and Mel and have Lisa dropped down. EWS at that time was on her way towards the top 300 and clearly got well within it.

For the immediate future we look like having EWS, Mel, Tara and Samantha in the 300s, then a big gap again to Anna Fitzy, just inside the top 500.

The hope would be Tara gets fit and picks up points though she has relativerly a lot to defend in the second half of the year and Sam continues to progress. Also look to such as Fran and maybe more particularly Eleanor to progress.

But just 5 in the top 300, GB no 10 just inside the top 500, is not good.

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

indiana wrote:
Pity. The two wins we would have been looking for. but would have also hoped maybe snatch a win from one of the other three but nowhere close.
With her points coming off, EWS's defeat seems quite likely to drop her out the top 300.
This would mean the top GB top 5 being in the top 200 ( with 2 in and 2 young challengers to the top 100 ) and then noone ( ignoring JoKo for now) in the 200 - 300 range.
I would think it must be quite some time since we've had such a lack of serious depth in the women's rankings.
Last year at this time we had 9 rather than the likely 5 in the top 300. Katie and Naomi C have retired and Mel and have Lisa dropped down. EWS at that time was on her way towards the top 300 and clearly got well within it.
For the immediate future we look like having EWS, Mel, Tara and Samantha in the 300s, then a big gap again to Anna Fitzy, just inside the top 500.
The hope would be Tara gets fit and picks up points though she has relativerly a lot to defend in the second half of the year and Sam continues to progress. Also look to such as Fran and maybe more particularly Eleanor to progress.
But just 5 in the top 300, GB no 10 just inside the top 500, is not good.

stop whinging if we had that on the men's side we'd be delighted

Shhh · Challenger level

Ah...........but Dan Evans may well pick up a stack of points next week biggrin

Peter too · Tennis legend

The largest gains this year are Johanna 25%, Francesca 19%, Robyn 12% and Laura 10%, Alicia and Harriet are newcomers and next is Sam on 5%. The rest seem to stagnating or falling. It may be that less girls are now travelling abroad to tournaments. In contrast there seems no shortage of entries for tournaments in the UK, perhaps we need the LTA to organise a few more home events.