Week 12 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Miami, USA

wolf · Tennis legend

Week 12 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Miami, USA

philwrig · Hall of fame

Naomi 4th on, Anne 3rd on and Laura 5th on after 2 GMT.

Looking at each opponents recent form and taking into account our 3 players current form, this is how I see tomorrows matches.

Naomi is out of form, but Bondarenko is also out of form. If and this is a big if, Naomi can recapture her best form I could see Naomi giving her a real match.

Anne is playing OK, not her best tennis, but certainly above the standard of this time last year, Doi though is in pretty good form. I don't see this as straightforward, but I also don't see Anne losing.

Laura is maybe rediscovering her better form, Panova is having a very good year, but is maybe better on clay. A difficult task lies ahead for Laura, but not impossible.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Heather gets Cristea and Bally gets Zhang.

Not bad draws at all. Bally also gets a crack at Serena should she get past R1 - that's motivation enough!

-- Edited by LordBrownof on Monday 19th of March 2012 03:53:32 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

I'm more optimistic

Hmmmm less so now

But to go from semifinal in a 100k to out 1st round in qualies here. I didn't see that coming. Maybe she has picked up a bit of an injury ?

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Monday 19th of March 2012 07:07:42 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Naomi's serve is very much 'on' so far. 73% 1st serves and winning 91% of those !

*3 - 4

But I'm far too slow biggrin biggrin biggrin

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Monday 19th of March 2012 07:34:38 PM

albino · Intermediate Club Player

Haha, typical, as soon as we both type it she serves 4 second serves in a row!

disbelief

And is broken.

-- Edited by albino on Monday 19th of March 2012 07:39:17 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

1-0* La Robson holds, saving 1 bp, after managing to get 1/8 first serves in

*2-0 Laura breaks on the 3rd attempt

3-0* Miss Robson finds some first serves and holds to 40

*3-1 AP holds from 30-30

4-1* LR holds to love

*4-2 AP fires the first ace of the contest in a love service game

5-2* La R holds to 15

*5-3 AP holds to 40

6-3* Robbo's first serve goes missing from 30-30 but she still manages to save 2 bps before eventually figuring out how to get her first serve in the box, taking the set without dropping serve

2nd set

*0-1 Alexandra holds to 15

1-1* LR holds from 15-30

*1-2 Alex holds from 15-30

2-2* LR holds to 15 after her first df and her first ace

*2-3 The 5' 10" russian comes up with an ace to save one of two bps before eventually holding to 40

3-3* LR still struggling to land her first serve but manages to hold from 15-30

*3-4 The world number 83 holds to 15

4-4* LR holds to love

*5-4 LR breaks to 15

5-5* AP breaks on her 5th bp of the game, having saved 1 match point, surprisingly doing much of the damage against the first serve, winning 5/8

*5-6 Panova holds

6-6* LR holds to 15

Tiebreak *1-0 LR mini-break *2-0 2-1* AP recovers the mini-break 3-1* LR regains the mini-break *4-1 AP df *4-2 5-2* 6-2* *6-3 7-3 LR wins

A tight contest. Somewhat strangely, all 3 breaks of serve were due mainly to success against the opponent's first serve. Laura started serving for the match at 5-4 having won 10/10 points on first serve in that set then lost 5/8.

-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 12:17:00 AM

steven · Tennis legend

L96: (WC) Heather Watson WR 129 v Sorana Cirstea (ROU) WR 48 (CH 23 in 2009)

L96: Elena Baltacha WR 61 v Zhang Shuai (CHN) WR 171 (CH 73 last Apr) - with Serena to follow in R2 if she can get revenge to Laura & Hev last week!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Tough one for Hev, as Cirstea seems to be rediscovering her best form this year. Good draw for Bally to draw a WC, but Zhang is much better than her current ranking evidenced by the form shown in her last couple of tournaments. I was surprised Min beat her last week, after she came through against Laura and Hev.

Also just read a nice article with Laura http://www.thetennisspace.com/on-court/exclusive-interview-with-laura-robson/
There doesn't seem to be any injury problems at the moment, so maybe she might cause a surprise tonight.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

No, she hasn't: she redeems herself by taking the TB by 7-3 & with it the match. biggrin Well done, lass! Czink, not the q13, Mayr-Achleitner, in the FQR...

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 12:13:15 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Good for Laura smile

I have kind of said before that I really think she's been on catch-up ever since not really having a close season and losing all that training and work on improved consistency.

I think she really surprised herself by even qualifying for the Australian Open and then it's been a bit tough since, not helped by some niggles / medical issues But last week she got two decent competitive matches under her belt, and that looks a pretty good win today.

I'm quite optimistic that maybe nor just yet, but in a month or two we may have Laura back to about where she would want to be, going forward.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 01:11:25 AM