Weeks 22 & 23: French Open (Roland-Garros) (red clay)

scottie1 · Futures level

RE: Weeks 22 & 23: French Open (Roland-Garros) (red clay)

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Serena deals with a hell of a lot of criticism and has had more than her fair share of adversity. If nothing else her story is incredibly inspiring and well worth a read if you are a tennis fan

She lacks grace in defeat at times, yes, Im not going to argue that. We all have our flaws though smile

steven · Tennis legend

A few videos:

ITV site last few points v Vesnina http://itv.co/LCNvAz

Hev interview: http://itv.co/LCNFrA

Bally interview from yesterday: http://bbc.in/LCPvZv

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I hadn't looked far ahead enough in Heather's draw to realise Serena was in her section.

Serena's defeat goes to show that anyone (at least in the womens game) can lose from a winning position.

PockyTastic · Futures level

I have to say I'm disappointed by those saying Anne is undeserving due to one poor performance. I wouldn't say any of our girls have had a stellar year yet (though Heather looks to have turned things around after a bleak Jan to mid March). Anne is the only player to have reached a Wta semifinal - in fact she has done so 7 times in singles and at once in doubles. She has also been a dedicated Fed cup player like Bally and as a Hackney girl would obviously love to play in her home olympics. Grass is not her best surface and all the nay Sayers are probably right that others might fare better with the WC, but to write her off so casually is insulting to her achievements.

Shhh · Challenger level

PockyTastic wrote:
I have to say I'm disappointed by those saying Anne is undeserving due to one poor performance. I wouldn't say any of our girls have had a stellar year yet (though Heather looks to have turned things around after a bleak Jan to mid March). Anne is the only player to have reached a Wta semifinal - in fact she has done so 7 times in singles and at once in doubles. She has also been a dedicated Fed cup player like Bally and as a Hackney girl would obviously love to play in her home olympics. Grass is not her best surface and all the nay Sayers are probably right that others might fare better with the WC, but to write her off so casually is insulting to her achievements.

Well said. "If" Anne was British number 1 in both doubles and singles (something quite possible) it would be because she has earnt more points over 12 months than any other player. To be overlooked for a wildcard because yesterday was one of her poor showings seems wrong and I am surprised some seem quick to support that.

That said, Bally may well come out on top by the time the grass has finished or, either girl may yet make the cut by right.

steven · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
PockyTastic wrote:
I have to say I'm disappointed by those saying Anne is undeserving due to one poor performance. I wouldn't say any of our girls have had a stellar year yet (though Heather looks to have turned things around after a bleak Jan to mid March). Anne is the only player to have reached a Wta semifinal - in fact she has done so 7 times in singles and at once in doubles. She has also been a dedicated Fed cup player like Bally and as a Hackney girl would obviously love to play in her home olympics. Grass is not her best surface and all the nay Sayers are probably right that others might fare better with the WC, but to write her off so casually is insulting to her achievements.
Well said. "If" Anne was British number 1 in both doubles and singles (something quite possible) it would be because she has earnt more points over 12 months than any other player. To be overlooked for a wildcard because yesterday was one of her poor showings seems wrong and I am surprised some seem quick to support that.
That said, Bally may well come out on top by the time the grass has finished or, either girl may yet make the cut by right.

A few people have commented recently about a worrying pattern in Anne's performances this year, so (whether you agree with that or not) assuming they are the ones saying she shouldn't get an Olympics WC, I doubt the comments are based only on yesterday's performance - that really would be unfair. Yet she almost certainly will be GB no. 1 so, relatively at least, she can't be doing that much wrong!

As mentioned above, Anne has also had far more success than any of the other Brits at WTA events over the last few years, whereas Bally has tended to pick up most of her points from decent slam R1 draws and by dominating high-grade ITFs.

Anyway, it's very hard to see how anyone could stop Anne being GB no. 1 at the Olympics cut-off date unless Heather really goes on a tear at RG. The current situation is:

804 Anne (+ Nottm week 1, which could replace 16th best score of 18)
687 Bally (+ Nottm week 1, which could replace 16th best score of 1)
607 Hev (+ any additional RG points + Nottm week 1, which could replace 16th best score of 14)
586 Laura (+ Nottm week 1, which could replace 16th best score of 1)

.. so even if Bally won Nottingham and Anne didn't get past R2, Anne would be 8 points ahead of her, while Heather would need to reach the QFs at RG to overtake - R4 would take her close but then she would have to withdraw from Nottingham, I think. Of course, getting to R4 at RG would be a spectacular achievement in itself!

Of course, it might be best for all concerned if Anne won Nottingham, if that turned out to be enough for her to make the initial (or eventual) Olympics cut and if that meant a WC being freed up to go to another Brit, though I'm not sure that would automatically be the case.

There certainly seems to be an interesting battle in store for the GB no. 1 spot over the grass court season and given the Olympic venue, I do think it would be fairest to leave the Olympics WC nomination until after that, if that's permissible under the rules.

jake270392 · Intermediate Club Player

I love tennis and I really only follow and support British tennis players. But there is no question that Annes performance yesterday and recent results have been dire and she really only has herself to blame for choking this opportunity away. And at the end of the day, neither girl have made the cut off (actually if Hev reaches the Quarter finals, then I think she can get in) so my opinion is to go with, if we get two wildcards, the younger girls as they are the future and more talented.

But I suppose it depends at which way you approach and look at it.

PockyTastic · Futures level

It's a fair comment that Anne has not had the 2012 we (and probably she) expected after her great run at the back end of last season. I'm not denying that perhaps others might make better use of the WC and I'm not saying that I think she should have it (I had hoped that she'd get in by virtue of her ranking), but I do feel that there was some Anne bashing going on that was a little unfair - considering her year has been better than Ballys (let's not forget she defeated Cibulkova in Feb), people were quick to defend Bally but not Anne. Anne is her own harshest critic so she's probably beating herself up about yesterday... I'm going to stop ranting now, just feel we should give Anne some respect.

Armchair · County player

I was lucky enough to be at RG yesterday and see both Anne & Heather's matches. Based only on yesterdays performances, Anne looked devoid of any weapons at all on court. And after the first couple of games it was fairly obvious you were looking at a rapid exit.

Heather was moving really well and looked in total command in the first set and looked in a different class altogether from Anne. The slightly tweaked serve was working really well. She looked on course to break in the second game of the second set and had a slight drop in form or loss of concentration. But regrouped and nailed it smile

I then saw a couple of other women's matches and you really get a flavour of just how many good players there are on the tour and how tough it is to climb or maintain your place in the rankings.

Well done Heather and I hope Anne has better matches in the grass court season.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Hev's up forth after one ladies and two mens matches.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I hope the Isner/Matthieu match isn't going to the same length as Isner/Mahut. . . ITV are not going to put Heather's match on until that match is finished. 7all, deuce in the final set at the moment. Heather is at *1-2

-- Edited by Madeline on Thursday 31st of May 2012 05:53:46 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Heather is at least on Eurosport 2, which I have on my laptop but is a couple of points behind ITV4 when they go to Heather's match.

The match so far pretty much dependent on if Goerges hits more winners or errors, but a couple of double faults from Heather at 1-2 didn't help

First set to Goerges 6-3

-- Edited by tony_orient on Thursday 31st of May 2012 06:18:00 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Thought Heather played ok. Goerges' superior firepower meant the match was hers to win or lose. Heather was rather left hoping for another meltdown from Julia; there weren't quite enough of them for Watson to get close to winning a set. Slightly disappointing that nearly all the imagination came from Julia. Heather needed a way to win points behind her 2nd serve but never discovered one (4/26 = 15%).

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 31st of May 2012 07:19:37 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Was very disappointing from Anne on Tuesday and yes in general it is disappointing that she hasn't really follwed up her end to last year. But as well as almost certainly going ell above Bally in the overall rankings, she has earned more than 100 more ranking points than Bally this year ( 272 to 170 ) and only fallen behind Heather at the French Open ( Heather now 366 ) so I agree she gets a hard deal from some folk. Just as recently as at Boras for the Fed Cup I didn't think her form was that bad although she can certainly play a fair bit better.