Week 28 - WTA ($220K) - Palermo, Italy Clay

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Week 28 - WTA ($220K) - Palermo, Italy Clay

daisy · County player

Not wanting to get toooooooo far ahead but ... we've not had a WTA Winner since 1988, or so I'm reading.

April 28, 2010 - TheTennisWriter.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the last fully British female to win a WTA Tour Singles title. On 28th April 1985, 18 year old Annabel Croft of Great Britain, ranked no.83 at the time defeated world number 7 ranked Wendy Turnbull 6-0, 7-6(5) to win the Virginia Slims of San Diego and her first WTA Tour Title, causing much excitement amongst the British press. The young British hopeful never rose to expectations caused by this victory and failed to win another title before quitting her professional career in 1988.

Monique Javer won a WTA Tour Singles Title in 1988 in Singapore but was only half British.

Not sure why the Tenniswriter omiitted this:-

In July 1988 Sara Gomer won the Aptos Title, a $50k event.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura has been playing well recently but this run on clay has pretty much come out of nowhere. Looking forward to Laura's semi final tomorrow

Priesty · Challenger level

If I remember the Aptos title was credited to Sara Gomer as a proper WTA title not a challenger. The field she competed in had some players who were pretty strong at the time (if not world beaters) e.g. Fendick, Rehe, Robin White.

steven · Tennis legend

Priesty wrote:
If I remember the Aptos title was credited to Sara Gomer as a proper WTA title not a challenger. The field she competed in had some players who were pretty strong at the time (if not world beaters) e.g. Fendick, Rehe, Robin White.

You're right, it does look like it was classified as a WTA event back then. I guess $50K must be worth about twice that now, though that would still make it less than half of the current $220K lowest level of WTA events.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

kundalini wrote:
Laura broken from 40-15. BZS's drop shots are really hurting Laura. Robson seems annoyed with herself.

At the start of the set they were all hitting the net. They've been much more effective in the last few games.

-- Edited by RBBOT on Saturday 14th of July 2012 05:47:36 PM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

12 double faults and 49% first serves in the match for Laura so far.
Considering that she's doing well to keep this set close.

-- Edited by insomniacfolder on Saturday 14th of July 2012 05:49:36 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Laura kept trying until the end but too many aggressive shots landed narrowly wide or just long. BSZ looked fresher at the end than she did in the middle of the first set.

In many respects a predictable match. Laura competitive until she ran out of gas. I thought the key point in the match was a rally with two drop shots from BZS at 4-4 40-15 in the 2nd set. Laura reached the first drop shot and had the chance to win the point but hit it straight back to her opponent (which she was guilty of several times during the match). A few shots later another drop shot won BSZ the point and she went on to break for 4-5. Equally, the two dfs at 30-0 at 5-5 were more than Laura could cope with at that stage and her game collapsed from that moment, losing 7 out of the next 8 points to lose the set.

-- Edited by kundalini on Saturday 14th of July 2012 06:42:06 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

I remember at the start of the year Skybet were offering 5/4 about a GB lady making a tour final this year. Seemed about right at the time, but after the first 3 months of the year, those chances seemed bleak.

Just to prove the rapid progress being made by our 2 young players over the last couple of months, splitting their 2 seasons into half pointswise.

Heather 1st 9 tournaments 139 points last 9 a whopping 551
Laura 1st 8 tournaments 93 points last 8 a whopping 314

Thus Heather has accumulated 80% of her points during this recent period whereas Laura has 77% during the same period.

On today's match, I actually believe if Laura plays as well as she has been and if she shows no mental or physical tiredness( big 'if') she will win today.