Helen40 wrote:

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R1:Crawford
R2: Kim Clijsters
R3: Li Na
L16: Sam Stosur
QF: Victoria Azarenka
SF: Maria Sharapova
Final: Serena Williams

Two down....Five to go!!!!

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 Three down.......Four to go!

So exited, I think Azarenka will be really tough, providing of course Laura can get past Stosur.

RBBOT wrote:

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The Guardian have some perspective on how difficult a draw this is. Here's their full list of players who've beaten three 3 grand slam champions in consecutive matches in the past:

Serena Williams (Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Venus Williams in Wimbledon 2003)
Kim Clijsters (Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Mary Pierce in US Open 2005)

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So beating six would be rather notable 

I just love how totally ridiculous the draw has worked out, having put out these two past champions, with the four in theory in her remaining path being the four reigning Grand Slam champions working through from the defending US Open champion, in a timeline via the Aussie and French Open champions, to Serena, the winner of Wimbledon, the last Grand Slam.

I'm sure Kim was looking at the draw initially and thinking "really? For my last tournament?! ARE.YOU.SERIOUS?".

Laura may be Britain's no.2 on paper, but on current form, she is quite clearly no.1 by a street. Her new coach has not only helped to improve her fitness, he has completely changed her mental attitude. Losing that tight tiebreak and those bad calls by the line judges and the umpire would have previously destroyed her mentally, but not anymore. Quite a transformation! As for Stosur, I believe if Laura can put her under pressure, she just might crack. Whatever happens, she has had a massive career-defining tournament here. As the American gentleman said who was commentatiing, Laura Robson is one to watch in the women's game. How marvellous it is to hear that!

I have often wondered if she would ever realise her potential, with her proneness to injury and her indifferent form; now, I think she's on her way. Very proud of her.

Laura third on after two men's matches so she could be on at 8:30 or not till much later

Pity, but Sam Stosur was the deserved winner on the day.

Maybe Laura was a bit jaded today.  At times she didn't get her movement right although that just simply seems generally more in the moment rather than an inability to get to balls.  What has impressed me most re improvements is generally how well she has moved and got to balls and defended when necessary.

Some discussion in the stream I was watching re the UEs, the suggestion being that she was going for too much too soon against Stosur and should try and rally with her more and espoecially get it out to Stosur's backhand.  I personally think her tactics were pretty good, I didn't see her often at all blaze away unthinkingly ( as she was saying herself she did too much in the past ), I think she more hit balls that were there to be hit and her execution on the day just wasn't as good as the last two matches.

Would have been great to get the first serve % a bit higher ( 1st set was 68%, but dipping to 53% and 56% overall ). Takes the pressure off possibly DFing and more particularly when that first serve goes in it is much more effective than the second serve (  67% points won on 1st serve, 39% won on second serve ). Ultimately though, with the serve she had a matter of weeks ago, it has held up pretty well this week under the hugest of pressure.  More work to be done to make it both more secure and indeed an asset rather than a worry.

Interesting and very impressive how Laura played all these match points with such control and calm. There is sometimes a thing about MP down that really focuses the mind, but this was really good, so although as I said earlier I did think her general tactics were good, maybe at times there was a little jadedness and loss of focus causing errors with this third match against a really top player.

Overall a huge breakthrough week and vindication of the real faith that this girl can really make it that has been continually held by many ever simce her early Wimbledon Junior nreakthrpugh.  

Clearly not there yet and has much work to do and get the week to week results that get her moving up the rankings. But to me two huge things from the week, the basic game is there to challenge the very best ( you can't buy the power and ball striking ability that Laura has and does separate her from Heather ) and the second is I am so much less bothered that movement will be a really serious long term issue, it may never be the best but gawd it's improved.

And we can see the areas she needs to improve on, and it's areas that can be improved on.  To me there is nothing obvious that stands in the way of Laura progressing towards the very top of the women's game, which of course doesn't mean she will get there. But the signs are good. .

There may be setbacks along the way and we must be patient, especially with so much time still on her side, but for now she has had a tremendous week.

Well done, Laura 

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 3rd of September 2012 08:09:37 AM