Week 38 - WTA ($220K) - Guangzhou, China - Hard

steven · Tennis legend

Week 38 - WTA ($220K) - Guangzhou, China - Hard

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Torro-Flor certainly has an impressive record this season, getting to 112 in the world from outside the top 400 with a 53-10 WL record this season (though only 5-5 on hard courts).

Despite that, if Laura can find her US Open form here I would anticipate a comfortable win. Will be interesting to see how Laura does on this Asian Hardcourt swing as expectations of her have certainly increased off the back of the US Open.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Sunday 16th of September 2012 04:28:35 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

All on clay though, so a bit of an unknown quantity on hard.
Tough draw after 1st round, two top Chinese players await.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

It seems there is no live coverage until the Semi Finals. Laura serving first.

Early days, and the now familiar pattern for Laura's early matches at 'unglamorous' events is in effect again

Struggling on serve (35%)
When the big first serve goes in, she invariably wins the point. (100%)
When it's her second serve she struggles to win many points (33%)
Averages a DF (or more) per service game. (4 in 3 service games)

She usually improves as the match goes on, particularly as she gets a better read on the opponnenets serve.
Apart from the DF, Torro-Flor, is, happily, suffering the same problems as Laura. Laura taken to deuce in all 3 service games, and saved the sole BP of the match thus far.

3-2*

Game 6: Torro-Flor failed to make a single fiirst serve, which led to 40-0* and the break came to 30.

*4-2

Laura duly wraps up a comfortable enough first set. Torro-Flor must be wondering what this stuff beneath her feet is, it's not red and dusty!

6-2

-- Edited by insomniacfolder on Monday 17th of September 2012 05:39:52 AM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Second set - hope for Laura to power home now smile
Very long (9 minutes) break between sets. Presumably a toilet/injury/coaching break for someone. Also, it is 30+°C and 35% humidity, so perhaps the heat rule is in effect.

Laura starts set 2 with her, now customary, 2 DF in the game disbelief . That contributes to *15-40, and she is broken for the first trime in the match, on the first BP.
I'm sure she'll be able to recover that though.
0-1*

And... she does, despite lots of first serves in the game from Torro-Flor, Laura breaks back, to 30.

*1-1

Game 4: Laura earns a BP from the third deuce, and duly converts. Looking to romp home now, as the match clocks up an hour.

Picture changed a bit, as expected. M-T T-F now serving consistently, but Laura is equal to the first serve when it goes in, and is winning 60% of those points.

Laura still serving poorly (30%), but her serve, when made, is big enough to do the damage.

*3-1

Oh!

Torro-Flor really doesn't like the non-clay, and has retired!

Well, Laura looked pretty much home anyway. Decent workout. Sterner tests await.

-- Edited by insomniacfolder on Monday 17th of September 2012 06:09:00 AM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Certainly there were two very different phases to this match. At 2-2 40-40 with nearly half an hour played this was looking like a long stuggle, but Laura completely dominated the first set from then on.

The long break between sets must have been an injury time out for Torro Flor but after a sloppy opening service game Laura took charge of the second set before Torro Flor retired.

What we don't know is how much Laura ramped up her game from 2-2 and how much the injury affected her opponent.

Given that Laura is not known for her consistency it is worth noting she has now won her last 8 (and 13 out of 14) against players ranked outside the top 100. She also has a 100% record as British No.1 biggrin

-- Edited by tony_orient on Monday 17th of September 2012 06:15:03 AM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

L32: Laura Robson WR 75 defeated María-Teresa Torro-Flor (ESP) WR 112 6-2 3-1 (retired)

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Yes, I think the supposition about the injury makes sense, and possibly all had a significant impact on the outcome.

22 more ranking points (30 minus the 8 from her 16th best), should nudge Laura up one more place to another career high.

Interestingly, despite not having won a match since Wimbledon, Annie K actually rose two places this week!

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Superb commentary. Much appreciated. (as is the extra sleep!)

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

Good to see Laura continuing to get the job done. Probably the home favourite next.

Going off on a frivolous tangent, Annie Keothavong recently tweeted that she had missed using Twitter whilst in China, as access to the service is prohibited there.
So, what technological secrets does Laura know, as she has just been able to tweet from China: "Chillaxing in my home away from home, the doping control room."?

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Thanks again IF

philwrig · Hall of fame

Looks like a nice solid win after a slowish start, obviously doubles were a little high but when she did ger her 1st serve it was pretty devastating.
Torro-Flor retired with a thigh injury so doesn't sound too serious.

If Laura faces Zheng next with the potential for Peng after I reckon in the context of this size of tournament and the fact she is trying to backup a big breakthrough that winning those 2 matches will nearly match the heights of beating Clijsters and Na Li back to back.

One positive about playing Zheng is the scheduling which should result in a match played late morning as opposed to the middle of the night.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Wonder why Laura doesn't play more dubs? Is she still at a stage where she gets unjured easily?

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Helen40 wrote:
Wonder why Laura doesn't play more dubs? Is she still at a stage where she gets unjured easily?

I think it's partly the potential of getting injured/tired from playing twice a day if she won a few matches in both singles and doubles. Also, Laura's doubles ranking of 280 is quite low, so unless she found a high ranked partner it would be hard for her to make the draw.

I'm happy for Laura to focus on singles at the moment.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Helen40 wrote:
Wonder why Laura doesn't play more dubs? Is she still at a stage where she gets unjured easily?

I actually quite like the fact she doesn't play too much doubles, play the slams and grass court events and of course Fed Cup, but her focus has to be singles solely. If you look at the top 10 singles players none of them play doubles regularly except of course Errani. Her ranking doesn't allow her to play the tour events anyway.