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

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

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

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura playing on Centre Court not before 11am tomorrow (so no sleep deprivation following her match this time!).

Will be a tough test, and certainly Jie Zheng is a very different style of player to Kim Clijsters and Li Na. I'm not expecting Laura to win, but would be disappointed if she wasn't very competitive.

The bookmakers are somewhat more optimistic of Laura's chances than I am though as the odds are 5/6 for both players. It's a sign of how well Laura has done recently that she's rated as a 50% chance to beat the world No.22 in her own country.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Tuesday 18th of September 2012 04:38:46 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Very surprised that Laura is such short odds as I would have thought around 2/1 would be more like it and such odds would still be very complimentary as to how Laura has advanced.

Not that many poor bookies though confuse

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 18th of September 2012 08:46:53 PM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

It is Jie Zheng next for Laura. Both girls had retirements in their L32 matches.
Zheng is so consistent, very rarely a bad performance, and only about 3 times a season does she lose to players ranked any more than ~30 places below her.

A good, tough, testing match up then for Laura, especially with Zheng's home advantage.

L16: Laura Robson WR 75 vs. Jie Zheng (CHN) 22

philwrig · Hall of fame

I've been doing a bit of digging around and got a google translate of how Zheng sees her match against Laura.
Interestingly they had a practice match/set before the tournament started which was very tight but which Zheng won. Zheng though was impressed with Laura's game and is expecting a tough match. There is even a few photos from that practice session on the tournament website.

Obviously practice and match conditions are different but as Tony says above the bookies are making this roughly a 50/50 match which I agree is a bit too optimistic on Laura's chances. Zheng will be under pressure as hometown and now tournament favourite after Bartoli lost. Laura has had to deal with a similar situation recently at Palermo when she beat Vinci the hometown favourite. So probably 3 sets or 2 tight ones but I would give the advantage to Zheng.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

kundalini wrote:
There is nothing on Jie Zheng's serve. Her average first serve speed is about 3 mph faster than Laura's 2nd and her 2nd tends to be around 76mph. The downside is that if Laura can't finish the points quickly then Jie Zheng's speed around the court and aggressive hitting would appear to give her the edge.

True. I think one reason is Zheng's height. At 5' 4½", she's just about the shortest player in the top 100, which flattens out her serve and makes the power and penetration hard to come by.

For the record, here are the other players shorter than her, in reverse height order:

13 - Dominika Cibulkova (5' 3")
15 - Roberta Vinci (5' 4")
45 - Carla Suarez Navarro (5' 4")
67 - Lourdes Dominguez Lino (5' 4")
22 - Jie Zheng (5' 4½")
85 - Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (5' 4½")

Yes, I am sad enough to have looked up the heights of the entire top 100!

This is the sort of match up I really wish was steamed, but alas, it will be live score only.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

insomniacfolder wrote:
kundalini wrote:
There is nothing on Jie Zheng's serve. Her average first serve speed is about 3 mph faster than Laura's 2nd and her 2nd tends to be around 76mph. The downside is that if Laura can't finish the points quickly then Jie Zheng's speed around the court and aggressive hitting would appear to give her the edge.
True. I think one reason is Zheng's height. At 5' 4½", she's just about the shortest player in the top 100, which flattens out her serve and makes the power and penetration hard to come by.
For the record, here are the other players shorter than her, in reverse height order:
13 - Dominika Cibulkova (5' 3")
15 - Roberta Vinci (5' 4")
45 - Carla Suarez Navarro (5' 4")
67 - Lourdes Dominguez Lino (5' 4")
22 - Jie Zheng (5' 4½")
85 - Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (5' 4½")
Yes, I am sad enough to have looked up the heights of the entire top 100!
This is the sort of match up I really wish was steamed, but alas, it will be live score only.

That had me thinking for a moment biggrin

Julia Carrot · All-time great

ON THE BOARD NOW - Stand by for 'Match of the day' biggrin

(I'm nervous)

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 11:56:03 AM

Peter too · Tennis legend

Laura 6-3

3 breaks of service to 1.

Laura points 27/46 59%, Jie 19/45 41%

-- Edited by Peter too on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 12:51:47 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

OMG 2 break points whilst serving for the Match !

Saves the 1st

And the 2nd

And the 3rd
-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 01:33:35 PM

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 01:34:02 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Match confirmed as the night match, so 11am BST start tomorrow.

And the BBC have even used a nice picture of Laura instead of an ugly mid-shot pose, so everything is going her way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/19652405

-- Edited by tony_orient on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 02:50:25 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Rain Delay, not forecast, but annoying just as Laura's match just about to start.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

I'm annoyed too! Guess Laura even more so ! The forecast is that it should stop soon. But it's pushing the match well into the evening for her which just is not great for balancing/managing food intake etc.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Still raining only light stuff but now the LS has taken all the matches off so not looking too promising, Peng as well is already safely through. Forecast for tomorrow is OKish but awful for the rest of the week.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Stopped raining now fog according to weather.com.