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

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

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

indiana · Tennis legend

Really competitive performance by Laura but not to be cry

I'll say again that when she gets that serve properly working and turns it into an asset she'll be quite good smile It's great that it has stabilised enough this Autumn for her to have such great matches, but so much more to come in that department.

After not such a good start, missing too many lines, she had a great end to the second set and start to the thitd set, but the serve just wasn't really there when she needed it to help her consolidate against an opponent who was looking down for a little while. In the last two or three games I felt some oomph went out of Laura's shots. allowing Hsieh more time to produce very good shots of her own and generally get on top.

Well played, Hsieh, and she regrouped very well in that final set. Laura has again shown really good match play abilities, just fell away a bit at the end when ultimately it looked in her shots as if all her matches and the heat finally did catch up on her.

Laura will certainly bounce back, and should learn an awful lot from that match.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Chinese website showing ceremony now. Commies can't say 'R', so her names coming out as Lola Lobson!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Take a bow Laura, so so proud of how you fought there saving all those match points, it's not easy playing against a brick wall for over 3 hours and dealing with all that junk from an opponents racket. On another day would have been a win, but now rest up for a couple of days and then comeback fighting for Beijing next week.

Gary Denton · Intermediate Club Player

Fantastic performance, Laura. The pressure of her mis-firing serve told in the end but what a fighter she is! Such tenacity. Top 20 material for sure.

Saving all but 6 of 21 break points tells its own story.

What an improvement in the last 12 months and especially since the Olympics!

Courage, grit, determination, she has it in spades.

Onwards andd upwards without a doubt.

RJA · Hall of fame

BBC ticker currently reads

TENNIS: Britain's Laura Robson loses her first ATP final, beaten 6-3 5-7 6-4 against Su-Wei Hsieh in the Guangzhou Open

indiana · Tennis legend

Gary Denton wrote:
Fantastic performance, Laura. The pressure of her mis-firing serve told in the end but what a fighter she is! Such tenacity. Top 20 material for sure.

Saving all but 6 of 21 break points tells its own story.

What an improvement in the last 12 months and especially since the Olympics!

Courage, grit, determination, she has it in spades.

Onwards andd upwards without a doubt.

The key thing remains though what these things are now being added on top of. ABILITY

wolf · Tennis legend

Big shame.

First two sets were quite good quality, third set not so.

indiana · Tennis legend

Some interesting stats show how well in many ways Laura did to be as close at the end.

Hsieh won 120 points as against Laura's 106.

129 points were played out on Laura's serve as against 97 on Hsieh's.

Hsieh won 6/22 BPs, Laura won 5/7

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

WTA article now has a few quotes from Laura, confirms that tiredness got to her in the end but she also acknowledges the good play of Hsieh:

"She's a really good player," Robson said of Hsieh. "She's very difficult to play. She changes everything so much - sometimes I couldn't tell what she was going to do with the ball. It's very difficult to get any rhythm against her.

"After I won the second set and led 3-0 in the third, she started playing well again and made the rallies longer, while I totally ran out of energy. I kept fighting but just wasn't able to hit my shots as well as I had earlier in the match.

"But the more matches you play the more experience you get, and to play in a really tough final like this one in Guangzhou is a big experience for me."

And from the BBC article:

"All I could do was keep fighting and going for my shots," said Robson. "I was so tired I wasn't even thinking about whether I was a match point down, I was just trying to finish the rallies as quickly as possible."

"It was ridiculously hot for both of us. The heat rule was in so we had a 10 minute break after the second set, and it was tough to have that and start the third set," added Robson, who plays next in the China Open in Beijing, which begins on 29th September.

"They were tough conditions all week and I'm looking forward to getting to Beijing where it will be a little bit cooler."

-- Edited by tony_orient on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 08:25:13 PM

Gary Denton · Intermediate Club Player

indiana wrote:
Gary Denton wrote:
Fantastic performance, Laura. The pressure of her mis-firing serve told in the end but what a fighter she is! Such tenacity. Top 20 material for sure.

Saving all but 6 of 21 break points tells its own story.

What an improvement in the last 12 months and especially since the Olympics!

Courage, grit, determination, she has it in spades.

Onwards andd upwards without a doubt.

The key thing remains though what these things are now being added on top of. ABILITY

Yes, I quite agree, but that has been evident since she won Junior Wimbledon. Now she's putting it all together and seems to play better under pressure, usually applied by her own shortcomings. If she can turn her serve into a weapon, as it was sporadically today, there's no telling how far her ranking can improve. I forgot to mention vastly improved fitness too. wink

-- Edited by Gary Denton on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 08:46:06 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I thought she put up an impressive fight on a day when her game wasn't quite there. She does seem to struggle against players who use spin, whether it is slice like Hsieh or Schiavone, or Sam Stosur's heavy top spin 2nd serve. This summer her return game appears much improved but her first groundstroke after the serve hasn't found the target as often as in big matches in the past. This was a match where Laura really needed to put away those shots as Hsieh tended to control the longer rallies. I was hoping for a much better performance but given the conditions, her nerves and limited reserves of energy at this stage of the week, it was understandable that her level wasn't as high as in the semi. Hsieh played well and certainly deserved to win.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura actually showed impressive levels of fitness to last as long as she did in the tournament. In the past she would have faded in the third set against Peng or not been able to recover for the match the following day. As it was she was on court for 4 1/2 hours over Thursday and Friday compared to 2 1/2 for Hseih (who was in the much easier half of the draw). She then found even more reserves of energy to fight back in the second set but probably used up all her remaining efforts to do that.

A point that has come up a few times is the errors Laura makes on her second shot after serving. This could be techincal, i.e. not having enough time to recover her position from her service motion, but is probably at least in part psychological - when she is struggling to get the first serve in like today it's easy to be very focussed on that and mot quite ready for the next shot.

Priesty · Challenger level

Think this could be a good learning curve for Laura, if a painful one, maybe even a blessing in disguise. As has been said she and her coach will have learnt a lot about what work still needs to be done, and it may keep her grounded and remind the general public she is still only 18. Had she won people maybe would have expected more and more. Also credit to Hsieh who played a canny game, I saw it as more experienced player teaching up-and coming youngster a thing or two. I'm sure Laura will turn it to her advantage once the disappointment's worn off, and her day will come.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Maza1987 wrote:
RJA wrote:
BBC ticker currently reads

TENNIS: Britain's Laura Robson loses her first ATP final, beaten 6-3 5-7 6-4 against Su-Wei Hsieh in the Guangzhou Open
it's all right. andy also lost his first atp final. lol
Ah! I had wondered about that. So, fine then.

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Saturday 22nd of September 2012 12:43:02 PM