Week 40- WTA Premier ($4.8M) - Beijing, China - Hard

Jan · Hall of fame

RE: Week 40- WTA Premier ($4.8M) - Beijing, China - Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

Not surprised, as Tony says there were clear signs that she wasn't playing her best this week.

One has to consider though that she has basically played non stop since May, with no injuries. Played a similar amount of matches during that period as she had done in each of the last 2 years for the complete season. Experienced alot of highs mentally but they will still take their toll and be draining. Her shoulder was taped in Ghangzhou so probably is a little bit tired there as well.

I'm not expecting too much for Osaka now, but it has been a remarkable 3 month period for Laura, with performances we hadn't really daren't dreamt about, she was bound to run out of gas mentally and physically at some stage and it has happened here.

Gary Denton · Intermediate Club Player

Too right, Jan. Her run in the US Open and her first WTA Final have radically adjusted our expectations of her. She's already over-achieved this year.

As IF said earlier, some perspective is needed. Let's also not forget that the "31 year old clay- courter" comprehensively beat Roberta Vinci in Round One, so she's no pushover.

Has been a vast improvement in recent months. I can see that continuing in 2013, irrespective of what she does in Osaka. Would love her to finish in the top 50 because she wants to herself, but it's only a matter of time anyway.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura's shoulder was still taped up here as well, and her winning % on first serve did drop suddenly from the high 80s to less than 50%, but I don't think that injury is a likely reason for defeat here. Much more likely it was either just a bad day (plus an in form opponent) or maybe Laura is starting to feel like it's the end of a long season.

I think sometimes it's easy to try and read to much in to defeats like the ones Laura and Heather suffered in this tournament. Whilst disappointing, neither were massive upsets and as long as they both win most of these sort of matches we should accept the odd defeats.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Thanks for the link. Reminds me of her matches against AMG, on both hard and clay. Laura continually pressing but putting too many shots wide or long. AMG's serve unreturned far more often than Laura's. I get the impression that the surface in Beijing (or combination of tennis balls and surface) is quite slow. Laura was hitting more aces per set (12 in 10 sets) on the clay in Palermo (2 night matches) than her 6 in 9 sets here and her percentage won behind her first serve was higher for her matches against Vinci, CSN and BZS than her first 3 matches here, nevermind the loss to LDL.

Watched some of Goerges v Stosur. The main court seems fairly fast but takes a lot of spin for a hardcourt. Looked like a surface that should be ok for Laura against a player that tends to keep the ball in court.

-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 2nd of October 2012 09:03:26 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Report including a few quotes from Robbo. Consistency the main issue.

http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/15018225/britains-robson-crashes-out-in-beijing/

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

I was worried about this match, a consistant pusher with Laura being no doubt tired seemed potentially dangerous.

Still, good that we're ''dissapointed' with a R2 in a Premier event. It used to be fantastic to have a girl qualify, yet alone to win a match and lose a tight R2!

Priesty · Challenger level

Not a disaster by any means.As has been said Laura must have been getting physically and mentally tired after a great summer, and I'm sure she'll come back next year and produce more great things.

indiana · Tennis legend

Well, LDL certainly seems to have been continuing her form here, just losing to Aggy Radwanska 2 - 6 6 - 1 6 - 4 , following her wins over Vinci and Laura.

So whie I did think Laura would win yesterday, she clearly lost to a pretty decent player in pretty decent form on these Beijing hard cuorts.

I think overall Laura should be extremely satisfied with a period since Wimbledon that has added 795 to her ranking total from 6 counting events. That is just over half what the world number 28 in the current rankings ( Sabine Lisicki ) has from her full 16 counting events, 1588 points.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 3rd of October 2012 02:13:03 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Watched LDL play very well today against a slightly injured Radwanska and can see exactly why she posed Laura so many problems. No errors, runs down everything, lots of different spins, dropshots and also good net play. Just the sort of opponent that Laura struggles against at least at this stage in her career.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

It still doesn't feel right that there is a smiley face next to this result on Steven's top 25 table.

steven · Tennis legend

RBBOT wrote:
It still doesn't feel right that there is a smiley face next to this result on Steven's top 25 table.

Ah but the smiley face is for the R1 win!

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

Don't mean to pad a thread, but I just came across this charming WTA promo from Beijing.
Laura and Heather both feature several times.

I think Hev just about steals the show overall, again!

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Agreed biggrin