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

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

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

Jan · Hall of fame

Sorry to see that Heather lost - maybe just a bad day, maybe affected by injury.

So pleased for Laura - glad I got the "potted" version of the match on here and didn't have to sit through the agonies of live-scoring in that one!!

indiana · Tennis legend

NotAClue wrote:
Good professional win from Laura. She has successfully defended her 30 points from last year.

Sorry to see Heather lose. I really didn't see that one coming.
Still, there's no indication of it being so, but even if she weren't to play again this year , the worst she can finish the is on 793 points, which should be good enough for about 82nd place. So, already a minimum improvement of 10 places from her final position last year.
She'll (and I'll) hope for more though.

Also, we are guaranteed another new teenager in the top 100 in the next rankings, as Lauren Davis (WR102, CH same) has made the SF in the 50K in Las Vegas. Davis is 3 months older than Robson, so Laura will still be youngest.

Heather will actually be much better than that at year end even if she doesn't win another match. I wonder if you are not counting in her 100 points from Tokyo earlier in the week, which aren't in her official rankings score yet, though I would still get a bit more than you even then.

Current : 815

Add Tokyo : 815 + 100 - 14 = 901

Add Beijing : 901 + 20 - 16 = 905

Only has 24 points ( from Nantes last year ) to defend, so taking those off and adding back in 16 gives :

Minimum year end : 905 - 24 + 16 = 897

897 points is currently equaivalent to WR 72

Pity about Heather today that she hasn't added at least another 10 on top of that,and got a place in the main draw. But well done Laura, pulled away nicely there.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Julia Carrot wrote:
kundalini wrote:
Julia Carrot wrote:
Far too many double faults our Laura, but a win is a win
The df rate across all the qualifying matches was about 20% of 2nd serves attempted. There were a fair number of players with a reputation for struggling with dfs but even those like Heather who tend not to df too often were finding it difficult. I suspected it might be windy so I checked the weather for Beijing and it confirmed my suspicion.
Good 'sleuthing'. Possibly same happening today?

Only two double faults from Laura today, and none in the last two sets. In the context of other matches today and yesterday, a good serving effort.

I wonder if a few of the players who have drawn a qualifier are thinking 'I hope I get anyone except Laura'

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

Great draw for Laura, about the best that could be hoped for as Date-Krumm is winless since May.

However, even though she was 42 yesterday, she can still run balls down pretty well, as this video from her match against Bartoli in Tokyo shows

Then:

indiana wrote:

NotAClue wrote:
...the worst she can finish is on 793 points, which should be good enough for about 82nd place. ...
... I wonder if you are not counting in her 100 points from Tokyo earlier in the week...
Minimum year end : 905 - 24 + 16 = 897...

Indeed I was forgetting those 100. I therefore also get 897, after dropping Nottingham & Nantes.

Thank you for the correction, and apologies for the confusion.

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

Sunday's schedule starts at 05:30 UK time on all courts.
So, Laura probably on court ~ 07:00-09:00 UK time, second up on court 9, and live score only.
Being a WC v Q match up, she's been relegated to the sticks. Having a Japanese opponent in China at the moment also wouldn't help, even more than usual.

Heather is scheduled for doubles tomorrow. So, no injury withdrawal to mitigate her singles loss.
She is third match on Court 3, after two ATP matches. Again, live score only.
Heather on court ~ 08:30-10:30 in the UK

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

NotAClue wrote:
Having a Japanese opponent in China at the moment also wouldn't help, even more than usual.

Should help with crowd support, though (asusming no one's told them about Laura's recent results against Chinese players).

Heather is scheduled for doubles tomorrow. So, no injury withdrawal to mitigate her singles loss.

She wasn't injured, but according to the match report on the tournament site, her racket wasn't so lucky.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

RBBOT wrote:

She wasn't injured, but according to the match report on the tournament site, her racket wasn't so lucky.

She didn't biggrin biggrin biggrin

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

RBBOT wrote:
NotAClue wrote:
Heather is scheduled for doubles tomorrow. So, no injury withdrawal to mitigate her singles loss.
She wasn't injured, but according to the match report on the tournament site, her racket wasn't so lucky.

Thanks for the information.

A rare bad outing then. I remember someone mentioned that she trashed a few racquets in Quebéc City too. Hope it's not an emerging pattern of manifest frustration borne out of not quite moving to the next step she hoped for.

Here's to at least a decent win or two in the doubles for her.

philwrig · Hall of fame

There are reports for each of the qualifying matches on the tournament website, posted by a British journo who is also on twitter.
Sounds like Hev got very frustrated and tired from doing alot of running in the Giorgi match, and Laura took a while to read Larsson's serve.
Sounds as if one man and his dog are watching these matches, but that Laura has a few supporters.

The bookmakers again are offering prohibitive prices about a Robbo win overnight, basically now treating her like a top 20 player. I think she can play to that level during stages in a match but its all about sustaining it.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

philwrig wrote:

The bookmakers again are offering prohibitive prices about a Robbo win overnight, basically now treating her like a top 20 player. I think she can play to that level during stages in a match but its all about sustaining it.

In her last 5 'counting' scores for her ranking (post Wimbledon), she's averaged 137 points a tournament - if you were to pro-rata that to 16 tournaments, she would be ranked 18th. However, that's only a valid argument, if , as you say, she can sustain it. Sustaining it would require 2 main draw wins here.

Terry · Improver

Whilst I expect Heather will be very disappointed today, I hope she's not discouraged. Giorgi has beaten some highly ranked players this year, including Schiavone and Petrova. And in reaching the 4th round at Wimbledon, she also defeated Penneta and Petrova (again).

Julia Carrot · All-time great

* 0 - 2

1 - 2*

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Sunday 30th of September 2012 06:14:54 AM

Priesty · Challenger level

Fascinating match-up for Laura - up-and-comer against old stager.Date-Krumm has been a nemesis for the Brits since the days of Jo Durie and beat Laura a couple of years ago (in Osaka if I remember) but I reckon Laura can get some revenge here.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Priesty wrote:

Hello Julia yes just woken up and following on my iPad hope you're well.
_________________________________________________________
Lucky you ! Yes, fine thanks.
Also keeping an eye on Colin and Ross's final in Kuala Lumpur + working today so all go !!

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Sunday 30th of September 2012 06:43:30 AM