Week 41 - WTA ($220K) - Osaka, Japan - Hard

Gary Denton · Intermediate Club Player

RE: Week 41 - WTA ($220K) - Osaka, Japan - Hard

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

philwrig wrote:
Thats about as ugly as it gets from 5-0 up in the first, you'd have to think if it was a MTO, it was for Laura, we know that she needed physio after her last match. The other girl clearly fought very hard, but my expectations are now heavily reduced for tomorrow.

Agree with your assessment - a match that posed more questions than answers. It's starting to look like the end of a long season for Laura and if she can scrape out one more win it will be a good effort this week.

On the other hand Heather's result was much more convincing. Two tough but winnable matches completed, and Parmentier and (probably) Scheepers would also fall into that category. I'd give Heather a better shot than Laura at reaching the final here.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

Nice to see a 0 in the df column.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

You know, I could get very used to seeing British girls still in tournaments towards the later stages. . .

Well done to both girls!

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Well done Laura , bit scruffy after the blistering start, but got the job done.

Friday's OOP is up. The schedule starts at 04:00 UK time on all courts.

Heather is up first on Court 1 - 04:00 UK time.
Laura second on Centre - ~05:30 or later UK time.

Heather also has doubles, 4th up on centre, so probably 09:00 or after UK time.

Lovely to have a busy schedule to try and follow so late in the week.

Jan · Hall of fame

ooh too early!
But yes - great to have so much interest left!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Latest Odds to win the title (from Bet365):

Laura 7/2
Heather 10/1

I can't see Laura getting past the Semi-Finals here, though I would love her to prove me wrong, but the bookies are offering some value on Heather, especially as an each way bet because there's no-one unbeatable in her half.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

steven wrote:
Great wins from the superkids today I make this only the 2nd time this century that GB has had two women in the QFs of the same WTA event, the other being Memphis 2010 (Bally and Anne), Heather's 4th WTA QF (1st this year) and Laura's 2nd this year after Palermo.

Great stat!

Is this not Laura's 3rd QF of the year though? Palermo, Guangzhou, and now Osaka?

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
By the way re Laura, *cough*, Guangzhou. ( oh, as IF said )

Oops - I thought, hold on, that's wrong ... and didn't tweet it ... but then managed to press send on here without taking that bit out. D'oh!

Julia Carrot · All-time great

And wasn't Memphis a 100k ITF, so doesn't quite count?

(I may be quite wrong there..... only from memory)

wolf · Tennis legend

No, I think you are thinking of Midland, which I think is the week before.

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

Julia Carrot wrote:
And wasn't Memphis a 100k ITF, so doesn't quite count? (I may be quite wrong there..... only from memory)

Memphis is a WTA International level event. Midland which is usually a week before is 100k ITF event.

philwrig · Hall of fame

RBBOT wrote:
Nice to see a 0 in the df column.

If not for the average play from 5-0 up I think we would have been raving about that stat, quite remarkable really.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Her post match press conference is up on the site, and gives me far more confidence for tomorrow. No suggestion of any injury, so not sure what the stoppage was for. She felt she lost complete focus at 5-0 up, the other girl started to grow in confidence and to played alot better. Zhou was now the aggressor and put Laura onto the back foot. Happens alot in sport if you take the foot off the gas it can be difficult to get the momentum back. Kai-Chen Chang is a solid player watched her play Bally at Birmingham this year, but no more and am confident Laura can win that one.

I think Parmentier will be tougher than AMG, because she is in form and her style of play is dangerous when she is playing well. Scheepers is also playing well so another toughie to get through if Hev is to reach the final.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Laura playing the Hello Kitty card to good effect in her PC.

Regarding times:

Kundalini's information is correct, subtract one hour to all times stated in my post above.

The initial OOP has changed, and may change again - it's unclear from this page's announcement whether Heather's match will be moved from Court 1 as a result: http://hp-open.jp/?p=1361

The official OOP does not yet reflect those changes though.

So to recapitulate, UK starting times for tomorrow's matches are:

Heather Singles: 03:00

Laura Singles: ~04:30

Heather Doubles: ~08:00+

It's entirely possible though that the error comes because I'm too stupid to manage the simple subtraction of 8 from 11 though! disbelief doh