Week 2 - WTA International ($235K) - Hobart, Australia Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 2 - WTA International ($235K) - Hobart, Australia Hard

Scouseandy · Social player

Excellent! That has the potential to be quite an exciting match!

Maza1987 · Challenger level

Should be good. 50/50 probably.

Peter too · Tennis legend

This is the first of what I imagine will be many meetings between these two players over the coming years so establishing ascendency would be good, Heather is already 3-0 up against Sloane.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

This should be a good match, Stephens will be tough but more the sort of match that Laura enjoys than when she played Niculescu.

It looks like Laura will sneak into the top 50 of next weeks rankings too, which would be a nice landmark to achieve.

Reeltime · Satellite level

Should be a great match. Hopefully the start of one of the big rivalries of the next 10 years

blob · All-time great

sloane didn't play after uso last year cos of injury, but ran serena hard in brisbane this week, despite the 64 64 loss, and she already beat cibulkova in straights

laura will need to be 5 times better at least than she was in shenzhen. I make Sloane 65-35 for this, at this time of year, very fresh, and as she's acclimatised alrready

I think sloane will have a big season this year in to top 20, and next year maybe top 10 at times tho maybe not permanent fixture there

steven · Tennis legend

These two have only played once before, in juniors in 2009 (at the Bonfiglio), with Sloane winning 4 & 0.

Laura will be just 2 points behind Hev if she wins this match (and will of course have a very winnable R2 match if she does that)

blob · All-time great

think laura is in best quarter, sloane aside.
Halep or Q in next round,
Cirstea may not play after withdrawal this week, and laura matches well against her anyway. Barthel can be dangerous, another Q and a WC (Bobusic)

First round seems biggest hurdle.

also be very very interesting to see how Barty gets on against this weeks finallist in brisbane, pavlyuchenkova

Julia Carrot · All-time great

steven wrote:
These two have only played once before, in juniors in 2009 (at the Bonfiglio), with Sloane winning 4 & 0.
________________

Did they not play at Eastbourne - 2010? Maureen Connolly Trophy. I can't find the results for the first few days matches, but I thought Laura played singles and then left for London before the end of the Tournament. And, I thought she had a close match with Sloane which she won. I'm probably completely wrong but that's how I remember it

DavidC · Tennis legend

Julia Carrot wrote:
steven wrote:
These two have only played once before, in juniors in 2009 (at the Bonfiglio), with Sloane winning 4 & 0.
________________
Did they not play at Eastbourne - 2010? Maureen Connolly Trophy. I can't find the results for the first few days matches, but I thought Laura played singles and then left for London before the end of the Tournament. And, I thought she had a close match with Sloane which she won. I'm probably completely wrong but that's how I remember it

Well remembered smile

LTA report for 18/06/2010:

"With the skies darkening, it was up to No.1 players Laura Robson and Sloane Stephens to battle it out for the final rubber in front of a enthralled crowd at Devonshire Park. Robson eased through the first set 6-3, but surrendered the advantage in the second set as the highly touted Stephens fought back to take it 6-3. Despite going a break up 4-2 in the final set, Robson's work was not over yet, as the American broke back to make it 4-4. But the Brit dug deep to produce two quality games and win the match and rubber 6-4 in the third."

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Well dug out David

I couldn't find that report.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'll go 60/40 in favour of Sloane, very impressive this week, saw her first set against Serena and all I can say is wow! Top 10 tennis. Laura will be better than last week but will probably need Sloane to be less good next week than this week to get the'w'.
Not the sure matchup favours either player here.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

philwrig wrote:
I'll go 60/40 in favour of Sloane, very impressive this week, saw her first set against Serena and all I can say is wow! Top 10 tennis. Laura will be better than last week but will probably need Sloane to be less good next week than this week to get the'w'.
Not the sure matchup favours either player here.

I think those odds sound about right to me; if this was week one then it would be hard to separate them but Sloane has shown more form than Laura in the first few matches of the season and so is favourite.

Being a match between two teenagers, I don't think there will be too many tactics involved - I expect them to both go for it and whoever is striking the ball better on the day will come out on top.

Bet 365 are showing Hobart from Sunday so there's a good chance the match will be streamed. There's also a good chance it will be on in the middle of the night though.

steven · Tennis legend

Julia Carrot wrote:
steven wrote:
These two have only played once before, in juniors in 2009 (at the Bonfiglio), with Sloane winning 4 & 0.
________________

Did they not play at Eastbourne - 2010? Maureen Connolly Trophy. I can't find the results for the first few days matches, but I thought Laura played singles and then left for London before the end of the Tournament. And, I thought she had a close match with Sloane which she won. I'm probably completely wrong but that's how I remember it

Yes, I thought Laura had beaten her once but couldn't remember when. When I post H2Hs, it always means matches on ITF unless otherwise stated - i.e. all matches in ATP- and WTA-ranked events including qualifying, Davis Cup, Fed Cup and junior ITF events but NOT Tennis Europe events, GB national events, Wimbledon wild card play-offs, exhibitions, junior team events, UK or overseas club league matches, etc.