Week 8 - WTA Premier ($2M) Dubai, UAE - Hard

blob · All-time great

RE: Week 8 - WTA Premier ($2M) Dubai, UAE - Hard

Ratty · County player

korriban wrote:
Laura is far and away the better player, almost embarrassingly so, but she could lose this, just as easily as win it......it's ALL on her racquet (or more in her mind). So hit and miss.....but when she's good, boy she's good.

I'm afraid I just can't buy this - admittedly very common - belief that "talent" is the same as "ability to hit lots of winners".

I've said it before, and I expect I'll say it again: THERE ARE NO STYLE POINTS IN TENNIS!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Such a tough loss in the end 8-6 in the deciding tie break. Laura was very up and down throughout the whole match and in the end although she was slightly the better player this was cancelled out by Putintseva winning far more of the crucial games (there were 3 or 4 games where Putintseva got back from 15-40 to hold serve as well as the deciding tie break).

Frustrating match to watch because Laura played well but only in patches and obviously to lose by the narrowest margin possible is always going to be tough to take.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Reversal of fortunes in comparison to Heathers match. I dont see any massive emergency here, I think the nature of the losses are concerning but at least we saw some flashes of Grand Slam Laura which were missing completely from the match vs Hantuchova.

Ultimately Laura is still bringing it on the big stage but not consistently on the tour, which for me is still preferable to the opposite. Perhaps she needs a small tourny to get some wins and confidence back?

philwrig · Hall of fame

First the good points:
1/ Shoulder was fine.
2/ First serve as a result much better
3/ Great fighting qualities to comeback in the final set when dead and buried.

Now the negatives:

1/ Forehand very poor by her own high standards
2/ 1/2 yard slower than at the US open

There you go 3 positives and only 2 negatives.

Putintseva upped her level right at the end so well done to her.

Next stop for Laura is IW which she struggled at last year, thankfully though the 160 points gained at the Oz open makes it an OK start to the year.

indiana · Tennis legend

The fact is I will still say that Laura is a huge talent who has the big game to undoubtably potentially reach the top 10.

Of course she has to want it enough and continue to be prepared to work and learn.

But today only served to frustrate, because it isn't difficult to see what she could be even now.

Why she has seemingly gone backwards re on court disciplined tennis and consistency who knows, but to my mind that can be found again and improved upon. The sheer talent I can't see going away.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Laura was dreadful, again. Marginally better than last week but not by much.

Performing on the big stage in the Slams is pointless if you can't back it up in the bread and butter events. She needs to iron out these silly kinks which are holding her back from going from being good to amazing. That last return summed it all up, a panicky slap in desperation of a winner landing miles off target.

It is all there, and in the droids she calmed down and executed some tactics she was dominating, but them she regressed to hit and hope, and ended up with a very poor defeat.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Also, in Heathers blog she talks about the strides she made (Winning Osaka etc) and getting used to the fact she now expects to win matches which makes her more nervous. If you look at who Laura lost to, she probably felt a strong degree of expectation to beat Putintseva and Stephens, as well as Hantuchova due to the fact she pushed her all those years ago at Wimbledon. Could these wobbles just be Laura adjusting to being considered a bit of a scalp?

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

PaulM wrote:
Laura was dreadful, again. Marginally better than last week but not by much.

Performing on the big stage in the Slams is pointless if you can't back it up in the bread and butter events. She needs to iron out these silly kinks which are holding her back from going from being good to amazing. That last return summed it all up, a panicky slap in desperation of a winner landing miles off target.

It is all there, and in the droids she calmed down and executed some tactics she was dominating, but them she regressed to hit and hope, and ended up with a very poor defeat.

I totally disagree, its the opposite. You ultimately want to win the big matches in front of the big crowds that generate the most publicity. Winning WTA title after title and losing R1 and 2 of slams would be far worse

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

The two things that were markedly different when Laura was playing well in the match and when she wasn't were making an extra effort to get more difficult balls back in (rather than go for hard hit shots when they were not on) and using the angles to open up the court. At times in the 1st and 3rd sets she too often ended up rallying up and down the middle of the court, which in a place with thinner air and therefore the possibility of over-hitting was never going to work.

Laura also seems to consistently win too few points on both her and her opponents 2nd serve (today 41% v 47%). She should be doing a lot better in this area as she actually has a pretty decent 2nd serve up at 140kph. On the return she needs to find a better balance between going for clean winners and getting the return in. She usually wins her fair share of 1st serve return points where maybe she is less eager to go for a big shot.

At least there were some areas to learn from in today's match as opposed to the match against Hantuchova.

DavidC · Tennis legend

From what I saw there are concerns, as Philwrig says, about forehand consistency and movement (especially to dropshots). I guess that her timing wasn't helped by the desert conditions. Those are the sort of problems which have to be sorted quickly though to avoid a drop in ranking later in the year and having to reclaim ground, like many in their second year on Tour - as Blob mentioned in the Memphis thread.

indiana · Tennis legend

Much as I have made clear how I rate Laura's talent, if you can produce in such as Slams you should and must produce in other tournaments. And it is a nonsense to suggest that not doing so is acceptable.

For one thing, the bet I would have had at the beginning of the year that at least one of Heather and Laura ( and most probably Laura ) would be seeded for Roland Garros looks on a shaky wicket to me unless they show real improvement

And it is not as if they have had poor draws. I'd say the points they have accumulated so far this year, particularly from the Aussie Open, are at least as much as their form deserves. Arguably more.

Laura in particular MUST produce more in other tournaments. If she doesn't she just won't reach a seeding position in Slams ( and Premier Mandatories ) so then could have such as a Williams or Azarenka in Round 1. And then no matter how much she is up for it, very probably just 10 points and further away from that seeding than ever.

korriban · Challenger level

What I find odd is that all of us broadly know what Laura needs to do - get fitter, improved movement, iron out what is a decent serve, more patience and consistency, cutting out the obsession with going for winners to early, and often out of position. Its what the commentators also say, and the funny thing is, 4 months ago she got herself into a position to do exactly that - and it worked a treat!!!! Why revert to her old gaemplan, which clearly doesn't work, and never did work ( apart from runs of a game or two). Poor form may be temporary, but what happened to the new levels of movement, and what happened to the new and improved gameplan? Its back to old Laura. I dont understand.

KK · Club Coach

After her bad write up, I was ready and waiting to dislike Putintseva, but she was fine, and when she was being interviewed by Annabel Croft I thought she seemed rather nice!

wolf · Tennis legend

KK wrote:
After her bad write up, I was ready and waiting to dislike Putintseva, but she was fine, and when she was being interviewed by Annabel Croft I thought she seemed rather nice!

Agreed. When she succesfully challenged a winner of hers which was called out and then the ump forced her to replay the point, I thought she was going to go mental but she didn't just politely questioned it.

Sure she was saying "come on" a lot, even after errors from Laura, but I don't see much wrong with that (I've heard that sort of thing described as bad sportsmanship, but for me that's not what sportmanship is all about). Bally for one does it as well, and I don't remember anyone on this board complaining about her.