After nearly 3 hours of play, and just 2 games into the final set, surely a 16 year old hits the wall at some point? Endurance must be an advantage to the older player now. 15 DFs for the Dutch girl already and when you get tired......

Well we started the week with 26 players and we now have just one left in the singles.

indiana wrote:

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We do ?? Who is this mystery woman ? Has someone been given British citizenship ?

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Erm, I think her name is Laura Robson. 

You probably won't have heard of her though.

Disappointing re Sam, but not totally surprising. She's been in no sort of form compared to that run she had late last year. Possibly generally not even up to where she was before that run.

I have not heatd of say any injury issues in the close season and / or more recently hindering her, but it must be very frustrating for her.

The overall showing from the Brits, with a few decent showings from lower ranked players, had simply been very poor. Worrying.

korriban wrote:

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Matches with Brits vs Non-Brits this week at Sunderland

Qualifying

Lucy Brown 2 - 0 (1 win by retirement in first set)

Other Brits 0 - 10 Non-Brits

Main Draw

R1:

Brits 0 - 6 Non-Brits

R2:

Brits 0 - 2 Non-Brits

Apparently Sunderland is a home tournament. All 3 rounds included matches where certain Brits were clear favourites. There were also matches where Brits were not favourites, but would be expected to be at least competitive....with a win a genuine possibility. Of course, there were other unranked or lower ranked British players there for experience and not expected to win....as in all ITF $10ks round the world. This still baffles the hell out of me......

I'm almost tempted to say that if too many of this group of girls are training together, perhaps this is having the opposite effect to that intended. Tennis is a selfish game, not a team sport. It's certainly true to say with the boys that many of the prominent faces at La Manga have started slowly in early 2013 (Pauffley, Marsalek, Broady), whereas others not training as a group seem to have lifted their games (Corrie, Evans, Willis). I can't really put my finger on what's going on, but with a week like this for the girls, actually 3 weeks like this, I think a few of them might want to reappraise.......

Laura - PLEASE win!!

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Of course, it's actually worse than this - if you take both 15Ks together, the record in main draw GB v non-GB matches was 0-15 and in qualifying, 4-18, i.e. 4-33 overall.

Looking at rankings (and using only that to determine 'expected'/'unexpected' losses), there were:

2 expected wins v non-Brits (both in qualifying)

24 expected losses v non-Brits (14 in qualifying, 10 in main draws)

2 unexpected wins v non-Brits (Lucy in qualifying twice)

9 unexpected losses v non-Brits (4 in qualifying, 5 in main draws)

There are various individual circumstances obviously (Tara being ill was a big blow) and some good teenagers like de Vroome, etc, but there's no way to sugar-coat a record quite that bad.

Picking up on your point about players training together I do sometimes wonder if some players feel bad about winning if their friends have lost ... but then I think to myself, surely they have to be so competitive even to get this far that that can't really be the case ... and overall I'd expect having supportive friends on tour to be a positive rather than a negative.

Ranking points so far this year.

1. Heather 300 from 6 tournaments.
2. Laura 248 from 7 ( plus more, please )
3. Tara 110 from 8
4. JoKo 92 from 7

and then...

5. Anne 27 from 4
6. Lisa 22 from 7
7. Emily 19 from 5
8. Naomi 18 from 6
9. Amanda 13 from 4
10. Anna S 10 from 7
11. Samantha 8 from 6
11. Lucy 8 from 7

WR 300 is currently 152 points. That is looking a long way off this year for some who would aspire to be inside or indeed well inside the top 300.

Better opportunities will indeed come than these 15Ks appeared to provide. But especially against non Brits our players here were not even getting the measly R1 win one point.

You have to feel for Sam, played a match that seemed to last forever and came out the loser. She played alot more aggressively than against Katy but it wasn't enough against a top class junior making her way in the game. If you could fault Sam at all she has a tendency to get tentative with her shots as the match weres on. But when in prime form it is clearly evident that she has the game to get into the top 200.

Spoke a little to Jezza Bates who is looking after Tara as well as Annie K now. Found out that Annie's foot condition is quite serious and really needs 6 months of complete rest, he did give me the name for the ailment but is was gobbledygook to me. At her stage of her career taking 6 months out is really a nono. Her mobility has really been hindered, but fortunately the foot did feel better in her last tournament so maybe she can still get some decent results.
Ellie Dean has a knee problem which affects adolescents, but will be OK once she has fully grown, obviously complete nightmare in the meantime.

Emily played great in the first set, but really hates these indoor tournaments, and says her best surface is an Asian hardcourt.