Week 12 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Miami, FL, USA - Hard

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

RE: Week 12 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Miami, FL, USA - Hard

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura 3rd on Court 2 tomorrow. Play starts at 3pm GMT so Laura should be in action around 6-7pm.

philwrig · Hall of fame

She 100% will not want to miss the Fed Cup, so probably only means a couple of weeks away.

philwrig · Hall of fame

One thing I will say about a break, Sloane Stephens took an enforced break because of injury at the end of last year, and basically had a normal life for a couple of months, no tennis stuff at all, and really came back firing at the start of this.

All we need now is for Laura to lose and say something similar.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Over the years watching Heather Ive always thought she gets results above her talent by being a fighter and never giving up. I wonder if top 40 is her limit perhaps. Still early days but I think most people would expect laura to be top 20 or even 10 within a couple of years but bit unsure about Heather. A break is perhaps a very wise move I think.

PaulM · Tennis legend

The key in that interview is saying she needs to find her game.

Sounds to me she doesn't have faith or trust in the new bits being added in. Probably because se was losing and was doing fine with her natural more passive game style. However Hev hopefully has a long career ahead of her, and things don't translate from the practice court to match situations overnight. In the short term she will lose matches she might traditionally have won, but she has to stick with the gameplay and believe in it to be a better player in the long run.

Because by all accounts she did that yesterday to be a set and double break up. Then she lost focus, Morita stepped up and Hev became more and more defensive until she lost. As has been said, this year she has looked a little lost and confused, not knowing what to do because what she is being told goes against her natural instincts on court.

The disappointment and frustration has gotten into her head. Just like it did before US Open juniors, and just like at one stage last year when she was struggling a bit.

I agree a few weeks off to get her head together is the best move, but i hope she continues with the work her team have been doing.

-- Edited by PaulM on Wednesday 20th of March 2013 07:50:34 AM

LordBrownof · Futures level

Heather is a talent *and* a fighter. I'm getting really bored of hearing 'Heather punches above her ranking' or 'perhaps top 40 is her limit'. The girl is 20! There is one player younger than her higher in the rankings. She's got at least 4 years yet before we even start thinking about a ranking limit.

Yes, last year there was talk about Heather playing more aggressively but I think the majority of her winter work was based on improving her serve, and apart from one or two sets in January, this doesn't seem to have worked. When you work so hard at something (as Heather does more than most) and for some unknown reason it just doesn't work, it can be extremely mentally exhausting. So I'm sure she's mentally, rather than physically, burnt out and a week or two break from training to gain a fresh perspective seems about right to me.

There's no better demonstration of Heather's talent and fighting spirit than this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyO0OeFfWik

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

LordBrownof wrote:
Heather is a talent *and* a fighter. I'm getting really bored of hearing 'Heather punches above her ranking' or 'perhaps top 40 is her limit'. The girl is 20! There is one player younger than her higher in the rankings. She's got at least 4 years yet before we even start thinking about a ranking limit.

Doesn't matter if you are getting bored hearing it, fact is just now she isn't playing at top 50 level so you can go on about rankings and potential as much as you want but facts are there at the moment. Plenty of players in the past have been here and not pushed on for whatever reason. We can only hope Heather comes back stronger but it is not guaranteed she will exceed the level she has reached. 50/50 I'd say.

korriban · Challenger level

I'm very confident that Heather will find the solution, and transition her game successfully, but it may take months or even years to get it right, so ingrained is her current (very successful to this point) approach. Let's be clear, her counter-punching, high energy, consistent approach has won her a Junior Grand Slam, a WTA tour title and a relatively smooth rise up the rankings to the top 40, and she's been using it probably since the age of 10 or 11, so it will be VERY hard to change things up and find the perfect balance, and to be more aggressive in high tension situations.

But I think we know, and she certainly knows, that with her current power levels and game style it will be exceptionally difficult to move much beyond 30-40....and we should all be very impressed that she's not satisfied with what she's already achieved and wants much much more, and is prepared to live with the physical and mental anguish that this transition is bound to create.

I suspect that the majority of good players who attempt these sort of changes never really succeed (has Wozniacki REALLY tried to be more offensive now that her game has been rumbled; moonball madness in IW says NO), but I dont think Heather will be one of those. There are some great role models currently playing she could look up to. Sara Errani for one - years and years of classic low risk Italian clay court play, then she adds more power, more aggression and moves forward 2 feet and look what's happened. In many ways, Angelique Kerber is similar........remember her going down tamely to a very young Laura a couple of years back at Wimbledon.......a huge amount of physical work, a decisive change in tactics and gamestyle, and from 75-80 she's top 5!

We should all be more patient, myself included. Top 20-25 definitely, but it may take 2-3 years of ups and downs. Higher than this? Well I wouldn't write her off.....

LordBrownof · Futures level

Jaggy - reread your post. I'm not the one making ranking predictions - you are. My point was that it's frustrating when people start predicting limitations after, what, 3 or 4 poor tournaments? Especially when it's a player so young.

All I'm saying is lets gain some perspective (thanks Korriban!). Right now she's not playing to her normal standard but she is 20, very clearly has real opportunities to improve and we know she's 100% committed to being the best player she can be.

The future for Heather is still very bright.

korriban · Challenger level

Large dollops of vitriol towards Heather on the BBC website, see comments below the article amout her "break". Not good.

I suspect what she probably intended to say is that she will be spending a week or so completely "tennis-free", however it appears to have been translated as her taking a sabbatical, with no specific return date. In the broadsheets, they are speculating that she will return before Roland Garros, or at least certainly before the grass court season!

The reaction is building on this BBC/newspaper interpretation of a complete layoff - suggesting she's running away at the first sign of a set-back, rather than facing her demons - and that only 2 months into the tennis season, if she can't stand the pace, maybe she should try another career.

Is it just me who thinks she's misrepresented her own intentions - I just assumed she just wanted a few days off, and could have phrased this in a positive way in terms of schedule management, rather than opening up a massive can of worms. She sounded so upset on the audio that it's easy to say things you don't actually mean - frankly, I think she will regret this interview for a long time, and I wouldn't want her competitors hearing it either......tired, frustrated, lonely and completely "lost" would be my description

-- Edited by korriban on Wednesday 20th of March 2013 04:46:38 PM

blob · All-time great

R1: ERAKOVIC, Marina (NZL)/WATSON, Heather (GBR) vs. BEGU, Irina-Camelia (ROU)/ROSOLSKA, Alicja (POL)
R1: RAYMOND, Lisa (USA)/ROBSON, Laura (GBR) (WC) vs. KOPS-JONES, Raquel (USA)/SPEARS, Abigail (USA) [6]

Good draw for Hev & Marina.

They beat Kops-Jones & Spears In IW, so maybe Laura & Lisa can repeat the feat here.

The winners of the two matches will face each other, which could be very interesting!
The form team IW champs, Vesnina/Makarova likely in the QF.

steven · Tennis legend

Hev says that in fact she still intends to play Charleston the week following Miami (and Fed Cup) and it was basically just the disappointment talking yesterday. Well done to her for taking action to clarify it. Hope she's doing the right thing by not taking at least a bit of a break.

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 20th of March 2013 07:22:25 PM

blob · All-time great

SMC

-- Edited by blob on Wednesday 20th of March 2013 09:19:48 PM

steven · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
Large dollops of vitriol towards Heather on the BBC website, see comments below the article amout her "break". Not good.
I suspect what she probably intended to say is that she will be spending a week or so completely "tennis-free", however it appears to have been translated as her taking a sabbatical, with no specific return date. In the broadsheets, they are speculating that she will return before Roland Garros, or at least certainly before the grass court season!
The reaction is building on this BBC/newspaper interpretation of a complete layoff - suggesting she's running away at the first sign of a set-back, rather than facing her demons - and that only 2 months into the tennis season, if she can't stand the pace, maybe she should try another career.
Is it just me who thinks she's misrepresented her own intentions - I just assumed she just wanted a few days off, and could have phrased this in a positive way in terms of schedule management, rather than opening up a massive can of worms. She sounded so upset on the audio that it's easy to say things you don't actually mean - frankly, I think she will regret this interview for a long time, and I wouldn't want her competitors hearing it either......tired, frustrated, lonely and completely "lost" would be my description

Hard to believe how gratuitously nasty some people can be when they have no idea of the real situation, isn't it - and all this focus on just the number of matches played is ridiculous. Telling, too, how often those making nasty comments add spurious bits of info or stats which show just how little they know about tennis ...

I agree that the interview probably came out a bit wrong (it can hardly be easy to say the right thing after a loss as gutting as that) and it would have helped if the interviewer had asked how long she meant, I think. However, when she comes back and starts winning again, it'll all be forgotten.

She's still the 2nd highest-ranked player under 21 in the world (Laura became the highest-ranked teenager today too, as Sloane Stephens turns 20), but those saying she's never achieved anything and will never amount to anything probably have no idea about that.

It's good to see some of the BBC commenters putting the other side of the story. I would too but I can't be bothered to (re-)register there.