Fed Cup 2013 part 2

wolf · Tennis legend

Fed Cup 2013 part 2

steven · Tennis legend

The story so far ...

R1: Johanna Konta WR 164 (CH 142 in Feb) lost to Paula Ormaechea WR 143 (CH 111 last Apr) by 3 & 2

R2: Laura Robson WR 38 (= CH) beat Florencia Molinero WR 224 (CH 170 last Apr) by 1 & 1

It seems certain that the next rubber will be:

14.45 BST: Laura Robson WR 38 (= CH) v Paula Ormaechea WR 143 (CH 111 last Apr)

H2H 1-0, in on clay in Italy in juniors way back in 2008. Laura won their R2 match 3 & 2 and went on to reach the Final, where funnily enough she lost to JoKo!

Either team can change their nomination for the 4th rubber up to 10 minutes after the 3rd rubber finishes and it is plausible that one or both teams might.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

The plot thickens...

I think Judy will go for the best selection to win match 4 whatever the outcome of the first match and it might be that she sees Bally as the best option.

Edit: Now official bally is playing singles.

If her fitness holds up, it's the right call. Bally is better on clay than Anne and JoKo and she has a better mentality for coping with big matches. I wonder if Judy always had it in mind to play Bally today but didn't want her to have to play twice in two days.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Sunday 21st of April 2013 02:41:39 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

is it not on the red button again?

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Even if a team have decided to change their second player already it would make no sense to announce it until the last possible moment to keep the opposition guessing

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Tough third set, Ormaechea played very well for most of it, and Laura struggled with making enough good serves (vs Ormaechea who served very well). Laura didn't play great in the third set, but wasn't terrible either and it had more to do with her opponent stepping it up.

At the beginning of the second and third sets Laura struggled to match a good clay court opponent on admittedly a very slow clay surface.

We are still well in the tie because while Ormaechea has been very impressive both days, Molinero looked very ordinary yesterday.

Edit: Fed Cup scoreboard has Irigoyen playing - wouldn't surprise me if Argentina made the change

-- Edited by tony_orient on Sunday 21st of April 2013 04:19:14 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Laura's serve was a total disaster. Rest of her game unimpressive. Difference between the players was the serve and return rather than the rallies. Given her strengths and weaknesses, Robson cannot afford to serve that poorly. Far too many 2nd serve returns missed the target. Wish she'd give herself some margin for error on her aggressive shots as so many decent shots landed narrowly wide.

I didn't think she played well yesterday so not that much of a surprise that she lost today. She's way below her peak level at the moment. Her Palermo form would have won her that match I suspect.

-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 21st of April 2013 04:43:09 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

paulisi wrote:
is it not on the red button again?

Yes

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

Regarding long topics, are you guys aware that if you click on your username in top right where it says 'logged in as', then click on 'settings' you can change 'comments per page' to 100. This will display 100 replies on each topic before starting a new page, which means you won't be forever changing page when reading long topics. Very handy for when someone is posting live scores.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, GB might as well leave it till basically the last minute to announce any change for the final singles match, as Steven replied to me that they could at the end of the first thread.

( PS : Steven, thanks for that other line, but no mate, says he in as gruff a voice as he can manage LOL )

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

I hope Laura can do the business in the first tiw of the day. Would put us in a strong position then.

I just don't want to see the girls back in the euro/africa group again next year. Winning this would gurantee at least 2 ties next year and surely one of them would be a home tie?

philwrig · Hall of fame

Jo seems to have let the cat out of the bag ! From Twitter:
'On the bench today supporting the girls!!! Let's go GB!!!!!!'

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, interesting from Special Agent Konta.

If Anne is playing singles, maybe rather much for her to play doubles as well at the moment, and Laura / Anne is probably the best doubles choice if fully fit and fresh. But I think she can win vs their no 2, which would hopefully clinch the tie.

I am feeling confident ( more than at the start of the tie ) that somehow or other we will get the win.

DavidC · Tennis legend

RBBOT wrote:
Regarding long topics, are you guys aware that if you click on your username in top right where it says 'logged in as', then click on 'settings' you can change 'comments per page' to 100. This will display 100 replies on each topic before starting a new page, which means you won't be forever changing page when reading long topics. Very handy for when someone is posting live scores.

Thanks - that's something I hadn't twigged - and yes it will be useful

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Not great play from either of our girls. I'm not convinced that Konta could have done better, it's not like she didn't go AWOL yesterday. I trust Judy's selection on that. Verrrry dissapointing from Robbo.

5 live is going on about Hev missing having a bad effect. I feel that they team should have stepped up like our Davis cup team did. They did the complete opposite and collapsed in a heap. It's not like we didn't have the better team.

-- Edited by Helen40 on Sunday 21st of April 2013 10:14:30 PM