Fed Cup 2013 part 2

PaulM · Tennis legend

RE: Fed Cup 2013 part 2

Montana Doug · Futures qualifying

Wow....tough luck there with the broken string....my oh my.....just too many service games when she was up and the a double or something else happens.....so sad for Bally....still think you had to put her there....no complaints....holding out for a miracle now....

murrayman650 · ATP level

Bally serving at 1-4 down

15-0

30-0

30-15

30-30

40-30

40-40

adv Irigoyen

5-1

0-15

15-15

30-15

30-30

30-40

40-40

adv Irigoyen

6-1

DF · Tennis legend

Congratulations to Argentina.

On paper Britain was the stronger team but it did not work out that way.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Atrocious. The Argentinian girl was atrocious and would not have beaten Konta. Judy totally lost her head there and made a bloody awful choice.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Too many missed chances across the weekend really.

Heartbreaking.

Jan · Hall of fame

cry

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Players don't go from not match fit to match fit in a week. Johanna was our only option and I don't think the Argentinian girl would have taken it

Peter too · Tennis legend

The Argentinians knew how to play on very slow clay and exploited that advantage well. We had two of the four players unfit and a player new to playing singles in the Federation Cup. Judy either threw a novice to the wolves in the key match of the tie or played an experienced but unfit player. Bally was close in the first set, if she had won that she would probably have won the match. I think Judy made the best choices she could in the circumstances.

philwrig · Hall of fame

So so so close this time.
We'll probably never know why Judy didn't trust Anne but Bally played well just ran out of gas, showed in particular with her first serve which lost all of its bite in the final set.

Ormaechae was very very good and of course with Hev I'm 80% certain we would have won. Ah well back to Israel at least we know how to get through that tough group.

philwrig · Hall of fame

murray_2k9 wrote:
Players don't go from not match fit to match fit in a week. Johanna was our only option and I don't think the Argentinian girl would have taken it

Jo didn't play well yesterday and has hardly won a match in the last couple of months so don't see that that option would have worked either.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

The biggest frustration for me is that a team as poor as Argentina survives yet again on choice of ground. Surely we are due a home toe next time. Fingers crossed we can get through and play a home time next year, though we would be lucky to get a team as weak as Argentina. France, Ukraine and Belgium would have destroyed us.

korriban · Challenger level

GB loses.

6 games in a row, which I'm afraid to say was always likely to be on the cards if for whatever reason the Argentinian managed to take this to a third set. Not Bally's fault and she should be applauded for her spirit, as always.

We don't know what the behind the scenes story was with Anne and JoKo, and have to back Judy's decision-making, but from the outside-in it looked an odd call to make, unless JoKo was too down mentally (which for me would be outrageous - look what the DC boys managed to do from 2-0 down) - the fact that JoKo let the cat out of the bag via twitter earlier in the day as well, is extraordinarily foolish.

My biggest issue was that the world #38, and someone who is expected to be ranked considerably above this very soon, who has the talent to beat a selection of Grand Slam champions very recently, was unable to beat a decent clay-court specialist on clay - she should have far too much game for someone like Ormaechea on whatever surface they are playing on - and the fact that Laura suffered her 5th final set collapse in a row, is my biggest concern about her. Fed Cup or non-Fed Cup, either this is a mental frailty issue, a fitness issue, or a bit of both. And there's not much Judy can do about that.......if Judy was instructing Laura to go for winners and swing from the hip on everything in the final set, having just won the second, I'll eat my hat.....but that's precisely what she was doing. I don't think she can help herself. Laura's performance against the Argentinian #2 further emphasizes what she is capable of when everything goes her way. When Laura starts missing attempted winners by 8-10 feet, yet continues to play the same way rather than rein it in for a period, one feels the opponent must realise the match is over there and then. Why?

Sorry to be a grouch, but I feel there is greatness within her, but only with discipline and clarity of thinking on the court, neither of which you can rely on....ggrrrrr

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

philwrig wrote:
murray_2k9 wrote:
Players don't go from not match fit to match fit in a week. Johanna was our only option and I don't think the Argentinian girl would have taken it
Jo didn't play well yesterday and has hardly won a match in the last couple of months so don't see that that option would have worked either.

I think if Irogyen played Ormachae the scoreline would be more one-sided than Jo's. It still would have made sense to give a youngster experience at the risk of getting outclassed than to field a player who would inevitably run out of gas. 6 games in a row in a live Fed Cup rubber is tough to swallow and shows that Judy totally misjudged the situation.

That said, had Laura kept up her end we would probably have been pleased to see that Bally is on her way back. Laura was our number one and had to deliver. She didnt - and she needs to start asking the difficult questions - why is her serve becoming such a mental weakness and why cant she keep deciding sets competitive. Something as to change or this entire season will result in being a clear step in the wrong direction.

PaulM · Tennis legend

The problem today was Laura losing. Not Bally.