Week 18 - WTA $235K - Oeiras, Portugal Clay

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

RE: Week 18 - WTA $235K - Oeiras, Portugal Clay

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I agree with you tony, the way she's been playing this year, and especially with the clay leg, I think she should drop to lower tier tournaments. She's certainly hasn't been playing up to her ranking this year.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Lauras fitness doesnt seem to be what it was at the tail end of 2012. If you watch her matches vs Sharapova at the Olympics, Kim/Li Na at the USO and the matches she played during the Asian swing, she had so much energy on court it was like she could play all day. She was confident, gritty and going for everything without being phased and now seems to be quite the opposite.

Seeing the way Morita fended off Serena at the AO suggested she was always going to enjoy the match-up against another power player in Laura, so I thought Laura would lose this one with the wind and clay making life much more difficult. The problem is Laura is running out of time to salvage this season as she has lots of points to defend coming up and I think her confidence would be further dented if she were to start sliding the other way. Not sure what is happening but would be interested to hear from Laura or her team tbh.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Anyone know whats wrong with Jo? She says she will try to get herself fit ASAP on twitter - surely cant be that serious for her to not go into detail?

korriban · Challenger level

Just flicked on to watch Bartoli.

0-6 first set!

*4-1 second set, and guess what? MTO to her opponent for a foot injury, where her foot was already bandaged under her sock pre-match.

When is this practice going to be stopped?

Update: Bartoli's opponent made a miracle recovery and won.

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 30th of April 2013 02:50:03 PM

blob · All-time great

Laura's doubles now started on live score.

blob · All-time great

Marina & Laura were down 2-5* but just got a break back.
*3-5

blob · All-time great

First set gone 3-6

They had more BP's, but 1/5 as opposed to 3/4 for their opponents.

Hopefully they can turn it around - I was hoping this might be a slight positive for Laura - and get the result.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I suspect playing against highly motivated opponents, if inferior ones. Also Laura took a nasty volley in the face, only one double though.

blob · All-time great

R1: Marina Erakovic (NZL) & Laura Robson lost to Stephanie Foretz Gacon & Eva Hridinova (FRA/CZE) 3-6 3-6

Not much to write home about this week.

Ratty · County player

philwrig wrote:
... only one double though.

Ha! Support for my theory that her problems on serve are entirely mental. Nobody gives a ****e about doubles, so no pressure, and (almost) no double faults.

I remember that Sharapova had a massive case of the serving yips not that long ago ...

And Vince Spadea lost 21 matches in a row back in the day, and not much later made it into the top 20 ...

philwrig · Hall of fame

She served plenty of doubles during the Olympics MD comp, but then of course there was pressure then.

korriban · Challenger level

Ratty. I'm sure you are right upto a point, but lets remember, Laura would have only had 4 or 5 serving games today anyway. Furthermore, with No Ad scoring, unlike her usual service games which often stretch to 10 or more points, the maximum here is 7 points per game. But I do think there is another factor. With doubles, you are likely to favour discretion, not wanting to let your partner down - and so I'm sure where Laura might over-try on serve in singles, in doubles guilt probably prevents her from doing so.

I just can't get too excited by doubles, but thats another issue.

Ratty · County player

korriban wrote:
I just can't get too excited by doubles

Honestly now, can anyone?

doh

indiana · Tennis legend

Well, I'd take it that Stircrazy is more than mildly interested in doubles by her many posts about it and some of the exclamations contained in some of them. It is good that she is, because she provides a valuable reference to so much doubles information.

She probably does quite well to keep her peace, while doubles is getting the rap it often does on here. Fair enough comparative discussions re such as funding, but each to their own I'd say more generally.