Week 20 - WTA Premier ($2.369M) Rome, Italy - Clay

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

RE: Week 20 - WTA Premier ($2.369M) Rome, Italy - Clay

dougie · Club Coach

Nice piece on Laura's win and the matchup against Serena on the WTA website. Serena quite complimentary of Laura too!

On another note was reading the comments on the BBC article of Laura's win - some clowns on that forum!

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3177765/title/robson-beats-venus-serena-up-next

indiana · Tennis legend

Schiavone and Kuznetsova lost so Laura passes them in the rankings and should go to at least a CH of WR 37.

She needs Vesnina and Urszula Radwanska to lose in R1 to progress further.

steven · Tennis legend

Tomorrow's match is on Eurosport 2 HD, for those who have it (reliably informed by Guy McCrea, who I assume is calling the match there)

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Schiavone and Kuznetsova lost so Laura passes them in the rankings and should go to at least a CH of WR 37.

She needs Vesnina and Urszula Radwanska to lose in R1 to progress further.

The number of players in the 30-40 range doing well these past couple of weeks isn't wildly out of line, but the number in that range turning out to have little or nothing to defend certainly is!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

dougie wrote:
Nice piece on Laura's win and the matchup against Serena on the WTA website. Serena quite complimentary of Laura too!

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3177765/title/robson-beats-venus-serena-up-next

I was wondering which players had beaten Venus & Serena in one event and this article answers that. Only 7 and it's an impressive list of world class players, and Jelena Jankovic biggrin

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Steven, Laura has passed annoyingly few players with her efforts over the last two weeks with so many near her adding but not losing points. So many.looked in range.

Even my "at least a CH of WR 37" is not guaranteed if there is some silliness this week from one or two players further down the rankings.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I would love Laura to beat Serena, but I can't see it. I can see Laura playing well though and getting a good few games out of it, as well as a lot of good experience. I think Serena will be wary, and won't underestimate Laura. Saying that, Laura's taken Sharapova pretty close, so why not???

Julia Carrot · All-time great

I think the lateness of the match is far from ideal. Had it been a day time time match, preferably first match of the day, it would have been much better for her. I'm sure she will do her best to prepare well though, and at least she has got the Krajan split thing behind her now which had just erupted before her late match in Madrid.

scottie1 · Futures level

Really hope Laura upsets her, If there is one player I cannot stand in the womens game is the bad tempered Serena Williams. When Stosur beat her in Us open I cheered loudly

korriban · Challenger level

Julia Carrot wrote:
I think the lateness of the match is far from ideal. Had it been a day time time match, preferably first match of the day, it would have been much better for her.

Why? Later match, bigger crowd - which always brings out the best in her. And a slightly slower court may also give her a little more chance when on the defensive. I still cringe a little when I see her "running" out wide on both wings to balls which 80% of the top 100 players would reach (some more comfortably than others) and return, but which Laura can't get back into play - every little helps!
I think she needs a good start, and a good serving day (even then it probably won't be enough, but that's the same for all the other players too), then it could be fun at least. Nothing to lose; noone expects her to win anyway.

blob · All-time great

Fair points on Laura's benefit of the timing, but in partial counter, I would suggest that Serena is generally 'lights out' in evening matches, but slightly more vulnerable in early matches. With Serena the difference is almost negligible of course, her worst day trounces the best of most anyone else anyway.
But, AMG bagelled Serena last week (though she is the clear current active WTA clay court title leader, and still lost that match) so perhaps Laura has a chance of something. I think something akin to 4&3 would be a very good performance indeed.

LordBrownof · Futures level

I'm really not concerned about the score tonight. If Laura serves well it'll be a lot closer than most people imagine but for me it's only about the performance. If she can push Serena in most games, keep in the rallies and hit the odd winner, I think it will do wonders for her confidence and game overall.

Great shop window opportunity for a new coach - who wouldn't want that job?

Julia Carrot · All-time great

korriban wrote:
Julia Carrot wrote:
I think the lateness of the match is far from ideal. Had it been a day time time match, preferably first match of the day, it would have been much better for her.

Why? Later match, bigger crowd - which always brings out the best in her. And a slightly slower court may also give her a little more chance when on the defensive. I still cringe a little when I see her "running" out wide on both wings to balls which 80% of the top 100 players would reach (some more comfortably than others) and return, but which Laura can't get back into play - every little helps!
I think she needs a good start, and a good serving day (even then it probably won't be enough, but that's the same for all the other players too), then it could be fun at least. Nothing to lose; noone expects her to win anyway.

Yes, I agree about the crowd and the adrenalin and excitement that will bring. Nevertheless, her body clock will not be thinking it such a great idea to be trying to play the match of her life.

korriban · Challenger level

So Caroline Woz loses against a player who has lost 8 straight WTA matches in a row. From a set up. And from 4-0 final set with her opponent cramping continually. And from 5-2 up in the TB.

The scoreline alone suggests what happened, and what now happens to her again and again, with no apparent effort to make the obvious change. As soon as an opponent just goes for it against her and attacks (often only when they have nothing to lose) rather than plays percentage tennis, she has no response whatsoever - doing the same thing as always and just pushing it back into play with big net clearance and nowhere near the lines.

It's so frustrating! Maybe she CAN'T change. Perhaps that's the danger of having a strategy which worked so spectacularly well in juniors and against most of the pros for a while until they figured her out. Makes me glad to know that Heather, on the other hand, realises that she can't do enough damage with her current gamestyle and seems much more willing to put in the work to add power/aggression to her already very solid game. #BritWinningMentality