R1: Francesca STEPHENSON (GBR) 909 lost to Jade SCHOELINK (NED) 954 6-7(3) 6-3
R1: Lucy Brown (GBR) 803 [7] lost to (Q) Eleni KORDOLAIMI (GRE) UNR 3-6 4-6
R1: Laura DEIGMAN (GBR) 997 defeated Stamatia FAFALIOU (GRE) 863 6-1 6-0

R2: Laura DEIGMAN (GBR) 997 vs. Despoina VOGASARI (GRE) 605 [5] (17yo CH:Current - 2 SF and 2 R1 losses from 4 $10K's in the past month)

blob wrote:

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Lucy lost 3-6 4-6

Hard to know what her real form is, after the promising and accomplished showings of last week, this loss is pretty bewildering, considering the manner of it and the apparent quality of the opponent.

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 She may be suffering from fatigue after last week, but that's just pure guesswork. I cannot work Lucy out as she obviously has talent, but cannot seem to string anything together.

Coup Droit wrote:

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I do think that, mentally, it's very difficult to go from one week where you do great, way better than expected, everyone's tweeting and going mad, to the next week - work as normal, bottom of the ladder, all to be done again.
Especially for players who (unfortunately) really aren't used to it.
Sports psychologists give various 'coping' tactics but it may well just be experience.

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Strange - if I had a good week and a few people noticed and seemed happy about it, it would be a little extra incentive to put in the effort again ... I hope having successes noticed doesn't have a negative effect on most players - if it does, maybe I (and many others) should stop tweeting when our players do well.

Of course, she could have lost for one of many (other) reasons:

- her opponent was better than her ranking suggests
- Lucy picked up some niggles during her run last week (quite likely, I imagine, especially if she doesn't go that deep in draws regularly)
- she had a disturbed night's sleep or got up feeling a bit under the weather (probably a more common reason for weird losses from than we think, especially at the lower levels where accommodation is often rubbish and food may be a bit dodgy)
- she had too much champagne after last week's run (no, I don't believe that either!!)
- etc

 

Its called the classic letdown theory prevalent in all sports. I suppose its both physical and mental, but mostly mental I would say. All the emotions from the previous week probably leave you a little bit drained, so it so easy to go from a high to a low. There's loads of other reasons for it as well but unless you are used to performing to a high level week in and week out these things tend to happen.

Laura holding her own so far in a very tight first set against an opponent ranked 400 odd places above her.
*5-6

A decent showing in defeat, and generally, Laura's form seems to be showing signs of improvement over the last month or so.

R2: Laura DEIGMAN (GBR) 997 lost to Despoina VOGASARI (GRE) 605 [5] 5-7 3-6