Week 22 - WTA Grand Slam ($13M) Paris, France Clay - *singles main draw*

KK · Club Coach

RE: Week 22 - WTA Grand Slam ($13M) Paris, France Clay - *singles main draw*

korriban · Challenger level

steven wrote:
I think it's probably fair to say though that Caro got to world no. 1 by just playing accurately and watching multiple opponents self-destruct in much the same way as Laura did today.

Which is why she was given almost no respect whatsoever for the #1 ranking. Let's be honest, Woz played poorly herself today: she can play much better than that, but barely needed to.

Most of Laura's UEs were either lazy/non existent footwork, or going for winners with zero net clearance/ on the line balls, when more margin for error would have got the job done every time. She was playing Woz, not Serena. Again, I find her lack of courtcraft and matchplay "intelligence" naive and almost child-like. How can anyone coach her properly against a specific opponent, when the biggest challenge is herself. I fear we will be saying this her entire career......superb wins; disasterous losses; snatching defeat from certain victory; play of exceptional talent yet never a big tournament win. I genuinely fear that in 2 years time there is a strong possibility that she STILL won't have won a WTA tournament, let alone a big one......which given her exceptional ball-striking skills is borderline criminal.

DF · Tennis legend

This was not a good day for Laura but there is no need to be so critical. She will have better days. She is young yet,

Tennis players are not robots. That is what makes the sport so interesting one never knows what to expect

philwrig · Hall of fame

Wow Woz appeared on the court with so much confidence, that for me was the deciding factor, Robbo would have had to have played perfect tennis to have won today which of course she was well below.

Woz has struggled recently but looked a different player today. Why is the question ? Maybe she has had practice sets with Laura and always took them comfortably or maybe the change in coaching setup talked about in the lead up has released the tension that was developing in her game. Certainly its a terrible matchup for Laura, with Laura's best shots going into Caro's strength her BH. Her slicing serve a prime example. I suspect Laura was expecting a misfiring Caro to turn up instead the brick wall was back, Caro being able to absorb Laura's power game leading to Laura needing to go for too much, sometimes she made them but for the most part she was missing. Laura then started to unravel a little hence the lopsided scoreline.

I would say Caro was a solid 7/10 whereas she had been performing at a 5/10 whilst Laura was the reverse maybe a 5/10 instead of the 7-8/10 that she had been the last few matches.

The slow conditions didn't help and the fact everybody was expecting her to win.

philwrig · Hall of fame

korriban wrote:
steven wrote:
I think it's probably fair to say though that Caro got to world no. 1 by just playing accurately and watching multiple opponents self-destruct in much the same way as Laura did today.
Which is why she was given almost no respect whatsoever for the #1 ranking. Let's be honest, Woz played poorly herself today: she can play much better than that, but barely needed to.
Most of Laura's UEs were either lazy/non existent footwork, or going for winners with zero net clearance/ on the line balls, when more margin for error would have got the job done every time. She was playing Woz, not Serena. Again, I find her lack of courtcraft and matchplay "intelligence" naive and almost child-like. How can anyone coach her properly against a specific opponent, when the biggest challenge is herself. I fear we will be saying this her entire career......superb wins; disasterous losses; snatching defeat from certain victory; play of exceptional talent yet never a big tournament win. I genuinely fear that in 2 years time there is a strong possibility that she STILL won't have won a WTA tournament, let alone a big one......which given her exceptional ball-striking skills is borderline criminal.

How can you say Woz played poorly today, did you see her last match against Jovanoski where she was woeful, I'm not doubting Laura was poor but at the same time Woz played to a decent level, for the most part matching Laura's power and not making any UEs.

philwrig · Hall of fame

PaulM wrote:
Phil I disagree, which s unusual! i thought Woz looked, and played, incredibly nervous for the first few games. Laura had chances early on, didnt take them, and then point by point unravelled.

She didn't seem to have any tactics at all today, it was a very weird performance.

Maybe the first couple of games but not after that for me . I've watched her recently and this was so much better so I suppose we'll just have to disagree. Sam Smith also felt it was one of the best matches that she'd seen Woz play this season as well.

I think it looks worse because the original tactics weren't working because of the poor matchup, so it just got worse from that aspect.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I think thats basically the issue here, Woz needed to be beaten today, which meant that Laura needed to play shot after shot of high quality, not just one and then an easy put away. At the moment Laura is too inconsistent to be able to do that. Aga played an awful match against her and Venus was injured so for me Laura's level is of a solid top 50 player overall but with massive variations point to point, match to match. But that is the key, when hopefully she does get more consistent she will be a solid top 20 player at the very least.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

There was no game plan today. Laura looked lost and panicky after missing the BP opportunities early in the first set. She totally misjudged the BH of Woz, which was clearly stronger than FH yet she was hitting there more often than not. Overall it looked more like the old Laura than new.

Dampening down our expectations might not be a bad thing. Lets get on with the dubs then grass, Laura.

blob · All-time great

Tuesday schedule:

Bally 3rd after 10:00 UK on Court 3
Heathers match follows directly after on the same court

korriban · Challenger level

philwrig wrote:
korriban wrote:
steven wrote:
I think it's probably fair to say though that Caro got to world no. 1 by just playing accurately and watching multiple opponents self-destruct in much the same way as Laura did today.
Which is why she was given almost no respect whatsoever for the #1 ranking. Let's be honest, Woz played poorly herself today: she can play much better than that, but barely needed to.
Most of Laura's UEs were either lazy/non existent footwork, or going for winners with zero net clearance/ on the line balls, when more margin for error would have got the job done every time. She was playing Woz, not Serena. Again, I find her lack of courtcraft and matchplay "intelligence" naive and almost child-like. How can anyone coach her properly against a specific opponent, when the biggest challenge is herself. I fear we will be saying this her entire career......superb wins; disasterous losses; snatching defeat from certain victory; play of exceptional talent yet never a big tournament win. I genuinely fear that in 2 years time there is a strong possibility that she STILL won't have won a WTA tournament, let alone a big one......which given her exceptional ball-striking skills is borderline criminal.
How can you say Woz played poorly today, did you see her last match against Jovanoski where she was woeful, I'm not doubting Laura was poor but at the same time Woz played to a decent level, for the most part matching Laura's power and not making any UEs.

Compared to the way she was playing18 months ago, Woz was poor. Perhaps she was woeful against Jovanovski, I didn't see it. But today she played no better than OK FOR HER. She is making many more unforced errors than she used to, and she was fortunate that Laura chose to target her strongest shot, the BH, rather than her big weakness, her FH. If her coach proposed this tactic, he should be shot, but I'm sure he did the opposite, yet Laura once again just reverted to clueless aggression mode, rather than controlled aggression, or playing to an agreed tactical plan.

If you depart from, ignore, or are incapable of following a gameplan it must be very frustrating for a coach. What did Krajan say as his parting shot? There's no smoke without fire.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

NICE!! Both Hev and Bally on televised courts...worth recording for when I get home from work I think.

Theres no point going round and round about Laura's match. She wasnt at her best, but Wozniacki played surprisingly better. Always going to be tough for Laura coming in with expectation of winning and Woz coming in with no expectation to win at all...still an emotion for Laura to get used to really. The grass suits Laura better so I think since seeing her play poorly against Ormachaea, she has done well to come out of the clay season as well as she has done. Very much reverted back to Fed Cup form for this tie, which is weird, but when we get her in front of a home crowd and on the grass she will hopefully get some momentum going.

DF · Tennis legend

A certain P Ormaechea has won the first set against T Maria

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

murray_2k9 wrote:
Always going to be tough for Laura coming in with expectation of winning and Woz coming in with no expectation to win at all...still an emotion for Laura to get used to really.

I find this really worrying. Laura has always played her best tennis IMHO when she's been able to play free from expectation. As she's been the dragon slayer now, unless she's playing Serena, or some other in form player who she's really not expected to beat, she's got a good chance of beating herself.

As her career goes on, this is going to happen more and more (hopefully!), which leads me to conclude that unless she gets over this mental hurdle, she's unlikely to reach the potential that her physical game is capable of

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Helen40 wrote:
I find this really worrying. Laura has always played her best tennis IMHO when she's been able to play free from expectation. As she's been the dragon slayer now, unless she's playing Serena, or some other in form player who she's really not expected to beat, she's got a good chance of beating herself.
As her career goes on, this is going to happen more and more (hopefully!), which leads me to conclude that unless she gets over this mental hurdle, she's unlikely to reach the potential that her physical game is capable of

I agree, it is a concern and one that is difficult to address. I suppose that Laura is fortunate that if she is at her best (and preferably on a fast surface) very few players will have much chance to play themselves into the match. Today Laura was clearly uncomfortable from the word go and I think if she had played this kind of match against a player in the 40-70 range for example it would be much harder to get over, but losing to a former world number 1 should help Laura stay positive and look forward.

jake270392 · Intermediate Club Player

Anyone think it might be a good idea in that if she loses early in the doubles.... maybe she should consider a wildcard into Nottingham and increase her chances of being seeded at Wimbledon??