Just can't get over the line. I bet Paszek needs one set point :(

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 12:57:53 PM

blob wrote:

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PaulM wrote:

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Take out Tamira's points from Eastbourne and Wimbledon and there are a lot less than 150 spots between them.

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Yes. Also, if you take away all of Tamira's points, form all her tournaments, then Anne would be higher ranked!

Those points are still to be defended, why would we arbitrarily remove them?

Just so that we can roll our eyes at Anne in this defeat?

WR 33, who reached last years Wimbledon QF on grass, defeats WR 186 7-6(6) 6-3 on grass.

About par for the course

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No not at all. Tamira's entire ranking is effectively made up of those 2 events, which totally mask how awful her form and performances have been in the last 11 months.

Focusing in on Tamira's current world ranking and not putting it in context of any other information is far more arbitrary.

Why don't we put it this way: -player who has won the last two head to heads (both in 2012, one on grass) loses to player who hasn't won a match since the Australian Open after having 8 set points.

Still "par for the course"?

I am not that down on the result itself, but the manner of defeat is incredibly disappointing, particularly as she played so well in parts only to freeze at the key moments.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 01:51:03 PM

I caught the first set and end of the 2nd set and MTB of Sam and Jade's match. Sam served for it at 6-5 in the 2nd but they always looked like the better team and thoroughly deserved the win. Sam especially has really sharp volleys and won them some important rallies.

blob wrote:

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PaulM wrote:

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Focusing in on Tamira's current world ranking and not putting it in context of any other information is far more arbitrary.

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I disagree, but, OK, let's play. 

So, we remove the all of the biggest chunk of Tamira's points, although they came on the surface she has proven over time to get the best results on, and presume she will lose first round in both this time. OK.

She is then ranked ~117. Anne is presumably still ranked 186, or do we need to make adjustments up or down for her too?

WR117 defeats WR186 7-6(6) 6-3

What is so awful about that picture, other than that we'd hope that our player could get a better result?

I don't direct this to PaulM especially, but to everyone.

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I can only assume you are deliberately mis-interpreting the point I'm making. The scoreline could say absolutely anything, the point is not that she lost (which is of itself not a big shock). The point is she lost to a player horribly out of form who played poorly overall, having dominated large spells of play and having 8 set points.

It's not about "arbitrarily" ignoring what Paszek has done before, it's about saying that you can't just go, oh she's WR 33 and has good results on grass she must be AMAZING, Annie doesn't have a hope in hell. The point is that when you look at Paszek overall this year, you have a player out the top 200 in the race with no wins in 5 months. You look at this match and you think, hey she's really out of form, Anne beat her on grass last year, it will be very tough, but she has a chance to do this.

If you refuse to put anything into context and look solely at what is black and white on the paper then off course you say "ah, decent effort, pushed a good grass courter close in one set". Which is exactly what you are doing, you're looking at the rankings, the scoreline, and make a judgement that it was "par for the course". People do it every week and pretend they can draw things from a result without having seen a single ball being hit.

The fact is Anne was doing enough today to take that match. Irrespective of who she was playing, their ranking, what they have done before, it becomes a disappointing result precisely because of the opportunities that were not taken on the day. That is all I am saying - sometimes whether a result is good or bad, or disappointing or excellent requires a bit of context to the individual situation.

JoKo off to a nice start and playing well early doors.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 02:18:05 PM

It's possible that, having played 9 sets over two days (as someone pointed out before), Mel was pretty tired and just didn't have that bit of spark needed, even though her general fitness is pretty good.
Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt because she has had such issues with fitness in the past (and I don't mean injury stuff, just conditioning). However, I thought she looked better than she has on some previous occasions (although that's not saying much!) so at least it might be going in the right direction.

Given that tennis is a top professional sport, you need to be a top professional athlete and I do find it incomprehensible that some of our players have in the past (and maybe now?) thought this was something they could overlook, presumably because hitting balls is fun and gym and track work is 'hard work'.

I watched Tara's match from 2-4 down in the first to about the first few games of the second. I thought she'd made a LOT of improvement. This is natural, given her age, but really encouraging - she moves quite well, has some strength in her shots and was certainly the better player. I do hope she continues to buckle down and 'aims high'.

I guess Heather is absolutely one end of the scale, which is why, as a pretty small girl by tennis standards and without naturally powerful shots, she has done so well, and will continue to do so.

I remember a top national coach saying that the 'talent' to work hard is just as much of a talent as the talent to hit a ball beautifully and should be recognised as such. And Heather has that in bucketfuls!

But I would have thought that the Aegon team members are REQUIRED to turn up to training and tick all the boxes - they certainly are at other national centres. Isn't that part of the contract ? Although, of course, it does have to come from within ultimately. But at least a forced push in the right direction can focus the mind.

I don't know of any top footballers who skip training or any top athletes who bunk off and nosh pizza and candy bars. Tennis is no different.

But we all agree - Tara shows a lot of ability, there's a lot of good stuff in her game, she's young, it's all going in the right direction. But she has to do the grunt stuff or else the rest is not enough.

Naomi & Anna Smith make a positive early move against Czink/Dolonc *2-0

Add: Anna is wearing a big support bandage in her left knee and doesn't look as though she can serve at full extension.

-- Edited by blob on Tuesday 4th of June 2013 05:13:58 PM