Laura's first serve looked quite good today.

That's the only positive thing I can say about her performance.

Second serve very poor. Return of serve very poor, to the point of being a liability. Speed, movement and footwork as bad as I have ever seen it: any rallies that developed, it was pretty much game over unless Daniela hit it straight at Laura. In that respect, it wasn't so different from Mel South yesterday. No obvious gameplan, apart from the usual belt it and hope. No variety.

Daniela did everything she needed to as a solid professional, nothing more, and if she had needed to could have brought out a Plan B or Plan C to get over the line.....but she didn't need to......good serve (actually more than good today), steady high percentage of returns in and keep Laura on the move.

Laura looks absolutely "lost" on court. Heather played badly today, but at least knew what she was doing, even if she couldn't execute with so little match sharpness. JoKo fought hard, but was out-matched in the end. But Laura - perhaps she needs a disasterous grass court season in the full glare of the British public to force herself to "man up" to the dedication required and the focus needed on ALL aspects of her game to be a success.......a catalyst for change....

Well that was dire, and I'm always one for staying positive.
Hev was edgy from the start and apart from a couple of games was well below par and not as good as yesterday. Looked low on energy so whether she wasn't feeling good in herself who knows.
I saw Laura in practice a couple of days ago and she looked very good completely dominating Cirstea. Then yesterday she was below par and today pretty woeful apart from some very good serving in the second set. Slow, sluggish, out of sorts and basically losing every rally that developed. She had one good return game in the 1st set and that was it. She muttered to herself towards the end that she couldn't get down to the ball so whether the back is still an issue who knows. Crowd tried to lift her but to no avail. The grass is playing like a very fast hard court and everything was just happening to quickly out there. I do wonder whether clay quite bizarrely may be a better surface for her now rather than grass. Finally off the court issues are not helping her at the moment either. Parents having moved out to Greece together with her beloved dogs. Also the change in coach I'm not sure is going to be a success.
JoKo's loss to M'lady just gives further support to the theory that Tara's performance in defeat yesterday has been the standout performance by a British lady this grass court season even given Jo's performances at Notts.

Onto Eastbourne with hope of improved performances certainly from Hev and Laura.

How's Heather match? Was the energy not there? Where are they training now?

philwrig wrote:

---

But you've got to remember that Laura is only 19 and so missing her 2 dogs is not helpful, she even mentioned it in a recent article. I'm really just speculating which is a dangerous thing to do, but for whatever reason she wasn't herself on court today.
As for Miles nothing specific, but she didn't consult Andy about this decision and even though he was successful coaching Andy, I suspect that was a much easier task than coaching Laura who can be so up and down, tennis wise and personality wise.

---

 Phil - 19 is not exactly a child and even if she did mention it a recent article then quite frankly it is a ridiculous excuse - Korriban is quite right.

Shhh wrote:

---

I think korriban, Anne has certainly taken doubles seriously in the past, playing it throughout her career and has achieved some fairly good results. Not sure how that applies to the wild card but I don't think she'd take to the court treating it as a joke.

---

As I said, nothing personal. There are an exceptionally large number of walkovers in doubles at Futures level which tend to coincide "by chance" with both players on a team having lost in the singles, whereupon there is some niggle reported. You can't just drop out without a formal reason. It appears in fact JoKo pulled out citing a back problem.

Ahhh. So Heather lost in the singles yesterday and also pulled out of the doubles today with an injury according to Steven.

-- Edited by korriban on Thursday 13th of June 2013 11:01:56 AM

I think korriban, Anne has certainly taken doubles seriously in the past, playing it throughout her career and has achieved some fairly good results. Not sure how that applies to the wild card but I don't think she'd take to the court treating it as a joke.

korriban wrote:

---

 I refer you again to coach Krajan's comments about her level of maturity and seriousness. Smoke. Fire.

---

1. I hope you are never on a jury if I'm wrongfully accused.
2. If, as you seem to suggest, an allegation is always based to some degree on fact, then I find it hard to countenance your continued support of Dan Evans given allegations back in 2010 - of which he was entirely cleared - but which by your logic above would have to be considered true, at least in part, and would surely cause you to stop support if the policy is consistent. (There are others)
3. I don't disagree with some of the major direction of your analysis of Laura at the moment - especially with regards to the lack of guile and sophistication of the game plan on court
4. Just because I happen to remember it, Lindsey Vonn attributed one of her crashes some years back to worry over an ill dog -"Thunder"; Susi Susanti (a huge star at the time to well over 150 million people, and a glorious and skilful athlete) also said something about this decades back. I'd also suggest Michael Vick, but that's rather different.

I see that whilst composing this that you've covered my other point - Anne & Joko doubles - so will just say that we are therefore just left with Heather's doubles match with any Brit interest - 3rd after 11:00 on Court 3.