Week 38 - WTA ($500K) - Guangzhou, China - Hard

TomTraubert · Futures level

RE: Week 38 - WTA ($500K) - Guangzhou, China - Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

...must have been doing something right then in a "difficult" year.

I really hope that Laura has a good, productive close season, then next year could offer a lot with hard work and please more consistency in various areas.,

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I'm very exited we've got two women into the QF, albeit by winning only a couple of MD matches. Also the realistic prospect (if the both play reasonably) of getting two SFs.
I would love Laura to win her first tournament, I think it would give her a great boost and propel her upwards. She's in a big tourney next week and it would be great to be going in with Ws.
Just hope they both play well and Laura's wrist is OK.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Meanwhile, this guy has put up some nice pics and short videos of Laura in Guangzhou

instagram.com/p/eYjEQtjqao/ou

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Thursday 19th of September 2013 10:06:43 AM

korriban · Challenger level

6-1 Laura.

The match stats suggest that was an outstanding set of tennis from Laura. Or at least an overwhelmingly one-sided set on most measures we can see. Well done indeed.

If if Laura can win, she gets Vania King (ranked 100+) in the SF and then either Meusburger (60ish) or Zhang (100+) in the final. Famous last words; mockers; commentators curse, etc......but the reward is out there.

-- Edited by korriban on Thursday 19th of September 2013 11:05:16 AM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Ha Ha. And the bookies are still very confident anyway !

The "Ha ha" was for Helen's jaws, victory, British thing

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Thursday 19th of September 2013 11:00:18 AM

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Joko up first at around 08.00, followed by Robbo. Both on Centre, presumably because they're playing Chinese players.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Couldn't have been a more difficult time for it to start raining.

After a dominant first set, Laura has edged the second but not quite done enough to win it - still a bit unlucky to be set point down though.

Hopefully they will come back on soon and only need to play 3 points, but failing that Laura will have to re-assert herself in a third set.

It's actually a pretty rare experience for Laura to have to come off for rain - I can only think of a couple of times t's happened. A few of her matches have been suspended just before they were about to start though.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Thursday 19th of September 2013 11:56:02 AM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Match resuming !!

or not ?

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Thursday 19th of September 2013 12:59:15 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Such a shame, rain break did her no favours it would seem
Zheng just able to tough out the big points in the 2nd and 3rd sets.
On to Tokyo.

I don't think it made any difference to be honest. She won the first point on resumption. Had Zheng closed out the set without any rain I think we'd still be talking about a loss in 3.

Unless the onset of rain suddenly came at *4-2 in the breaker, in which case it was raining on both sides of the court, it's hard to blame that as the reason for the drop off in service performance (remembering how well she held at *4-5 and *5-6) or the double fault, as opposed to just getting tight as is often the case.

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 19th of September 2013 02:03:47 PM

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 19th of September 2013 02:04:55 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Helen40 wrote:
Joko up first at around 08.00, followed by Robbo. Both on Centre, presumably because they're playing Chinese players.

Think it's 9am Helen

PaulM · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
Every stat on serve before the break was outstanding (for Laura). Very few DFs. High first serve percentage. Excellent first serve and second serve win percentage. No BPs offered the entire first set, and just 2 in the second. The whole package. Brilliant. She must have played very well on return in set 1, and even though Jie raised her game on serve in set 2, Laura seemed to be putting more pressure on the Chinese player more often.

After the break it was pretty much back to BAU - all the old issues on serve. 3 DFs in 4 service games. Low first serve percentage. Second serve simply not effective at all. BPs offered up and taken, putting excessive "pressure" on herself to break. A completely different player, the stats suggest.

Maybe Laura looked at the SF draw during the rain delay! Or maybe this is simply more of what we need to get used to with Laura.......no explanation: it just happens.

I don't think the break was the reason. The drop off in performance is pretty typical for Laura after losing a close second set. Whether there had been a break or not, realisitcally I think we would have seen the same outcome in a third set.

Did the rain delay cost her the tiebreak? Hard to see how, it put much more pressure on Zheng to come back out serving at set point, and of course Laura won that point. Depends on whether you can safely attribute the double fault before the delay at 5-5 to the rain and not nerves. Without being able to see the match noone can really say one way or the other.

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 19th of September 2013 02:08:15 PM

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Joko 2 - 4 * now.

Ist 4 games pretty even with both girls holding serve strongly, then Shuai found a way to attack Joko's and broke.

Hopefully she can do the same, and break back now

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

First time Johanna has been in any sort of trouble since the first qualifying round at 2-4, but she breaks back for *3-4

On paper this match is too close to call, and it's panning out that way it seems.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Back on serve 3* - 4