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

korriban · Challenger level

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

indiana · Tennis legend

*1-5. Made it slightly difficult for herself. Getting close in return games, but no joy.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Missed 0-40 and another break point.

steven · Tennis legend

Points won:

Set 1 - Laura 29-13 Zheng
Set 2 - Laura 41-40 Zheng
Set 3 - Laura 27-33 Zheng (to 2-5*)

So this set hasn't been nearly as one-sided as the 1st, but Zheng has taken 2/5 bps in the 3rd set while saving 4/4.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Laura loses the third set 6-2.

So I make that Laura, Joko, Kyle, Marcus, Imran - five out of five GB losses today ! Looks like it's up to Laura D. and Tom Hill to fly the flag . . . no pressure . . .

PaulM · Tennis legend

Oh Laura. Even though you knew exactly how the third set would go it's still so frustrating. Maybe she could have killed the match with those break points at 3-3* in the second but it's impossible to know how Zheng played them.

Certainly having served so well, it was disappointing to see the first serve percentage dip in the tiebreak, and of course the double fault at 5-5 was crucial, and won't do anything to help her confidence which seems so fragile.

Her inconsistency at this level is really a worry, and is stopping her building the momentum she needs to really make that next step up the rankings. She is a player who needs to build matches and wins, and she just hasn't been able to do that this year (of course injuries haven't helped).

It will be intersting to see how she gets on in much tougher fields, but given how the draw has shaped up what an opportunity to win her first title this week was. Real shame.

philwrig · Hall of fame

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.

Peter too · Tennis legend

QF: ROBSON, Laura (GBR) 3 35 lost to ZHENG, Jie (CHN) 58 6-1 6-7(6) 2-6
QF: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) Q 141 lost to ZHANG, Shuai (CHN) WC 112 5-7 3-6

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

steven wrote:
Points won:

Set 1 - Laura 29-13 Zheng
Set 2 - Laura 41-40 Zheng
Set 3 - Laura 27-33 Zheng (to 2-5*)

So this set hasn't been nearly as one-sided as the 1st, but Zheng has taken 2/5 bps in the 3rd set while saving 4/4.

With the rain delay as well, all the luck seemed to go against Laura today. Very frustrating as she started so well and was the better player in the second set too but couldn't take advantage. Doubly frustrating with the quality of players left in the tournament.

indiana · Tennis legend

Darn !

I think I would be right in saying that collectively we were not optimistic for this match and very pleasantly surprised about that first set.

Although certainly not overwhelmed in that final set, Laura's level clearly seems to have dropped after the rain delay. Last chance effectively went at 1-4* 40-0 ( I hadn't realised she had so many BPs ), although it's never over until it's over in the WTA.

Again, a pity with the way the draw was, but Laura's overall level is below her best at the moment, possibly not helped by restricted practice of late ( I don't know how much effect that wrist has had )

korriban · Challenger level

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.

Jan · Hall of fame

just as I feared.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

I suspect Laura ran out of gas. She tweeted about a dope test at midnight and probably didn't get to sleep till way after that. Late nights are depleting for anyone and what with the rain delay it was all just a bit too long for her.

korriban · Challenger level

Julia Carrot wrote:
I suspect Laura ran out of gas. She tweeted about a dope test at midnight and probably didn't get to sleep till way after that. Late nights are depleting for anyone and what with the rain delay it was all just a bit too long for her.

I know what you mean, but her match wasn't scheduled to kick off until 6pm local time, so she could sleep in, and drug tests are the same for everyone - that's what professional players sign up for. They can wake you up at 6am too.

I don't know what she did during the rain delay, compared to what Jie Zheng did, but for whatever reason Laura's level dropped markedly on the re-start - one way to look at it would be to shrug and say "one of those things" - perhaps another angle would be to review with her coach what they did to stay mentally "in the moment" and physically "warmed up and ready to go" for the restart - and learn lessons. I certainly hope they didn't tinker with tactics, because there didn't seem to be anything much wrong, even in set 2. And I really hope nobody allowed her to see the draw minus Puig and Cornet. That would have affected her a lot.

At least Laura seemed to play really well for 2 sets. Arguably few of us expected even that today, given recent performances plus injuries! smile

korriban · Challenger level

PaulM wrote:
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

I agree with you about Laura in third sets. She does have a history of starting some matches like a train, almost crossing the line in set 2, only to be pegged back, then collapsing in set 3. Presumably physical and/or mental frailties. But often we've seen her "hanging on" in second sets, whereas today she was actually comfortable - certainly not droppingher level. As you say, wish we could have seen it.