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

LordBrownof · Futures level

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

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Main draw is out and Laura has drawn a qualifier for her 1st rnd match. Oh no! Fingers crossed it's not Joko.

DF · Tennis legend

and NOT against Laura!

paulisi · Tennis legend

Laura seems to have found a nice draw this week and has found the much weaker side of the draw.

TomTraubert · Futures level

great draw for joko!!!!`

the dutch girl hogenkamp 185 Q

peng or peer on R2 possible

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Well done JoKo. She definitely has the wood on Nara.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Laura is playing Jovana Jaksic (Q) from Serbia, WR 161. She made the final at Wrexham and the semis in Woking so people may well know her.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Good draw all round.

Laura's opponent has already been on court 5 1/2 hours through two qualifying matches. Laura should break her 2013 quarterfinal duck here.

JoKo plays tomorrow on Court 4 after a doubles match which starts at 1pm (6am BST) so around about 7:30

steven · Tennis legend

JoKo really has Nara's number, doesn't she!

FQR: (q8) Johanna Konta WR 141 beat (q1) Kurumi Nara (JPN) WR 78 (= CH) by 3 & 2 biggrin

L32: (3) Laura Robson WR 35 v (Q) Jovana Jaksic (SRB) WR 161 (CH 159 in Aug)
L32: (Q) Johanna Konta WR 141 v (Q) Richèl Hogenkamp NED WR 185 (= CH)

Hogenkamp has been in great form recently (mainly in 25Ks), but still has to count as a very good draw here, as does Jaksic

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Grest draws for both our girls. cummon GB!

john · Top national player

JoKo has actually been on fire since the start of the summer really, just the one letdown. Shame it came in the biggest tournament of them all, I really thought she'd come through USOQ

LordBrownof · Futures level

It's a great draw right the way through for Laura. Good chance to claim her first title here.

indiana · Tennis legend

I noticed the other day that Laura hasn't got past the L16 stage in any tournanent this year.

Miriambee · Futures level

Joko 2nd after 1pm start (local time) - against Hogenkamp.

Robbo not on oop.

korriban · Challenger level

indiana wrote:
I noticed the other day that Laura hasn't got past the L16 stage in any tournanent this year.

I sometimes wonder when the press and tennis pundits who keep hyping her will notice the fact that she hasn't won a tournament of any description since the age of 14.

Great forehand. Unbelievable power. Can be unplayable for a set or even a match. Very nice girl. Still a teenager. But at the moment, that's very much it.......I think the best thing that could happen to her for the long haul would be a noticeable drop off in ranking and expectations and hype while she puts in the hard work needed to resolve the outstanding issues in her game. Which are still considerable. If she sticks around the 20-40 mark (probably with one-off good weeks and intermittent top 10 wins, yet even more bad losses) we might still be having the same discussion in 2-3 years time.

Still, always hopeful of a breakthrough in Asia. Good luck!