Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 - Tokyo, Japan - Hard

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 - Tokyo, Japan - Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

Not before 5am BST
Weakish draw by Tokyo standards.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Hope Hev gets back to winning ways. Out of all our girls she seems to have got the most balls. I admire her for that, such a shame about the glandular fever.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

First round here should see Hev get a much needed win, second round is a bit tougher

korriban · Challenger level

TomTraubert wrote:
robbo gets home fave morita (61) in r1

2-1 to robbo in the series she won in carlsabdthis year, but ayumi won in oeiras

Several players younger than her can pass her here if they out perform her by a round or 2

That's good because then we may finally hear the end of this "yes. but she's still the highest ranked teenager in the top 100" line which many use as a counter-argument against any form of constructive criticism.

There are 2 WTA players IMHO who get a disproportionate amount of coverage compared to their actual achievements, because they can beat almost any of the top players on their day, because they are ranked highly at a young age (although that's changing), because they have been deemed "Future Grand Slam winners" by many pundits, because they tend to do better at GSs, and because they are fun and photogenic. Laura and Sloane.

Laura has won a single pro tournament, the Sunderland $10k as a 14 year old almost 5 years ago. That's it. She's played in over 120 singles and doubles tournaments since then of various standards. Sloane has also won just a single pro tournament (plus just 1 doubles), a $50k over 2 years ago. That's it. I think both are terrific players, wonderful to watch on their day, and possible future stars, but both seem to have had the unfortunate habit throughout their careers of throwing in bad matches in almost every tournament - perhaps losing with style, rather than winning ugly. If you look at the rest of the top 100's actual tournament records, even the younger guns, they pretty much ALL have better track records of actually winning tournaments of various pay grades.

I find this record bizarre. If we are still here in 12 months time, and despite no doubt a raft of brilliant wins against top 10 players and perhaps new career highs, neither Sloane nor Laura has still won a tournament of any kind will anyone agree with me that there may be something in their mental make-up that is not the stuff of champions?

PLEASE NOTE - I'm a huge fan of both Laura Robson and Sloane Stephens as a tennis watcher biggrin - but the desire/ability to WIN rather than play great tennis is what separates the great from the good - as Richard Gasquet and other geniuses prove.

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 20th of September 2013 08:41:00 AM

korriban · Challenger level

indiana wrote:
Bah, Laura is still the highest ranked teenager in the world !

NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! smile

I agree most of us are roughly in the same place, just at slightly different points along the continuum. Not sure that made any sense, but anyway.

Talking of hype, unfortunately Adrian Durham (the moron who has been attempting to carve himself out as the Littlejohn of the sporting world on Talksport for a number of years - disgree with him or make sense, he cuts you off; be offended by him, he tells you to find another radio station - you know the drill) has taken a prolonged pop at Laura yesterday on air, backing up his inflammatory articles in print about her earlier in 2013. The things about Durham is that there's always an element of truth about what he says, but he might focus on the 5% which gets him noticed, rather than the 95%.......and he takes everything too far.....but that's what he gets paid for!

I won't grace this forum with his line of "argument", but for those that care, I imagine there's webpages, podcasts or tweets through which you can piece together the vitriol.

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 20th of September 2013 11:41:13 AM

steven · Tennis legend

A good start for Hev - *3-1, though she did have break point for *4-0, with just 1 point conceded on serve in her first 2 service games.

steven · Tennis legend

Not such a good 3rd service game - 30-30, 1st double fault, bp ...

... but she saves it and holds for 4-1*

steven · Tennis legend

6-1

(73% of service points won, 57% of return points)

steven · Tennis legend

8 games in a row now for Heather - serving for the match at 6-1 *5-0

steven · Tennis legend

QR1: (q5) Heather Watson WR 78 beat Yurika Sema (JPN) WR 229 (CH 142 in 2009) by 1 & 0

FQR: (q5) Heather Watson WR 78 v (q11) Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová (CZE) WR 110 (CH 39* in 2010)

* the same career high as Hev herself

TomTraubert · Futures level

robbo gets home fave morita (61) in r1

2-1 to robbo in the series she won in carlsabdthis year, but ayumi won in oeiras

Several players younger than her can pass her here if they out perform her by a round or 2

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well done to Heather. Must be nice to get a win, and a really convincing win. And post some points (even if it just reduces the deficit of those coming off).

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

TomTraubert wrote:
robbo gets home fave morita (61) in r1

2-1 to robbo in the series she won in carlsabdthis year, but ayumi won in oeiras

Several players younger than her can pass her here if they out perform her by a round or 2

Familiar opponents for Laura - a 4th meeting with Morita, and if she wins that a 4th meeting with Jankovic follows.

Expected win for Heather this morning, but the scoreline is very impressive and suggests she played well throughout the match.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

korriban wrote:
TomTraubert wrote:
Several players younger than her can pass her here if they out perform her by a round or 2
That's good because then we may finally hear the end of this "yes. but she's still the highest ranked teenager in the top 100" line which many use as a counter-argument against any form of constructive criticism.
Laura has won a single pro tournament, the Sunderland $10k as a 14 year old almost 5 years ago. That's it. She's played in over 120 singles and doubles tournaments since then of various standards. Sloane has also won just a single pro tournament (plus just 1 doubles), a $50k over 2 years ago. That's it. I think both are terrific players, wonderful to watch on their day, and possible future stars, but both seem to have had the unfortunate habit throughout their careers of throwing in bad matches in almost every tournament - perhaps losing with style, rather than winning ugly. If you look at the rest of the top 100's actual tournament records, even the younger guns, they pretty much ALL have better track records of actually winning tournaments of various pay grades.
I find this record bizarre. If we are still here in 12 months time, and despite no doubt a raft of brilliant wins against top 10 players and perhaps new career highs, neither Sloane nor Laura has still won a tournament of any kind will anyone agree with me that there may be something in their mental make-up that is not the stuff of champions?

Interesting points korriban, I also hate that old addage that masks that she simply isn't doing all that well.

I would be interested to know how theie records compare with eg Serena/Venus's path to the top, actually probably not the best two to use as they had quite a unique coming onto the circuit, maybe Azarenka, Sharapova.