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

john · Top national player

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

scottie1 · Futures level

john wrote:
I find it amazing that people on this site spend their days trying to promote British players and getting upset about how little coverage tennis, and in particular, lower ranked British players get in the media and how they should get more recognition and publicity and appreciation etc or rather the recognition and publicity they get should be more positive as opposed to critical...

Then when one of our own does get a lot of media attention and people recognise her talent and she is very popular and promoted as a future star, the very same people then don't like it, and say she is "overhyped".

Well John I have supported Elena Baltacha through good times and disappointing times for the last 12 years and she is still my favourite player.

Most people on here want the players to do well

I think it might be Laura that you mean on here. I think Laura is fun to watch because you never know what you are going to get.

I think the British public have put pressure on here or rather the media thinking she should be top 10 but she is still learning!

Agree with you though the British Public are not interested really in Futures I mean Mel South wins a round in a Futures your average Joe Soap doesnt care.

Unfortunately I do! So I must be a geek! lol

I would like at least 5 British Men and 5 Women in the top 100

But will it happen long time coming!

steven · Tennis legend

john wrote:
I find it amazing that people on this site spend their days trying to promote British players and getting upset about how little coverage tennis, and in particular, lower ranked British players get in the media and how they should get more recognition and publicity and appreciation etc or rather the recognition and publicity they get should be more positive as opposed to critical...

Then when one of our own does get a lot of media attention and people recognise her talent and she is very popular and promoted as a future star, the very same people then don't like it, and say she is "overhyped".

I've got nothing against Laura being popular and touted as a future star - as long as it doesn't go to her head, but she still seems to have her feet pretty firmly on the ground, so I'm not too worried about that!

However, the thing your describe is part of what is so annoying about the media - they always seem to feel the need to go to town on one player and pretty much forget (or worse, rubbish) all the rest.

An earlier case in point was when Andy was coming through. For years, everyone had been moaning about us only having 1 or 2 top male players, and then when Andy started beating Tim, the relatively understandable "changing of the guard" comments were quickly followed by "right Tim, time for you to retire now" (as if more than one or two British players in the top 100 is something people felt they simply couldn't cope with)

On top of that, can there be any argument that the most noteworthy win for a Brit in Guangzhou this week was JoKo beating 4th seed Peng in R2? So what do the BBC report on:

Tuesday: Laura's R1 win with JoKo's R1 win and Hev's R1 loss in Seoul as afterthoughts.

Wednesday: No BBC report at all as far as I can see - JoKo's big win mentioned as an afterthought to her loss on Thursday (see below)

Thursday: Reports on both QF losses (7 paragraphs on Laura, 2 on JoKo - though in that case I can see why Laura's loss was the bigger story)

Of course, the BBC will claim that Laura is the only player anyone but the most committed GB Tennis fans is really interested in, but what do they expect when for years they've been feeding casual tennis fans the impression that Laura is the only female British tennis player who matters? Well, apart from maybe Heather mattering a little bit when Laura's not playing and Bally and Anne mattering a tiny bit, mainly when they perceive a good excuse to claim they're past it.

Fair enough, I have seen some decent articles in the past about Bally and the things she has overcome, and some of the tennis specialists like Jonathan Overend have been a lot more fair (especially once he got more established in the job), but the BBC's more general coverage always gives me the impression that Laura is the only one they really want to write about.

I hasten to add that the fact that the media coverage often annoys me doesn't mean I don't like Laura - I think she's fantastic. In fact, all of the top GB women seem like very good role models for teenage girls - the kind of people you could easily see girls wanting to be like and (an unusual combination, perhaps!) the kind of people their parents would be very happy to see their daughters turn out like too!

paulisi · Tennis legend

The media do put pressure on players, but only because we haven't had much success. If we had two or three players going well at the same time, there wouldn't be so much pressure on one individual.

That's why it is quite important for Dan Evans and James Ward to break through into the top 100 so the media can split their interests, just like in the US Open. The same will apply in depth where the likes of Kyle, Dan C, Alex W, Oli etc need to keep moving up the rankings to cover when the top players have weeks off. Kyle has a limited media profile with his success at Eastbourne and in the boy's tournaments, but there is very little media profile on the others.

The pressure has only recently focused on Laura becuase of Hev's illness and her lack of competitions, when she is fit and playing well again the media interest will split. Joko performances will help, but again she doesn't have a media profile yet and the same for the girls behind her, Sam and Tara. Only Bally who doesn't play much has a profile.

I think the person in the street's perception of tennis players was pointed out by the recent question on pointless

indiana · Tennis legend

I think John makes some very good points ( though some will already know my views on this hype business ).

Too right we go on about how little mention British tennis gets and then when we have a player that gets real recognition ( though still only 19 folk in a 100 could name her as a British top 500 player for Pointless ) we start getting suggestions that it would be a good thing for her to have quite a DROP in the rankings to reduce the hype. Gee, do we want recognition and top ranked players or not ?

Inevitably the spread of coverage will not always seem fair, but last year when Heather won her WTA title she was hardly out of the media for 2 or 3 days. She quite rightly received a heck of a lot more coverage than Laura got for her WTA final appearance ( itself a significant milestone ) shortly before. Indeed, I read someone who had been cynical of how much coverage Heather would get admitting that they were very pleasantly surprised

I don't either really see that Laura is particularly effected by this supposed overhype. She seems to thrive on the big stage with significantly better results at big tournaments. OK, maybe that could be turned round that she now just lives for the hype, but I honestly don't think so, more that she responds positively rather than negatively to big focus. It is to me generally good for British tennis the attention Laura gets and I want to see her going UP the rankings as quickly as possible, mixing it with the best, although for good or bad she is dropping a bit and may drop further in the short term.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Added to that Evo, who I'm a big fan has had alot of press recently yet Jo, who I'm also a big fan of gets very little, and I suspect will continue to get very little press even if she were to become a solid top 50 player.

Laura's profile is massive because of winning junior Wimby at only 14, outsiders perceived her to be the next Martina Hingis, and of course are thus disappointed at her progress. But Laura lacks the athleticism to dominate ladies tennis, unlike Andy she has a fundamental weakness there.

One final point on Laura, Kvitova a natural player to compare Laura to was ranked at 44 at the end of 2008, but it then took her a further 2 years to really start to make her mark on the tour. Let's just give Laura another 2 years injury free period before starting to slate her and describe her career as disappointing. That guy Durham, well I just can't, saying that he was having a go at Andy Murray as well, before last year, so for me his points of view are meaningless.

korriban · Challenger level

philwrig wrote:
Added to that Evo, who I'm a big fan has had alot of press recently yet Jo, who I'm also a big fan of gets very little, and I suspect will continue to get very little press even if she were to become a solid top 50 player.

Laura's profile is massive because of winning junior Wimby at only 14, outsiders perceived her to be the next Martina Hingis, and of course are thus disappointed at her progress. But Laura lacks the athleticism to dominate ladies tennis, unlike Andy she has a fundamental weakness there.

One final point on Laura, Kvitova a natural player to compare Laura to was ranked at 44 at the end of 2008, but it then took her a further 2 years to really start to make her mark on the tour. Let's just give Laura another 2 years injury free period before starting to slate her and describe her career as disappointing. That guy Durham, well I just can't, saying that he was having a go at Andy Murray as well, before last year, so for me his points of view are meaningless.

Durham is a moron. As with Chris Evans when he used to be on Radio 1, Durham always has a straight guy who is just glad to be there alongside him - who meekly points out when Durham is being unreasonable or hysterical, but then is ritually shot down in flames........that's all part of the "act".

I've listened to his entire rant now on the TalkSport website. His facts are either wrong or baseless. His comparisons are unfair. He talks in sound bites. Most of it is objectionable. Most of it I either disagree with, find completely uninformed/ignorant, or is just plain wrong.

But there's 2 related points he makes (in a round about way, in between the need for controversy) which I completely agree with. They are opinions, but I guess that's always going to be the case.

1. There's something very special about Laura from a tennis ability and potential point of view which marks her out versus almost all the other young girls on the tour, and she can do things that even many of the very good players will never be able to do. To that extent that's why one should care more about her than the likes of Heather, JoKo and the rest. There's only 2 or 3 players of her generation possibly in the same bracket, a bit like Andy.

2. Given the above, it would be a shame if she didn't put every drop of her energy into maximizing her talent by working harder than everyone else, surrounding herself by the best to drive her and guide her, and doing it sooner, rather than later. He used Andy as a perfect example of best practice (although committed tons of factual errors, of course).

I agree wholeheartedly.

Of course, Durham then goes off and accuses Laura of not doing enough training, wasting her time, being distracted and putting fame before hard work. based on.........well........err, I guess he........err, just "knows". Of course, this is again baseless. If it were true, he'd be spot on, but of course nobody has a clue about Laura's training and support team, least of all him. Bizarre man.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, these final points I do agree with korriban ( and err Mr Durham ).

Laura indeed has special talents, a big game that say Annika Beck ( from my observations ) and Elina Svitolina ( from reports ) in no way match, but they clearly currently have much more consistency.

Such a game and some of her results, to me have inevitably made Laura more high profile ( not just in GB ) and that we may just have to accept for now.

But it would be a damned shame if Laura doesn't give herself every chance to get as high as she can by mainly working on such as focus and consistency and doing all she can to improve her movement. She should to my mind ultimately achieve significantly greater success than Beck and Svitolina, I really hope she does.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

korriban wrote:
1. There's something very special about Laura from a tennis ability and potential point of view which marks her out versus almost all the other young girls on the tour, and she can do things that even many of the very good players will never be able to do. To that extent that's why one should care more about her than the likes of Heather, JoKo and the rest. There's only 2 or 3 players of her generation possibly in the same bracket, a bit like Andy.

Totally agree, I guess that why although I'm a great fan of hers, I get disappointed. I have/had such high hopes for her.

Saying that, I'm very impressed by Hev - not the natural physical ability (movement aside) IMHO, but what a fighter!

Joko- I'm supporting her as she's a Brit - and a good one, but I haven't had long enough to really figure out her ability/fight/consistency yet. Great run this week though at Ghaunzhou.

TomTraubert · Futures level

first set to bzs 6-3
bps hev 1/7 bzs 3/4
:(

TomTraubert · Futures level

hev gets first brek in second set *2-1

TomTraubert · Futures level

but doesnt last long 2-2

TomTraubert · Futures level

3-5* BZS :(

set 2 bp hev 1/5 BZS 2/3

TomTraubert · Futures level

MP1 BZS DF (her 2nd) - 2nd MP saved and 3rd and 4th (DF#3 BZS)
5th wins it :(

Hev loses 3&3

for what it worth heather i still loves ya
i still believe
willing to be infinately patient until results pick up again

sorry to just be a fan and not clinical disect and anelyse it or wotnot :)

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah pity, I rather fancied Hev for that one.

Thanks Tom for your posts. I see Hev had a lot of unconverted BPs whereas BZS converted the big majority of her fewer ones. Looks really to have been a very competitive match up to and including the final game where BZS stuttered across the line.

That's me over for clinical disection LOL