Week 40 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Beijing,China - Hard

paulisi · Tennis legend

RE: Week 40 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Beijing,China - Hard

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I'm really glad Hev and Robbo are back playing in the MD of a good tourney hopefully if one wins it'll spur the other on again.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Sooke too soon, losing seems to breed losing with Robbo

paulisi · Tennis legend

Second set gone. Varvara upped her game. Could go either way.

Hev needs to serve well and keep the ball in court. She is winning the longer rallies, however she is struggling against the swinging serve to the backhand.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Heather seems to me to be playing really pretty well. But that leftie stuff from Varavra can be very effective - she's nailed some lines.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I was thrown by the Saturday start, so only got up in time to see the last few games where it all went wrong for Hev unfortunately.

It sounds like Hev started really well and Lepchenko started slowly but was playing quite well by the end.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Not to be I'm afraid. The better player won. Lepchenko cut out all those errors from the opening set and played really well.

TomTraubert · Futures level

:(

goes down 6 3 3

keeps being close

good things again but unable to finish matches games and points and still not quite "Hev"

serve is a millstone round her neck

also obviously carrying a lot of tension and frustration

maybe drop down for a season ending 75K somewhere to hopefully get a few wins

TomTraubert · Futures level

laura 3rd after 05:30 UK with stream

on "Lotus COurt"

lets hope laura dont get herself into any tricky positions tomorrow!!!

indiana · Tennis legend

Getting a MD WC entry will slightly cost Heather rankingswise now that she has lost, because being a Premier Mandatory she will now have to count another 5 pointer. Her next backup for her "best 16" ( to replace her 20 points from last year ) was just 15 so not greatly significant.

I say "another 5 pointer", because in mandatories, after opening the year with 160 points from reaching R3, Heather has then had 5 point R1 losses at Indian Wells, Miami, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the US Open and Beijing plus 0 points from missing Madrid.

Not good at all, although of course some very clear mitigating circumstances. At least once the Aussie Open is out the way she won't have any pressure of defending points over the other mandatory weeks ! ( that said I have real doubts as to whether how many points a player is defending has as much effect as some people sometimes suggest ).

Priesty · Challenger level

TomTraubert wrote:

laura 3rd after 05:30 UK with stream

on "Lotus COurt"

lets hope laura dont get herself into any tricky positions tomorrow!!!

Yes, let's hope that Laura can flower and blossom on court tomorrow biggrin

Julia Carrot · All-time great

TomTraubert wrote:
about 300 in the stadium with a 10K capacity

It may fill up a bit when Lin Na's match is over

Or maybe not, as Serena is on Stadium court

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Sunday 29th of September 2013 08:53:07 AM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Ugly match so far. Hope Laura can find a decent level soon. Both players guilty of poor returns of 2nd serves at 15-30 then Robson rubbish forehand error on bp.

Laura saves 3 bps at 5-5, helped by KZ's backhand going to pieces. If anything, the standard has got worse. Laura struggling to get 2nd serve returns in play recently.

Laura drives a backhand return for a winner to take the tiebreak 7-3.

-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 29th of September 2013 09:23:20 AM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

KZ has had 10 unreturned serves out of her first 14 service points at the start of the 2nd set. 5 of them unreturned 2nd serves! Make that 14 unreturned out of 19. In between Laura broken though KZ did hit some super forehands to break.

KZ throws in 3 dfs when serving for the set to gift Laura a break.

-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 29th of September 2013 09:59:45 AM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

This is an extraordinary match. Both players desperately short of confidence. Laura wastes 2 bps with awful errors then KZ gifts her the break with a couple of terrible backhands.

Laura breaks again, assisted by yet more errors from KZ. And once more, after KZ saved 2 mps with super play.

Well done Laura. Kept going and found some reasonable form in third set. Not many dfs for a 3 set match. Returning was about as bad as I've ever seen.

-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 29th of September 2013 10:39:52 AM