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

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

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

paulisi · Tennis legend

Following scores and not looking to good at the moment. 4*-1 down and seemingly struggling on serve

DWH · Club Coach

Only seen bits and pieces. looked like Laura was striking the ball pretty well but the defense of Kerber was too good. So just drawing errors from Laura in longer rallies.

Have to say though that Laura does not look well. Lots of coughing.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Got the livestream on. Watching about 1 point in 4 (and the whole of the last game). Not a lot to say from that - Angie playing better.

(Laura complaining about her last ball which looked clearly in and was called out. But her serve two points before looked well out and was called in, so swings and roundabouts and all that - and anyway, maybe the linesman was right . . . )

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Kerber leads 6-1 3-2*

A couple of frustrating games for Laura, she had forehands to win both the last two games and missed both by a few inches going for a bit too much.

korriban · Challenger level

I have lost count of how many forehands have gone awry becuase of lazy footwork and lazy movement. There was one point she'd effectively won, but couldnt be bothered to move her feet for the put away. i'm sorry but these are things you teach a 10 year old to do, so they dont have to think about it. And if you keep going for return winners and missing, doing the same thing again and again is child like naivity.

Laura: maybe you need a hypnotist rather than a coach, so you actually DO the things Im sure they are telling you to do.

Jajon · Strong Club Player

korriban wrote:
I have lost count of how many forehands have gone awry becuase of lazy footwork and lazy movement. There was one point she'd effectively won, but couldnt be bothered to move her feet for the put away. i'm sorry but these are things you teach a 10 year old to do, so they dont have to think about it. And if you keep going for return winners and missing, doing the same thing again and again is child like naivity.
Laura: maybe you need a hypnotist rather than a coach, so you actually DO the things Im sure they are telling you to do.

Ridiculously harsh.

She has chronic bronchitis playing in Beijing - one of the more polluted cities in the world.

She's also playing a member of the world's top 10 who plays like a wall and just made the final of the event last week - she's going to make mistakes, especially when she's recently been out of form.

I'm not saying she can't improve- obviously she can. But posting the same thing everytime you see her play is beyond dull.

Please dont have another hissy fit and have a hiatus from the board- my criticism of you is just as constructive as yours of Laura :)

korriban · Challenger level

I simply don't agree. If she takes the court she doesn't have chronic bronchitis.

The point I'm making is that she's doing all the hard bits of the job against Kerber, but letting herself down again and again on the absolute basics.

Looks like you are the one having a hissy fit.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I'm prepared to give Laura the benefit of the doubt - the commentators keep mentioning her cough infection. I';m sure she's not sick as a parrot or she wouldn't be playing but, even if you're a tiny bit under the weather, which she no doubt is, it's difficult to be dynamic (and we all agree it's not her strong point).

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Kerber wins 6-1 6-2

Second set was certainly a lot closer than that (probably 6-0 6-4 would have been a fair reflection of the play), but Laura couldn't win any of the three long games from 2-1 up where the quality of tennis was pretty good though Laura missed too many finishing shots when game point up.

t's clear that Laura is short on confidence at the moment and being ill doesn't help. By the time she found any sort of rhythm in this match she was already a set down and it was always going to be very difficult from then on against an in form Kerber.

paulisi · Tennis legend

She clearly wasn't well in the last round, i wouldn't be suprised if this is still the case and would explain some of the issues.

Jajon · Strong Club Player

korriban wrote:

Looks like you are the one having a hissy fit.

I promised I would stop posting on this forum should anyone be openly rude and make personal insults. That day has come.

I will of course continue to read the excellent posts from Steven, Indiana, Bob in Spain and many others who contribute facts as well as debate and opinion, rather than simply anodinedrivel. Thanks to all! smile

philwrig · Hall of fame

So we now know that Laura is dealing with chronic Bronchitus, which must put into perspective her performances this year. Not being a doctor I don't know what % impact this could put on her training, matches, but it certainly can't help.

Kerber was playing lights out, confirming her form from last week, Laura I suspect particularly in the second set played much better than against Klara.
Lots of very long rallies which in normal circumstances she would have won the point, but against this version of Kerber, the final error tended to come from the Brit. Laura gave it her all and had numerous game point opportunities in that second set. I think its fair to say that if she plays like she did in that 2nd set next week, health permitting she'll do very nicely indeed.

korriban · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
I'm prepared to give Laura the benefit of the doubt - the commentators keep mentioning her cough infection. I';m sure she's not sick as a parrot or she wouldn't be playing but, even if you're a tiny bit under the weather, which she no doubt is, it's difficult to be dynamic (and we all agree it's not her strong point).

CD. jajon. Even though the scoreline says 6-1 6-2, I think there was some terrific tennis from Laura (in fact from both girls), I thought Laura ran quite well for wide balls which is fantastic if she's poorly, plus I think Laura's serve has come on over the last few months. Furthermore Kerber has tremendous defence, and she needed to because Laura was the aggressor throughout.

What I find almost unwatchable, and Jajon - this is perhaps where we differ, is the sheer number of points (and in tennis games every point is really a swing of 2 points so it's even more critical) Laura loses which have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the match, the opponent, the opponent's shot, the difficulty of the court position, or the amount of court to cover, etc. By simply moving correctly towards the ball (rather than waiting for it) and executing basic micro footwork this would eliminate almost all of these at a stroke - on groundstrokes mainly, but also on return. Sometimes people feel Laura can be overly aggressive, hence the UEs - but I don't think that's the problem at all - it's pulling the trigger when not having positioned herself correctly to the ball.

I suspect there were 8-10 UEs caused by this and this alone per set and not by Kerber's fine play. Even these points were shared 50/50 between the players rather than all going to Kerber, we have a very tight match indeed.

My best guess, for what it's worth, is that Laura is so talented that she can make her fair share of groundstrokes and returns when not bothering to get her body and feet in the right position, so her coaches have, to some extent, let her get away with it.......push/force too hard and you risk losing your star pupil.......just ask Mr Krajan.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

There were enough good shots to make me think she'll get there eventually. But enough errors to suggest it will take a while. So many areas that need massive improvement: ball toss, getting returns in play, movement, cutting down on soft errors, varying the direction of the serve.