Week 2 - WTA Australian Open Qualifying 2014

Reeltime · Satellite level

RE: Week 2 - WTA Australian Open Qualifying 2014

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Easy win for JoKo 62 61

steven · Tennis legend

That's the kind of beatdown I was expecting JoKo to hand out until people (and the bookies) started making me doubt it a bit!

Anthony Constant, a Brit (I think!) who's there tweeted the following from courtside:

1-1 on serve
jo breaks 3-2 up and to serve
another break and its 5-2 to Jo
game set 6-2 with some awesome hitting and position play
and Jo breaks first game 1-0
3-0 now another break. Min has no answers to Jo
yay a cloud and 4-0
heats got to the scoreboard but Min got a game and its 4-1
5-1 served in the 150's kph that game not the 170's
and its all over time for Jo's ice bath and my cold beer 6-4 6-1

QR1: (q3) Johanna Konta WR 113 beat Grace Min (USA) WR 152 (CH 128 in Sep) by 2 & 1
QR1: (q7) Heather Watson WR 120 beat (wc) Arina Rodionova (AUS) WR 237 (CH 157 in 2010) by 4 & 3
QR1: Tara Moore WR 212 lost to Erika Sema (JPN) WR 181 (CH 114 in 2011) by 0 & 5

QR2: (q3) Johanna Konta WR 113 v Olga Savchuk (UKR) WR 187 (CH 79 in 2008)
QR2: (q7) Heather Watson WR 120 v Stéphanie Foretz Gacon (FRA) WR 161 (CH 62 in 2003)

H2H 2-2, all in 2010/11 - Hev won the last 2, including R1 at Roland Garros.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 9th of January 2014 11:36:40 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Good looking win that for Jo !

Looks like she had her game in good working order in spite of my prematch doubts.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Q1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 3 113 beat MIN, Grace (USA) 152 6-2 6-1

Final statistics
Aces 4
DFs 1
1st serves in 70%
1st serve points won 77%
2nd serve points won 73%
Fastest serve 175 Kmh
Average 1st serve 162 Kmh
Average 2nd serve 142 Kmh
Net points won 63%
Break points won 5/9 56%
Receiving points won 31/57 54%
Total points won 59/94 63%

indiana · Tennis legend

So, I make that 28/37 points in 7 service games, not broken or faced a BP or even taken to deuce in any of them.

TomTraubert · Futures level

good for jo
savchuk next
jo should have enough to win that without much truble so long she plays a solid match

konjuh looking v dangerous in jokos section tho

-- Edited by TomTraubert on Thursday 9th of January 2014 07:05:58 AM

TomTraubert · Futures level

hev @ 23:00 UK - court 6
joko @ 4th after 23:00 UK - court 13

Spectator · All-time great

Well done the women! Very nice wins, and a recovery (if not a win) from Ms Moore.

Agree that the young unseeded players (Bencic, Konjuh, Duval, et al) are among the most dangerous floaters. Did think when I saw Sharon Fichman (1st seed) drawn against Bencic that if I were she I would have thought "Oh no! Miss out on MD by one place and then get this" Seems hard luck.

Jiwan · Club Coach

I was on court six watching Jo play. she came out at the hottest part of the day.....it was blistering and with no cloud cover. She was in domineering form and basically hit her opponent off the court. She has a great all round game and I would be surprised if she doesn't Qualify here.

It was a good opener for our Hev. Irina really didn't have any weapons that were going to bother Hev so It was a good opportunity to get some good match practice. Boy oh boy does Hev's serve look a bit dodgy. at times she looked like she was just pushing her second serve in. She may struggle to qualify here. A better opponent today would have converted some of those break points and prob created more against Hev

I only saw the last half of Tara's second set. It was such a shame that she couldn't squeeze past her opponent in that set because she was playing some good tennis in that set. who knows what might have happened if it went into a decider. Can I just say that Sema has one of the most annoying 'Grunts' i've ever heard. It's actually more of a sentence that sounds like 'I beg your pardon' every time she hits the ball....annoying

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

A couple of good solid results from Joko and Hev, a shame Tara couldn't make it 3 out of 3 though.

Thank you to everyone who provided score updates throughout the night, it's so much better to read through a thread on here to follow the matches "as live" rather just get the final result elsewhere.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Australian Open report on Heather's match uses the word 'nervous' for the first set and then claims that her 'first serve proved lethal' in the second set as she 'stamped her authority' and 'cruised to victory'.

:)

Jiwan · Club Coach

Hey i'm not knocking our Hev. I was cheering her on all the way, I'm just glad she is competing at this level, not long after a very nasty time out.

Just my observations, she def didn't cruise through on her serve or dominate on it. Irina had plenty of openings into Hev's service games and several break points...which doesn't suggest she was cruising on serve. Hev's ground strokes were dominant and Irina didn't play that well. that's why Hev won

Jan · Hall of fame

Thanks for all the info.
So pleased to see that Jo and Hev got through - good luck to them in the next round.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Jiwan wrote:
Hey i'm not knocking our Hev. I was cheering her on all the way, I'm just glad she is competing at this level, not long after a very nasty time out.
Just my observations, she def didn't cruise through on her serve or dominate on it. Irina had plenty of openings into Hev's service games and several break points...which doesn't suggest she was cruising on serve. Hev's ground strokes were dominant and Irina didn't play that well. that's why Hev won

Jiwan, I completely believe you - the Aussi Open account made me smile - not my definition of 'cruised' at all! smile

Heather's own report on the BBC just says she was incredibly nervous, with huge expectations of herself, which sounds very likely. Hopefully, she's put a few demons to rest and will be feeling more relaxed for the next onw.