Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (women's)

briteny · Intermediate Club Player

RE: Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (women's)

jenks · Social player

Best Heather has played for a while. You've got to love her. I know its almost becoming a cliche its said so often about her but she's such a fighter. Laura was disappointing to say the least...

-- Edited by jenks on Monday 13th of January 2014 03:16:14 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Very decent level from Heather and certainly better than in qualifying.

OK, Dani can blow hot and cold, but overall seemed to play to a decent level here. It's worth remembering that Heather's best ever win in ranking terms was against then WR 25, Lucie Safarova, in Miami in 2012. So taking Dani to 3 tight sets is pretty encouraging.

OK, post match I can say I've always tended to want Dani to do well. So best of luck to her in the rest of the tournament.

korriban · Challenger level

Shame for Hev, sounds like there wasn't much in it.

32 UEs for Laura against just 4 for Flipkens, so presumably the Belgian was aiming to just keep the ball in play and wait for Laura to miss. No BPs at all. Neil Harman was very critical of Laura's movement, which ought to have benefitted from the off season, but looked like it hadn't improved. Clearly hampered by rustiness and her wrist up to a point, but that shouldn't affect footwork too much, more general matchplay and shot consistency. Lots of time to come back to form in the coming months - she won't be alone in missing out this week, but it IS disappointing

-- Edited by korriban on Monday 13th of January 2014 06:54:24 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

tony_orient wrote:
TomTraubert wrote:
Lauras presser : http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2014-01-13/201401121389579390216.html
She mentions McEnroe in the last question. Does anyone know anything about that?

yep, that was a new one for me too.

Well, Heather will take some positives away from this Aussie Open, and well done to her, but I can't see how any of the other women will . . . overall pretty disappointing.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

thank for all the commentary - sounds like Heather aquitted herself very well despite the loss, and that the less said about Laura the better!

Jan · Hall of fame

Oh what a shame. I did sneak downstairs in the early hours and saw Laura's result. Hev was just going into the 3rd, so I was really hoping there would be some good news this morning. But it's good to know that Hev played well.
Thanks to those night birds for the info!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I fell asleep in front of the radio. I was sooo gutted when Laura lost, albeit not surprised. I didn't expect her to self destruct like she did though.
Qdos to Hev for a good fight. I amfeeling much more positive now that the old Hev is back, and that she'll get back to somewhere near her CH this year.
Joko looks to rise too if she can just get consistent. I'm pretty exited about this year.
Now roll on Andy!

Jan · Hall of fame

tony_orient wrote:
She mentions McEnroe in the last question. Does anyone know anything about that?

When I read that it came across as a joke reference to all the "golden oldies" now in coaching.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Came across to me like he was on her team.

Spectator · All-time great

Well that would be one for the books!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Helen40 wrote:
Came across to me like he was on her team.

Definitely a tongue in cheek comment.

steven · Tennis legend

I had Radio 5Live on to follow both matches, expecting them to concentrate on Laura (as indeed they did - apparently most of the GB journalists were on her court too before deserting her like rats leaving a sinking ship in the 2nd set to go to the match that, to me, was always likely to be more interesting in the first place, given that you always know you'll get your money's worth with Hev as long as she's not actually ill at the time!) and I watched Heather on the bet365 stream.

I thought Hev played very well - a step up from how she played in qualifying and she was more than matching Dani except when the latter found her best form, as she did late in the 1st and 3rd sets. I'd say she is only a decent 2nd serve away from being better than ever.

That means I hardly saw any of Laura's match with my own eyes, but I read a lot of adverse comments about her movement, someone tweeted me afterwards (not someone in the habit of trolling female players, I hasten to add) "I think it's going to be tough season for Laura... She looked a little overweight..." and when the radio commentator asked someone whether it was possible that Laura was looking a bit sluggish because she had over-trained during the off-season, that person (sounded like Annabel Croft, but I'm not sure - she was only in the box for a few minutes) managed, in as diplomatic a way as possible, to say there was next to no chance of Laura ever over-training and it was more likely to be the opposite.

Yet while the wrist problem shouldn't have stopped her working on fitness, it's not difficult to imagine that it must have made training (and perhaps even motivation) harder and I'd be surprised if that, lack of match play and not feeling completely confident in her wrist weren't the main reasons why she lost so heavily ... plus Flipkens, by all accounts, played very well.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Laura's movement was Ok I thought, just very very rusty. I don't think she's regressed from last year if fully fit, but not improved. Second serve looks a bit better maybe. The thing about Laura, is she often has her opponents on the run, and when she can consistently hit one more tough shot, that will get her the point, so I don't see why top 20 is still not an achievable career goal, if not higher.

As for Hev , great to see that energy back, she's looking like a solid top 50 career is hers, but she needs to improve to better that. Dani was the better player when both were at their best, but very happy to see her back playing near her best level. As a fan she is always great to watch because she fights for every point.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

steven wrote:
I had Radio 5Live on to follow both matches, expecting them to concentrate on Laura (as indeed they did - apparently most of the GB journalists were on her court too before deserting her like rats leaving a sinking ship in the 2nd set to go to the match that, to me, was always likely to be more interesting in the first place, given that you always know you'll get your money's worth with Hev as long as she's not actually ill at the time!) and I watched Heather on the bet365 stream.

I thought Hev played very well - a step up from how she played in qualifying and she was more than matching Dani except when the latter found her best form, as she did late in the 1st and 3rd sets. I'd say she is only a decent 2nd serve away from being better than ever.

That means I hardly saw any of Laura's match with my own eyes, but I read a lot of adverse comments about her movement, someone tweeted me afterwards (not someone in the habit of trolling female players, I hasten to add) "I think it's going to be tough season for Laura... She looked a little overweight..." and when the radio commentator asked someone whether it was possible that Laura was looking a bit sluggish because she had over-trained during the off-season, that person (sounded like Annabel Croft, but I'm not sure - she was only in the box for a few minutes) managed, in as diplomatic a way as possible, to say there was next to no chance of Laura ever over-training and it was more likely to be the opposite.

Yet while the wrist problem shouldn't have stopped her working on fitness, it's not difficult to imagine that it must have made training (and perhaps even motivation) harder and I'd be surprised if that, lack of match play and not feeling completely confident in her wrist weren't the main reasons why she lost so heavily ... plus Flipkens, by all accounts, played very well.

I think it's a bit of an easy 'default' criticism of Laura that her movement is poor when she is not playing well. I thought the main problem was that she just missed a lot of regulation shots when in a decent position, and then she mentally fell away badly once she realised her game was not close to being where it needs to be to challenge a top 20 opponent. Lack of match practice also affects anticipation of her opponent's shots which would make movement look worse.