Week 13 - ITF ($10K) - Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt - Hard

steven · Tennis legend

Week 13 - ITF ($10K) - Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt - Hard

paulisi · Tennis legend

Decent first round draw for the girls.

In fact the tournament entry list looks quite weak this week and Em has a good chance to pick up decent points again.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Yep I agree she anything other than semi final at least will be a failure here. She can take the title this week I think.

indiana · Tennis legend

I would imagine that Emily will be disappointed with anything less than a SF hete, but I really don't agree with anyone here calling her a "failure" if such and such.

Yes, I do have certain views about Emily as I have expressed them when occadionaly folk have sought to "retire" her.

Let her do what she doe ( which is evidently stil really liking travelling and playing professional tennis ). And no doubt wanting to win for herself.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ems tennis irritates the dickens out of me sometimes when I see it, but I have a lot of time for her. Not only because, as mentioned by others, she seems a nice person (and her tweets are good value).

But she is also the only GB singles player (male or female) who is currently doing the tour full-time and trying to 'make it' who is on the other side of 27/28 years old, i.e. in the post-peak part of her career.

As such, I think it is important for the other GB players.

One of the (large number) of anomalies of the British players, when looked at as a bunch, is that there are no 'senior' players left.

So good luck to Emily and here's hoping for, at minimum, a new top 400 ranking.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Em is my favourite I have a sweet spot for her and get gutted when she doesn't put it together. Her game is as good as Sam Naomi and Tara when she's on it.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Laura is 4-0 up, having won 16 points to the other girl's 4

paulisi · Tennis legend

Laura gets a first set bagel

paulisi · Tennis legend

and a second set bagel....

steven · Tennis legend

Laura completes the double bagel, dropping just 10 points

L32: Laura Deigman WR 771 beat (WC) Shivani Manchanda (IND) UNR by 0 & 0
L32: (2) Emily Webley-Smith WR 417 v (Q) Dajana Dukic (SRB) WR 1126 (CH 1109 in Dec) - tomorrow

L16: Laura Deigman WR 771 v (3) Eugeniya Pashkova (RUS) WR 443 (CH 401 in 2012)

Edit: Just checked - though she doesn't usually win many games Manchanda isn't one of those players who gets double-bagelled nearly all the time - indeed, even Emily lost 1 game when she beat her last month. So an impressively ruthless demolition by Laura

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 25th of March 2014 01:31:33 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Very good by Laura.

As I have said before, she may be a bit "overranked" ( partly through "clever" scheduling ) but is often competitive enough to suggest not as majorly so as is sometime made out. It certainly doesn't need a practical muppet for her to hand out a big beating though a double bagel must be very satisfying. Clearly a very much tougher task awaits in R2.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Maybe for Indy's personal safety we should make it clear that he is NOT calling Miss Manchanda a 'practical muppet' - of COURSE he isn't - so if she has a brother who's rather on the large size and feeling a little antsy this morning, Indy's the one with the large hat and fake beard . . .

indiana · Tennis legend

Err, thanks, Steven :)

I for quite a long time did have a beard, and did even sometimes wear large hats, but it is possibly safer that I nowadays ( as if ever ! ) look nothing like that character in my profile pic.

Can I make very clear that my whole point was that Miss Manchanda is evidently NOT a practical muppet ( as helpfully indicated by Steven's investigations ).

paulisi · Tennis legend

I'm not sure Laura is over ranked.

If you look at the points she has accumulated - 9 first round wins for a point each and 4 second round wins for 4 points, so only set to drop 8 points through the new scoring system.

There is still another three scorers to be filled so there is a chance she could break top 750 and a CH.

PS Laura is one of the few girls that i have yet to see play live, so i don't know the tennis style or ability level.

-- Edited by paulisi on Tuesday 25th of March 2014 02:03:28 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Err, thanks, Steven :)

I for quite a long time did have a beard, and did even sometimes wear large hats, but it is possibly safer that I nowadays ( as if ever ! ) look nothing like that character in my profile pic.

Can I make very clear that my whole point was that Miss Manchanda is evidently NOT a practical muppet ( as helpfully indicated by Steven's investigations ).

It was me, actually, Indy, just minding your back smile