Weeks 26-27 - Wimbledon women's main draw

Spectator · All-time great

RE: Weeks 26-27 - Wimbledon women's main draw

philwrig · Hall of fame

I see Vera took out Vekic and now has Diyas in the next round not a bad draw for a GS, and with a little bit of luck it might have been Tara making that run.

Priesty · Challenger level

So - only 1 Brit of either sex into round 3 of Wimbledon singles. 3 survived the first round, of which 2 mainly learnt their trade abroad and the third has not been funded by the LTA since 2007. Coincidence or something else I wonder??

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I didn't see any of Heather's match as I was at Wimbledon today but it certainly seemed like a very exciting 2nd set judging by the scores and crowd reaction which were probably getting more of my attention than the match I was watching!

A good tournament for her though, convincing first round win and pushing a top seed close. Whilst Heather was always unlikely to get through today I do think she is playing well enough to take advantage of any future grand slam draws that open up for her (so a shame she didn't get Tara's spot in the draw)

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Hev was like a different player in the that second set. It was almost like she used the 1st set as a warm up. Some great point towards the end of the set to take it

Didn't see any of the third set. That was a set up (in set 2) from the Halep French open match so good to see Hev got something going. Set 1 showed me why I think Hev is a top 40 player, maybe a top 30 at best but hope she proves me wrong and does even better.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, as I said when the draw came out and folk counted Hev's as a pretty good draw, the bigger issue for me was who was the first seed she was likely to meet, particularly given I would have said she had a decent chance against any non seed.

Halep in R2 at the French and Kerber here were very tough and always realistically likely to be too tough. But just as realistically, based on her form of late, I'd have given her a good chance of taking out quite a few of the seeds both at the French Open and here, if they had been her R1 or R2 opponent.

Top 40 again ? Certainly, she has already been WR 39, and to me has this year developed her game more than I thought she would / could ( certainly in that timescale ).

I previously tended to think top 30 was probably the best Hev would get to, but I have become more optimistic that she could be top 20.

Of course, much work still to do, and she has still only beaten one top 20 player in her life, but reasons for optimism I think.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I'm so glad that other people saw the match differently to me ! I watched nearly all of it and thought it was pretty poor, by both girls, and Heather in particular. Not saying there weren't some good moments but, overall, I thought it quite low quality (thought Heather looked very nervous and tight for much of it; it reminded me of JoKo's match). I'm obviously in the minority - and therefore probably wrong ! Good !!!

There doesn't seem to be a separate thread for the Women's doubles (unless I missed it) and it gets rather swallowed up in the men's and doesn't seem right somehow.

So good luck to Naomi today.

She and Eleni was 6-5 up against the 7th seeds from the USA when the match got suspended last night. I hope with the weather they get to play today (and win!).

Naomi - who's tennis makes me want to cry sometimes :) - has shown brilliant attitude this week - she's the only woman, I would say, who has really risen to the occasion and who seemed to relish the chance and has played to her maximum. All credit to her.
NB Love her comment, when asked about whether she has access to sports psychologists, fitness trainers, nutritionists etc. and she said, approx., 'no, but I think I've got so much to work on anyway that I should concentrate on all the unreturned serves before fiddling with the little things'.

indiana · Tennis legend

I'd say Heather's match against Kerber was a bit patchy from both overall ( relative to their ability ), but overall to my mind certainly not "pretty poor", and in spells it was very good.

Yes, Heather at times looked nervous, but not worryingly tight on a Jo scale, and she made too many execution errors, but her movement and particularly positive intentions were good, and she was really striking the ball well much of the time.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Heather's match is available to watch here: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/tennis/26944894

Having missed it yesterday, I watched the second set and third sets. I thought Heather played quite well - she played the big points really well but maybe made a few too many errors to give herself that many break points to save. Typical battling back from her in the second set, but maybe where Kerber showed her top 10 quality was to not dwell on it and instantly fight back at the start of the third. Heather also needs to play every set the way she plays from a set down as coming from behind against a top opponent is a tough ask.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

NB Despite all that frantic dashing around by poor Mrs. Dunne, I'm assuming the the Katy/ies never made it in yesterday ? Promoted to 1st Alts but not needed? Shame . . .

paulisi · Tennis legend

Naomi was good in the doubles last night, probably the best player on court. Kops-Jones was having a mare and the first set was there for the taking until the rain came.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Naomi was good in the doubles last night, probably the best player on court. Kops-Jones was having a mare and the first set was there for the taking until the rain came.

What a shame (for Naomi/Eleni obviously) that the rain came cry

Didn't see any of it but great to hear that Naomi was playing well. As mentioned, she seems to be loving Wimbledon, in her element really.

Do hope they can at least close out the first set if they deserved it.

And then it's all up for grabs . . .

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

One major positive from Hev yesterday (more so in set 2) was she seemed to be defending better. Getting the ball back in play in awkward positions that then allowed her eventually to go for a good shot that re-gained the initiative.

I'm really keen to see how Hev does over the hardcourt season. Unless she gets awful draws i expect one big run from her in a bigish tournament. I have a sneaky suspicion she'll get a couple of top 20 scalps maybe even a top 10. If she can end the year near her best ranking 2015 should and could be even better

indiana · Tennis legend

Given how Hev has been playing generally, and how relatively little she has to defend during the rest of the year, I'd actually be a tad disappointed now if she wasn't at least pretty close to the top 40 again before the end of the year, and indeed she could maybe take out her CH of WR 39.

I have no wish to particularly up the stakes or have unrealistic expectation. But going into Wimbledon with a race position of no 33, and the points she has accumulated weighted to the last month or two, is indicative of the relative level she has been at so far this year.

Good point about getting the ball back into play, more particularly how she was getting the ball back in play.

There has been some recent comment that she seemed good at getting to balls ( generally her retrieving has always been pretty good ), but not really giving that much of a problem with her recovery i.e. essentially getting to one more ball, but not making the next one testing enough.

Yesterday, particularly in that second set, Hev was not only moving and retrieving well, but often also producing impressive return pace and angles. That,was good to see.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Naomi and Eleni miss a set point at 6-5* and lose the tiebreak