Week 35: US Open (Women's Main Draw) - Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

RE: Week 35: US Open (Women's Main Draw) - Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

Loses 61 61. Wasn't remotely close.

Superb from Cirstea. Sadly she'll no doubt self-destruct in round 2.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

Wonder how much worse a performance has to be to get a fine? If I was being entirely neutral I would have considered fining that performance.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

confuse confuse confuse bleh

PaulM · Tennis legend

I don't normally bet against Brits, but after 3 games it seemed clear that Sorana was on it today. So at least I made a few quid on set betting (2-0) and both set scorelines, although as I am a total wuss, my 10p stakes won't be enough to retire on!

steven · Tennis legend

L128: Heather Watson WR 46 lost to Sorana Cirstea (ROU) WR 80 (CH 21 in 2013) by 1 & 1

L128: Johanna Konta WR 118 lost to Shahar Peer (ISR) WR 155 (CH 11 in 2011) by 2 & 3

Not quite what we hoped for when they both drew lower-ranked (if previously much higher-ranked) opponents in R1

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

And it's over. A lot of disappointment right now regarding both Konta and Watson.

PaulM · Tennis legend

It's important to have some perspective. Hev won a lot of matches this summer despite playing pretty poorly. She dug in and ground out wins. Often after blowing commanding leads. She wasn't coming into this tournament playing great tennis and wasn't able to find anything of quality today.

Both girls looked defeated before they even started. The way both carried themselves on court is a far bigger concern for me than the defeats themselves, which weren't massive shocks.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Well, so much for being a great first round draw bleh

I didn't get to see any of Heather's match (and somehow I don't think I'll watch the recording of it when I get home) but as good a draw as it looked there is always the risk for Hev when she plays a big hitter, as I don't think she has a plan how how to turn such a match around apart from battling really hard and hoping her opponent loses her range (and to be fair that is quite a hard skill to master).

I do wonder if the sheer volume of matches Heather had to play at the start of the year to get her ranking up is starting to catch up with her a bit - I'm not saying it definitely has but we will find out once the Asian swing gets underway.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Tuesday 26th of August 2014 04:55:39 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

BeefyDeedz wrote:
And it's over. A lot of disappointment right now regarding both Konta and Watson.

Yep.

But I can't help thinking we may have well got off lightly - seems to me that Andy was within a cat's whisker away from being eliminated yesterday - we could have had all three knocked out in the first round . .. not much consolation . .

Sim · County player

Ouch! Talked up getting to 2nd week, I am not sure Hev made it to the 2nd hour.

philwrig · Hall of fame

PaulM wrote:
Phil I think that may be it, this quote from the Daily Mail is a bit vague but added to what Greg said would make sense:-

'I've had a lot of changes come my way this year, a lot of personal things. I just need to keep working hard and trust that the results will come.'

Konta was playing only her third match in more than a month after recovering from a right wrist problem.

She said: 'That's all fine now. It's my third match back so I need to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully that shouldn't take too long.'

I'm getting a lot of flashbacks to Katie, who was messed around horribly by the LTA with her allocated coaches, and it really hurt her just when she needed that stability to (funnily enough) cement her position in the top 100. Katie had found a great coaching relationship, but it ended, and then the LTA kept chopping and changing who she was working with and nothing was a good fit.

If the Lisnard relationship ended before it started, for whatever reason, it's really important she has finds someone she can work with before the end of the season, so even if she does drop to around the 160-180 mark she can have a good offseason and come back well in Oz.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 26th of August 2014 03:00:11 PM

I'm now having a flashback regarding her wrist problem. I vaguely remember seeing her wrist being strapped at the end of one of her matches at Eastbourne and thinking oh crap that doesn't look too good. However she played it down and it didn't seem to affect her performances that week, so I forgot about it. I suspect lack of hitting and match practice has resulted in her FH technique breaking down more alarmingly lately. I know about some of the personal issues she's faced and they're pretty tragic to say the least, but I thought she was in a good position now. Ah well, fingers crossed for the rest of the year.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I agree that Hev's form since Wimby has been poor, the win over Cibulkova now has to be taken in context following that player's demise at the hands of a 15 year old.
She looked flat, committed way too many errors etc, etc., It didn't help that Sori was in beast mode and I can see her upsetting Genie. I wonder whether she's feeling 100%, but Hev is someone that likes to play everything down, so we'll probably not find out.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jo can be erratic at the best of times. If her wrist has caused her to miss a lot of practice, and still limit it, the consequences are not too surprising.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

philwrig wrote:

I agree that Hev's form since Wimby has been poor, the win over Cibulkova now has to be taken in context following that player's demise at the hands of a 15 year old..

Speaking of which, the media are reporting that CiCi Bellis is an amataur so isn't elligible for prize money. I didn't realise there was such a thing in tennis - isn't anyone who pays the entrance fee eligible for prize money?

Or is it one of the US college things?