Week 37 - WTA International ($250K) - Quebec City, Canada - Carpet

PaulM · Tennis legend

RE: Week 37 - WTA International ($250K) - Quebec City, Canada - Carpet

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Kiki breaks again, without having to play at all well

4-5*

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

All gone wrong. Mlad looks much the superior player. Naomi not getting enough unreturned serves.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

A bright start fades away as the first set goes to Mladenovic, 4-6

PaulM · Tennis legend

From *4-2 40-0 Naomi wins 3 points. So, so poor to lose that set.

Big sigh. now the ridiculous errors have started and the first serve % is dropping its hard to see Mlad losing this one. She's not had to do anything yet.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 9th of September 2014 08:22:25 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

Glorious touch from Naomi to set up break point which she takes, but a miserable game hands it back.

3-2*

Julia Carrot · All-time great

AliBlahBlah wrote

I think the applause is probably Francophonic solidarity.

Ah! That would be it.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Fails to break from 40-0*

*3-3

PaulM · Tennis legend

A poor service game at *5-5 to be broken to 15.

And its over 46 57 :(

Shame. This was a great bit of scheduling and I had really high hopes for her to make quarters in this field given what she can do indoors but the draw wasn't ideal sadly. Mlad had plenty firepower and was more steady. At this level you can see her limitations so vividly and she really needs the tools she does have to be completely on to stand a chance.

I do think she can have a very good autumn still (at the bigger itfs), much needed after a poor summer. If she can cover her bigger points from 2013 and edge up 15-20 spots that will be a good effort.

steven · Tennis legend

L32: Johanna Konta WR 118 lost to (Q) Asia Muhammad (USA) WR 285 (= CH) by 6-2 6-7(0) 7-6(4)

L32: Naomi Broady WR 142 lost to (3) Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) WR 82 (CH 36 in 2013) by 4 & 5

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I thought Naomi played ok by her standards. First serve percentage not as good as you might hope. Plenty of super shots, also plenty of real shockers too; always likely to happen with her swing. Mlad won by keeping her unforced errors down to a minimum, moving Naomi around the court and letting her self destruct. Return of serve still miles below the level of similar ranked players; a bit alarming that she kept making the same errors when returning, forehand returns of first serves into the net, backhand returns of 2nd serves narrowly wide.

Stating the obvious, it is hard to see Naomi as a top 100 player for any length of time unless there are dramatic improvements to her game. Interestingly, there were some fierce 2nd serves including an ace, as well as the usual timid 2nd serves. Naomi's lobs are comically awful.

-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 9th of September 2014 09:26:32 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

kundalini wrote:
I thought Naomi played ok by her standards. First serve percentage not as good as you might hope. Plenty of super shots, also plenty of real shockers too. Mlad won by keeping her unforced errors down to a minimum, moving Naomi around the court and letting her self destruct. Return of serve still miles below the level of similar ranked players; a bit alarming that she kept making the same error when returning, forehand returns of first serves into the net, backhand returns of 2nd serves narrowly wide.

Well said.

After Wimbledon, Naomi said that she was going to work hard on her return of serve. But absolutely no sign of it.

As you say, her return of serve level is WAY below that of other players of her ranking. Quite horrible most of the time. Which is a shame because there's some good stuff in other areas.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Comparing Naomi's game to where it was a few years ago, she has made significant improvements. Her movement is much better, her defence has improved, forehand seems a better shot than it used to be though ridiculously inconsistent. Still a lot of work to do on her game.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Kiki was in abysmal form at the US open ( all she had there was a decent 1st serve ), so I had hoped with the confidence boosting win in the doubles, that Naomi might cause a minor upset here.
Naomi has struggled since Wimby but I still believe she has alot of fire within her, which at some stage will help her to get close to that top 100 mark.

indiana · Tennis legend

Would be great to see Naomi in the top 100.

In many ways it is real triumph to have got where she has with the problems she has had to endure and some really fundamental issues in her game.

The great pity, looking from afar, is that I think many of these problems could have been largely mitigated by more compromise and some have probably fed into her game / not been cured from her game from a coaching ( or at times lack of coaching ) standpoint.