Week 2 - WTA International ($250,000) - Hobart, Australia - Hard

Jan · Hall of fame

RE: Week 2 - WTA International ($250,000) - Hobart, Australia - Hard

Spectator · All-time great

Glad to hear that someone else thinks well of Ms Riske. I'm very glad Ms Watson won, but Ms Riske is also one of my favourite players.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Another really good win for Heather!!

Whilst this run is the exact opposite of her last run to a WTA final in that it's the first tournament of the year rather than the last, it also seems quite similar in that she had a really tough draw at the start but the event opened up in the later rounds. If you reverse her opponent order (Brengle, Riske, Vinci, Stephens, Rybarikova) it looks much more like a typical order of difficulty! It's also similar in that they have both been in the middle of the night UK time.

When Hev gets on top form, she is virtually unbeatable by anyone outside the top 20 and she has taken full advantage of this is a tournament with no top players, but with no easy matches either. Overall, if she beats Brengle tomorrow morning, I would say that winning this event would eclipse Osaka as her best ever tournament.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Great result, Heather, all the best in the final

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

SF: Heather WATSON/Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (GBR/CRO) 178 lost to Vitalia DIATCHENKO/Monica NICULESCU (RUS/ROU) 195 2-6 3-6

But... still...

Heather!

Sim · County player

AliBlahBlah wrote:
SF: Heather WATSON/Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (GBR/CRO) 178 lost to Vitalia DIATCHENKO/Monica NICULESCU (RUS/ROU) 195 2-6 3-6

But... still... Heather!

What time did they finish? I saw there as a rain delay at 3-5 30-30 in second set. Little concerned that Heather has had a very long day today. Atleast her singles semi was before Madison Brengle's

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Sim wrote:
AliBlahBlah wrote:
SF: Heather WATSON/Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (GBR/CRO) 178 lost to Vitalia DIATCHENKO/Monica NICULESCU (RUS/ROU) 195 2-6 3-6

But... still... Heather!
What time did they finish? I saw there as a rain delay at 3-5 30-30 in second set. Little concerned that Heather has had a very long day today. Atleast her singles semi was before Madison Brengle's

I'm not sure, exactly, but it was within a half hour of my post.

So I think Heather was probably 'in action' for 8-ish hours as her singles was originally started at 02:00 UK time.

3:05:44 of which was on court.

Edit: my space bar is dying

-- Edited by AliBlahBlah on Friday 16th of January 2015 12:18:53 PM

LordBrownof · Futures level

I hope youtube comes up trumps again! Go Heather!

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

LordBrownof wrote:
I hope youtube comes up trumps again! Go Heather!

Hobart are uploading all of their matches.

I guess the delay, or problem here is the editing they'd have to do because of the rain delays. I'm not sure if they have the facility.

They've already put the second - uninterrupted - SF up in full.

Nothing yet for Hev's match though.

Jan · Hall of fame

oh that's a shame - I was rather hoping to watch some of the match over lunch.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Final not before 03:00 UK

wimdledont · Challenger level

Some good interviews with Heather on the Hobart site, the best of them here...

www.hobartinternational.com.au/2015/01/adapt-and-thrive-elementary-for-watson

On the live rankings, she's up to 41...

live-tennis.eu/wta-live-ranking

...and a win tonight would take her to a new career high of 37, and less than 100 points short of the top 30, leapfrogging Riske, Vinci, Stephens and Rybarikova - all of her opponents this week so far.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Jan wrote:
Do hope the match will be put up on youtube like the others have been.

They've put it up but, unlike her earlier rounds, it's not available in the UK. Wonder if that means one of the sports channels has picked it up for showing here?

philwrig · Hall of fame

Another great win, especailly having to overcome all those rain delays. Following it on livescores during the night, it was causing me huge grief, and disrupting my sleep pattern, but I can only imagine how frustrating it was for her. She didn't seem to react well to them either, losing her way at the start of the second after a long one at the end of the first, and then of course agonisingly dropping serve when MP up at the end of the 2nd.

Brengle's an interesting one, completely devoid of any weapons, seen her play several times at the Notts challenger, but suddenly now playing tennis way above that journey women standard. The bad news is that's she's won 11 matches already this season, but the good news is she must be exhausted, and was receiving treatment for blisters in her semi, so assuming Hev can play a solid match I only see 1 winner.

Jan · Hall of fame

The Optimist wrote:
Jan wrote:
Do hope the match will be put up on youtube like the others have been.
They've put it up but, unlike her earlier rounds, it's not available in the UK. Wonder if that means one of the sports channels has picked it up for showing here?

thanks cry