Week 15 - ITF ($25K) - Pelham, USA Clay

Peter too · Tennis legend

RE: Week 15 - ITF ($25K) - Pelham, USA Clay

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, guess one of Jo's 'got out of bed the wrong side' days. Still looking like a big search for consistency.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm guessing yesterday took alot out of Jo, she hasn't got the most durable of bodies. Still though showing solid top 150 form the last couple of weeks, so some positives, but we know Jo is a solid top 100 player at her best, so still areas to improve.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jo is a top 100 player at her best. She's a way to go before I'd be prefacing that with 'solid'. And that's a big issue.

Hopefully in time ...

PockyTastic · Futures level

Siegesmund has historically done well on green clay and has a game that frustrates a lot of players (she hits a lot of dropshots) so a loss to her isn't a huge shock especially after playing twice yesterday - a real shame it wasn't closer but a second week of back to back wins isn't to be sniffed at .

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

PockyTastic wrote:
Siegesmund has historically done well on green clay and has a game that frustrates a lot of players (she hits a lot of dropshots) so a loss to her isn't a huge shock especially after playing twice yesterday - a real shame it wasn't closer but a second week of back to back wins isn't to be sniffed at .

Didn't the other semi-finalists have to play twice on Saturday? Sorry I just don't think she's good enough and out of these back to back wins not one of her opponents was ranked inside the top 200 so forgive me if I remain unimpressed and the fact that she might have played twice on Saturday is just an excuse. What frustrates me even more is the likelihood that she will probably receive a WC for the main draw at Wimbledon irrespective of how she performs between now and then as well as climbing nearly 10 places in the rankings for beating fairly poor opposition.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Jo is a momentum and form player as its the only way she can cancel out being so soft between the ears (I've never seen a player look so terrified, so frequently, on court as her). She needs a run of matches to get herself going and get things clicking consistently. These two runs will hopefully have helped her get a little bit of confidence, and if she can pick up a win or two in the stronger 50k field this week that will round off this trip nicely before heading back to Europe for the red stuff.

Jo is capable of surprising us, so who knows, maybe she'll qualify for the French.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

'Jo is capable of surprising us, so who knows, maybe she'll qualify for the French'

Well if she does then fair play to her - but her opponents would have to be bad.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Jo has a bit of a glass like body, which is the reason for pointing out that 2 matches in 1 day could have an adverse affect. As for her form, as I said before I believe her to be a solid top 150 player at the moment, which means if she was to play say 10 matches against top 150 players her win/loss record would be 5/5. She of course on any given day could play way above that level, or way below that level, but I see that as her average performance level at the moment. As Paul pointed out, strength of mind is also holding her back, but one could talk/write for weeks about that.
I also think she has some ongoing fitness issues in particular with her wrist, which became more of an issue last summer, her forehand in particular is the one shot which has regressed markedly since the height of her form 9- 18 months ago.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

philwrig wrote:
Jo has a bit of a glass like body, which is the reason for pointing out that 2 matches in 1 day could have an adverse affect. As for her form, as I said before I believe her to be a solid top 150 player at the moment, which means if she was to play say 10 matches against top 150 players her win/loss record would be 5/5. She of course on any given day could play way above that level, or way below that level, but I see that as her average performance level at the moment. As Paul pointed out, strength of mind is also holding her back, but one could talk/write for weeks about that.
I also think she has some ongoing fitness issues in particular with her wrist, which became more of an issue last summer, her forehand in particular is the one shot which has regressed markedly since the height of her form 9- 18 months ago.

Hmmm - Not a great prognosis then for a professional athlete approaching her mid-20's.

indiana · Tennis legend

Sadly, I suspect rather more mental fragility here than physical fragility ( not that either is good and to seemingly suffer rather often from both on an ongoing basis must be a big concern ). Jo completed two less than fully taxing matches on Saturday with a 6-0 set. To come out on the Sunday and apparently lose so poorly surely asks again rather more questions than physical fitness, even if that at times is an issue.

Where I would disagree with A131 is that I could see Jo coming out and getting decent results against pretty good players at 50K level and above since she certainly can beat good players. She can also lose to pretty poor players. And it is rare that players switch back and forth quite as quickly as Jo does at times.

KK · Club Coach

A131 wrote:
'Jo is capable of surprising us, so who knows, maybe she'll qualify for the French'

Well if she does then fair play to her - but her opponents would have to be bad.

She is considerably more highly ranked than Marcus!

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

I sense a few issues for A131 towards Jo.

Jo has shown what she's capable of in the past and has broken into the top 100. She'll get there again.

wolf · Tennis legend

KK wrote:
A131 wrote:
'Jo is capable of surprising us, so who knows, maybe she'll qualify for the French'

Well if she does then fair play to her - but her opponents would have to be bad.
She is considerably more highly ranked than Marcus!

I think you have the wrong A1 there. wink

KK · Club Coach

wolf wrote:
KK wrote:
A131 wrote:
'Jo is capable of surprising us, so who knows, maybe she'll qualify for the French'

Well if she does then fair play to her - but her opponents would have to be bad.
She is considerably more highly ranked than Marcus!
I think you have the wrong A1 there.

Quite right. I do!