Peter too wrote:

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This year Jo has been regularly beating players in the 100-150 range both on clay and hard court on the ITF circuit. Once she hit the grass courts on the WTA circuit the level of her opponents shot up but Jo kept on getting wins. At Nottingham she got wins against players ranked 59 and 89 and a loss against 61, in Birmingham she got a win against a player ranked 60 a loss to 12, Eastbourne wins against 34, 8 and 20. Watching Jo today her body language was very positive, she didn't look like a player who hoped to win or thought she could win, she looked like a player who expected to win. Her confidence looks sky high at the moment and seems to be growing with every match, long may it continue.

-- Edited by Peter too on Wednesday 24th of June 2015 03:41:53 PM

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Nice resume, thanks; and yes long may Jo's run of form and confidence continue  

TennisLover wrote:

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TMH wrote:

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Some brilliant wins for Jo.

I don't follow the women as often as I do the men, but anyone know where this sudden surge of form has come from? Is it a case of the surface, or has her game just come on in leaps and bounds?

I have no idea what her form was before this week so no idea if it's out of the blue or she has been showing this level for a while.

Incredible for the world #146 (I know she's been higher in the past) to take out the world 34, 20 and 8 all in succession, for the loss of just one set.

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 Surface is a major factor.  Nonetheless, a couple of big wins does wonders to ones mindset.

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On the contrary, I rarely follow the GB men (I don't have enough time, and had to pick), but I do follow Johanna, so here's my ramble on it.

First time I ever saw Johanna play I thought, "she has, at least, a top 50 game", but so many do, potentially, and as always there were caveats; two major ones:

1. The forehand - a decent stroke but lacking any real control or consistency. Under pressure, or even on seemingly simple put aways, it would go in to overdrive and I lost count of the times I saw Jo set up a point beautifully, have an easy put away, and for no apparent reason, blaze the ball 4 feet long - it was almost always long, and by feet.
   There was no attenuation to the shot, and it let her down, repeatedly and often. All the more frustrating because it broke down most often when it was required to close an, otherwise, well played point.
2. Mentality - Jo often seemed very nervous when leading and was very capable of beating herself if she couldn't close things out at the first opportunity. I sometimes got the feeling that she didn't really believe she belonged on some courts against some oppositions - supposition that though.

So the potential was always there, if you could smooth away those rough edges, and get more consistent performance from the considerable promise of her basic game, serve and movement.

She indeed played several very competitive matches against top opposition, including her first Wimbledon WC, where she was edged out 8-10 in the third by, a then #28 ranked , Christina McHale at the peak of her powers, one of the hot players on tour, and before the glandular fever that has set her back for several years. It was a really gutsy performance by Johanna in her first really big exposure.

Watching the 2013 Vancouver $100K, in which Johanna ran rampant over the field, defeating 4 seeds, including the top seed in R1 on the way to the title, and played absolutely beautifully all week there, I thought that would finally be the final piece of the puzzle, and she would consolidate and move on to be a fixture in the WR 75-100 range at the very minimum. That summer more than one commentator or pundit, including Ben Rothenberg, saw her play for the first time, and the opinion was always akin to 'Why don't I know about this player, she's going to be big soon, she's got a great game'.

But the fundamental change never really materialised, for various reasons. Jo did make the top 100 for a few weeks, but the general level didn't pick up and then began to slide, many factors on and off court contributing.

The decision, some time later, to set up in Spain, with a new coach, seems to have been very much an excellent decision and a good match between player & coach.

Sam Smith on the BBC coverage mentioned how the Spanish method of bucket after bucket of balls, just hitting, honing, grooving strokes - making them repeatable, reliable & dependable - was probably just what Jo needed to iron out those forehand wrinkles and I tend to agreement with that.

When that shot is suddenly a factor in which the player can believe, even see as a weapon, then their confidence in general increases, and this cascades down to help fix he second point above. You trust your shots, you go for them with belief and a lessening, or absence, of nerves. Everything comes together.

There's obviously been a great deal of hard work, as not only is the forehand unrecognisably improved over its former iteration, but everything has improved, including, but not limited to: Serve, movement, point construction and the general air with which she is carrying herself about court

It's the first time, these last weeks, that I've seen Jo play in this new fashion, and I could hardly believe the difference, it's so impressive. I think placing too much emphasis on the Grass factor is a non sequitur. Jo's game is no better suited to grass than is, say, Makarova, a very fine player and QF a SW19 last year. What may be a factor is that Jo has really committed to the grass season, and has played as much as possible on the surface, and has gotten familiarised with it. Whereas her opponents have each begun their grass exposure this week. To overplay that though seems, to me, to belittle the achievement, and I hope I've outlined how much more there seems to be to this than just the surface.

As a three match run, purely in terms of the opposition overcome, it's hard to remember many comparisons in the last 20 years or so by a GB woman - Laura's 2012 USO of Crawford, Clijsters & Na being the only one that comes t mind.

I fervently hope that this is genuinely the start of a period of being able to reach her undoubted potential, and not another false dawn. Given the amount that seems different and improved, I'm hopeful that it is.

Congratulations Jo. A superb run.

I'm glad Heather got some matches under her belt this week and I only wish I'd been able to see more than one point of her loss to Sloane Stephens.

insomniacfolder wrote:

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TennisLover wrote:

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TMH wrote:

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Some brilliant wins for Jo.

I don't follow the women as often as I do the men, but anyone know where this sudden surge of form has come from? Is it a case of the surface, or has her game just come on in leaps and bounds?

I have no idea what her form was before this week so no idea if it's out of the blue or she has been showing this level for a while.

Incredible for the world #146 (I know she's been higher in the past) to take out the world 34, 20 and 8 all in succession, for the loss of just one set.

---

 Surface is a major factor.  Nonetheless, a couple of big wins does wonders to ones mindset.

---

On the contrary, I rarely follow the GB men (I don't have enough time, and had to pick), but I do follow Johanna, so here's my ramble on it.

First time I ever saw Johanna play I thought, "she has, at least, a top 50 game", but so many do, potentially, and as always there were caveats; two major ones:

1. The forehand - a decent stroke but lacking any real control or consistency. Under pressure, or even on seemingly simple put aways, it would go in to overdrive and I lost count of the times I saw Jo set up a point beautifully, have an easy put away, and for no apparent reason, blaze the ball 4 feet long - it was almost always long, and by feet.
   There was no attenuation to the shot, and it let her down, repeatedly and often. All the more frustrating because it broke down most often when it was required to close an, otherwise, well played point.
2. Mentality - Jo often seemed very nervous when leading and was very capable of beating herself if she couldn't close things out at the first opportunity. I sometimes got the feeling that she didn't really believe she belonged on some courts against some oppositions - supposition that though.

So the potential was always there, if you could smooth away those rough edges, and get more consistent performance from the considerable promise of her basic game, serve and movement.

She indeed played several very competitive matches against top opposition, including her first Wimbledon WC, where she was edged out 8-10 in the third by, a then #28 ranked , Christina McHale at the peak of her powers, one of the hot players on tour, and before the glandular fever that has set her back for several years. It was a really gutsy performance by Johanna in her first really big exposure.

Watching the 2013 Vancouver $100K, in which Johanna ran rampant over the field, defeating 4 seeds, including the top seed in R1 on the way to the title, and played absolutely beautifully all week there, I thought that would finally be the final piece of the puzzle, and she would consolidate and move on to be a fixture in the WR 75-100 range at the very minimum. That summer more than one commentator or pundit, including Ben Rothenberg, saw her play for the first time, and the opinion was always akin to 'Why don't I know about this player, she's going to be big soon, she's got a great game'.

But the fundamental change never really materialised, for various reasons. Jo did make the top 100 for a few weeks, but the general level didn't pick up and then began to slide, many factors on and off court contributing.

The decision, some time later, to set up in Spain, with a new coach, seems to have been very much an excellent decision and a good match between player & coach.

Sam Smith on the BBC coverage mentioned how the Spanish method of bucket after bucket of balls, just hitting, honing, grooving strokes - making them repeatable, reliable & dependable - was probably just what Jo needed to iron out those forehand wrinkles and I tend to agreement with that.

When that shot is suddenly a factor in which the player can believe, even see as a weapon, then their confidence in general increases, and this cascades down to help fix he second point above. You trust your shots, you go for them with belief and a lessening, or absence, of nerves. Everything comes together.

There's obviously been a great deal of hard work, as not only is the forehand unrecognisably improved over its former iteration, but everything has improved, including, but not limited to: Serve, movement, point construction and the general air with which she is carrying herself about court

It's the first time, these last weeks, that I've seen Jo play in this new fashion, and I could hardly believe the difference, it's so impressive. I think placing too much emphasis on the Grass factor is a non sequitur. Jo's game is no better suited to grass than is, say, Makarova, a very fine player and QF a SW19 last year. What may be a factor is that Jo has really committed to the grass season, and has played as much as possible on the surface, and has gotten familiarised with it. Whereas her opponents have each begun their grass exposure this week. To overplay that though seems, to me, to belittle the achievement, and I hope I've outlined how much more there seems to be to this than just the surface.

As a three match run, purely in terms of the opposition overcome, it's hard to remember many comparisons in the last 20 years or so by a GB woman - Laura's 2012 USO of Crawford, Clijsters & Na being the only one that comes t mind.

I fervently hope that this is genuinely the start of a period of being able to reach her undoubted potential, and not another false dawn. Given the amount that seems different and improved, I'm hopeful that it is.

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tony_orient wrote:

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I can't compete with that level of analysis on Johanna, but I can add a couple of points...

Firstly, the forehand and mentality issues you mentioned tended to compound each other, i.e. she Jo got nervous, her forehand was much more prone to let her down (as is often the case with players once they get nervous that they can't control the weaknesses as well)

Secondly, although I don't think the grass courts are making a huge difference, it does seem that Johanna is feeding of the support of a home crowd rather than seeing it as added pressure. A case of nothing better than playing well in front of a home crowd and nothing worse than playing badly in front of a home crowd.



Looks like we'll need another one of Heather's comeback specials as it's 1-5 in the first set.

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 Very informative, thank you very much for the replies.

Funny you mention that Wimbledon match against McHale; one of the rare occasions I have actually see Jo play. Although perhaps not much of a coincidence considering it's probably one of the very few occasions her matches are mainstream television. Indeed I was impressed with her then and remember when she won the Vancouver tournament. I didn't follow tennis much in 2014 besides Ward, Edmund and Broady - mostly down to just being too busy with a new job and a loss of interest due to Murray's indifferent form - and pretty much stopped following the women completely what with Laura's injury. It was surprising to me today to see Jo still ranked as low as she is, considering how close she was to the top 100 1-2 years ago.

Hopefully she gets a decent Wimbledon draw and can really kick on from this impressive grass season that she's had.

Best of luck to her in the quarters.