Not so much a bad draw in terms of opponents, but it is in who is playing who (i.e. our players who are playing best right now have the toughest draws).
Really rough draw for JoKo, given she is coming into Wimbledon in such good form and could easily have done some damage with better luck. Tricky 1st round draw for Heather too but at least she avoids a big seed in R1 or R2 so OK overall Probably a waste of a good draw for Laura, but one that gives her a chance of getting a win. A fully fit Laura would be virtually a guarantee to beat Rodina but I expect this match will be too soon for her Naomi is the big winner and has a good shot at equalling her R2 performance last year
-- Edited by tony_orient on Friday 26th of June 2015 03:16:37 PM
Gutted for Jo. Her form the last few weeks has been so good to follow and watch but in all seriousness her chances of beating Sharapova are very low. I so wanted her to get a match we could feel confident she could win. Now she will maybe get a show court and the crowd behind her and will just have to try her best. If nothing else it will show her how she fares against somebody like Sharapova. Just feel sorry for Jo though.
OTOH, Jo's been spending the last decade or so grinding out the results on the 25k circuit, dreaming of one day playing Sharapova on Centre Court; and all of her sponsors will be hooting with joy. It'll be by far the highest profile match of her career, with her UK profile currently at an all-time high, and her confidence levels so high that she bears no resemblance to herself.
Heather has the lowest ranked seed; with whom she is playing catch-up.
Laura and Naomi have R1 opponents WR99 and WR101.
Heather and Laura both have desperate potential R3 match ups with Serena and Petra; but Naomi needn't despair about any potential opponent until she faces JoKo in R4. ;)
OTOH, Jo's been spending the last decade or so grinding out the results on the 25k circuit, dreaming of one day playing Sharapova on Centre Court; and all of her sponsors will be hooting with joy. It'll be by far the highest profile match of her career, with her UK profile currently at an all-time high, and her confidence levels so high that she bears no resemblance to herself.
I admire your glass-half-full attitude, but there are umpteen dismal precedents for this sort of match, usually involving the weaker player freezing like a rabbit in the headlights and the crowd's initial enthusiasm rapidly fading into an embarrassed silence amid a stream of unforced errors and double faults. From the player's perspective the real prospect of public humiliation, and almost no chance of that lovely extra £18,000 for getting to Round 2, must be absolutely sickening.
But let's hope for the one in a hundred upset.
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"Where Ratty leads - the rest soon follow" (Professor Henry Brubaker - The Institute of Studies)
OTOH, Jo's been spending the last decade or so grinding out the results on the 25k circuit, dreaming of one day playing Sharapova on Centre Court; and all of her sponsors will be hooting with joy. It'll be by far the highest profile match of her career, with her UK profile currently at an all-time high, and her confidence levels so high that she bears no resemblance to herself.
I admire your glass-half-full attitude, but there are umpteen dismal precedents for this sort of match, usually involving the weaker player freezing like a rabbit in the headlights and the crowd's initial enthusiasm rapidly fading into an embarrassed silence amid a stream of unforced errors and double faults. From the player's perspective the real prospect of public humiliation, and almost no chance of that lovely extra £18,000 for getting to Round 2, must be absolutely sickening.
But let's hope for the one in a hundred upset.
Ratty it is not as if Jo is going straight from a 25k to centre court at Wimbledon.She has had some pretty good exposure this week playing against top 10 players infront of a decent crowd and live on tv. If there is anytime when it won't be a such a large step up then this is it. Plus Sharapova hasn't played since RG so she must be slightly concerned with Jo's form on grass.
I don't expect Jo to win, though she should be as plucky a loser as we can hope. Just think she's lined up a couple of brilliant answers to the future "Granny, who did you play at Wimbledon?" question. She should relish it.
And if she can't sign up more than an extra £18k in sponsorship on the back of Eastbourne, and a decent showing versus Shazza, she needs to sack somebody. She's picked up about another 1.5k Twitter followers over the last week. It all helps.
In general, the doubles draw could hardly be worse. I think the Williams sisters do withdraw quite frequently in recent Grand Slams?
I don't expect Jo to win, though she should be as plucky a loser as we can hope. Just think she's lined up a couple of brilliant answers to the future "Granny, who did you play at Wimbledon?" question. She should relish it.
And if she can't sign up more than an extra £18k in sponsorship on the back of Eastbourne, and a decent showing versus Shazza, she needs to sack somebody. She's picked up about another 1.5k Twitter followers over the last week. It all helps.
In general, the doubles draw could hardly be worse. I think the Williams sisters do withdraw quite frequently in recent Grand Slams?
Will give Jo 100 per cent backing hope she beats sheerekapova!
-- Edited by scottie1 on Friday 26th of June 2015 01:51:37 PM
Only Jo has a tough draw the rest can be very happy id say. Naomi has a clay courter who has barely been top 100 Heather has the 32nd seed which means a great chance of getting to 3rd round and Laura has a winnable match or a match she should avoid bakery products. Had Laura got Sharapova instead of Jo bakery's more than likely.