Wimbledon Ladies' Draw 2015

Jaffa · Challenger level

RE: Wimbledon Ladies' Draw 2015

wimdledont · Challenger level

I think they were given the option of playing on without Hawkeye. Heather opted not to continue. I also think this was a mistake.

I think Naomi was very unlucky to lose in straight sets. She didn't give away a break point in set 1; and had a set point of her own. Duque Marino played very well; and is clearly a good clay-courter, who is very adept at chopping and changing different tactics, court positions, spins. A difficult match up for Naomi.

Long time reader · Lower Club Player

Naomi's match was more or less a 50/50 match before the start odds wise and it played like that. Difference being that Naomi had break points in 4 games and broke once, while Duque Marino had break points in 3 games and broke twice. All about taking your chances in close matches and Naomi just didn't return well enough at the key moments.

Looking at the serving stats on the Wimbledon website their serve speeds were virtually identical which is a surprise.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
I thought Naomi actually played quite well; I mean, I've seen her play far worse.

She did some good damage with her weapons and certainly had her chances.

The thing that bothers me is that she never seems to make any real improvement in her weaknesses.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 29th of June 2015 07:28:52 PM

I'm sorry but from what I saw Broady simply does not deserve to be playing at a tournament like this and was beaten in straight sets by imho, a fairly average player though she did volley well. NB's serve is good - when it goes in - and had DM returned better she'd have lost even sooner. She's another one that should be told that next year she should either get in on merit or go through qualifying - she'll be 26 FGS and probably not much better than what she was 3 years ago. No wonder she has never made the top 100

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A131, I'm not a fan of Naomi's tennis. Never have been.

But Naomi is ranked about 200 in the world and, compared with how she normally plays, that was a pretty good showing from her.

Whether a player ranked 200 in the world should have a wildcard is another issue (now THERE'S a good question - wonder why no one's ever thought of posting about that ...... STOP - only joking!)

I'm not going down that route.

My point was simply that, for Naomi, she played pretty well - used her weapons reasonably well, and she certainly has some good weapons to use.

I completely agree that there are some glaring holes in her game - and that's what I find a bit frustrating. Especially as they don't seem to improve....

So I think that from a relative point of view she played pretty well.

And I think that from an absolute point of view, given she had set point in the first set, and the second set was no pushover, she was a decent level and a fair game for her opponent.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

A131 I think you are being a bit harsh there. Had Naomi won the first set and she was close to doing so, she would probably have won the match certainly would have been close. Her opponent would have beaten better players than Naomi I believe today and seems to have a perfect game for grass court tennis which is odd for a clay courter.

Also Naomi won last year and gave Wozniacki a good game in round 2. She has proven she can compete with top 100 players on her day just lacks a bit of direction and some more astute tactical positioning. I could see her having the same type of career as Bally or Anne if she had that little bit more hard work and direction.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Naomi has a unique style that infuriates opposition and spectators alike.The talent is there, but the consistently and fluency isn't.

There is little point trying to change Naomi at her age(she is mainly self coached) and she just needs to more streetwise on court and more consistent.
She has weapons. A huge serve, a wicked flat backhand and a big forehand when it works and you can see why she wins matches on the ITF tour.

Today, she only played in patches and DM was more fluent, solid and much better at the net. Better player won, but there wasn't much in it.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

A131, appreciate you are not a fan of WCs, but have to agree that you are letting your dislike for WCs totally dictate your judgement. If that match had involved two non-Brits, it would have been an average, straight sets loss between two relatively evenly matched players. I certainly think the crowd enjoyed the match, just a shame Naomi couldn't capitalise on a match where she had her chances.

Peter too · Tennis legend

I think the one thing that most separated Naomi from her opponent was return of serve. Too often Naomi was only able to chip the ball back, allowing her opponent to move forward where she had too many options for Naomi to cover them all. If Naomi could have driven more of those serves back she would have won.

-- Edited by Peter too on Monday 29th of June 2015 09:46:14 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I was at Wimbledon today and saw Naomi play - I was interested to read the comments now I'm back home as it seems to have sparked a lot of debate to say the least.

My thought was that Naomi played OK. I've seen her play better and worse but the frustrating thing was this was a winnable match if Naomi could have produced an above average performance.

Break point conversion was a key factor and several times Naomi completely shanked a shot when break point up, either a sign of nerves or snatching at the opportunities rather than maintaining control. Despite the missed opportunities the first set really was 50/50 but once Duque-Marino won it the momentum was with her. When Naomi finally managed to break it was a bit too late to turn things around.

Duque-Marino has a tidy game that adapts well to grass and volleys well, but it is also fairly lightweight and when Laura beat her at Wimbledon a couple of years ago she was never allowed to get into the tricky rallies with lots of slices that Naomi got drawn into too often in the second set.

So a frustrating match but i wouldn't say it was a bad display by Naomi, if she was consistently putting in performances good enough to win today's match she would be ranked much higher.

I didn't see any of Heather's match but it sounds like another slow start followed by battling her way into the match. Having to come off might well be a disadvantage because she can't afford a slow start tomorrow now.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jaggy1876 wrote:
A131 I think you are being a bit harsh there. Had Naomi won the first set and she was close to doing so, she would probably have won the match certainly would have been close. Her opponent would have beaten better players than Naomi I believe today and seems to have a perfect game for grass court tennis which is odd for a clay courter.

Also Naomi won last year and gave Wozniacki a good game in round 2. She has proven she can compete with top 100 players on her day just lacks a bit of direction and some more astute tactical positioning. I could see her having the same type of career as Bally or Anne if she had that little bit more hard work and direction.

Loads of players on their day "can compete with top 100 players", indeed at times beat them. That doesn't mean that they deserve to play in Slams more than much more consistent year round players or players who have qualified to be in the MD. What she might and could do is not up there which what she has done on a consistent basis.

I have nothing against Naomi in particular on thsi, indeed British WCs in general, but I am against the "system" where all the Slams dole out all these MD WCs, particularly to relatively pretty lowly ranked players. Sorry if I've mentioned this before

indiana · Tennis legend

Jaggy1876 wrote:
Bad decision by Heather she clearly doesn't feel it leading to more evidence that Garcia lost that rather than Heather winning it.

It struck me as very worrying that Heather negatively seemed to be looking for a reason not to continue rather than positively considering how the match had turned better for her and Garcia had rather lost her way last night.

No Hawkeye and the number of bad calls already made ( actually had been few according to the commentators ) looked an excuse to me, and not one that would have come from a Heather with a much more positive mindset. Garcia actually seemed to be more up for continuing than Heather !

If the two players begin again as they respectively began yesterday, Heather is toast, but if they had continued last night ??

Let's hope it does in fact have a good outcome for her.

christ · Futures level

On the WC thing might I humbly suggest that you may be looking at it the wrong way? The Slams are actually not part of the tour, and are not administered as such.

Wimbledon is the "All-England ... Championships", a tournament that happens to be open to other players on merit. As such it may be that we could consider that automatic entry into the tournament draw is primarily for the best Brits on merit (regardless of their "world" ranking), and the other 120 or so places in the tournament are offered to the rest of the world on a meritorious basis. The "best Brits on merit" are therefore actually more entitled to their places than the rest of the field. If the tournament organisers (not the LTA, one presumes) don't consider there to be sufficient decent Brits, then they graciously offer the left over places to the next few in the world list.

To fit in with the terminology used on the rest of the tour, these club selections are called "Wild Cards", although in effect it may be more accurate to call the few selected Brits the "direct entry" and the other 120+ the "Wild Cards".

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Good job, christ

NB Laura warming up on court 3

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 30th of June 2015 12:47:05 PM

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Heather did seem to me to be getting the rough end of the bad calls (including an incorrect overrule by the umpire which Hawkeye was on hand to correct) so I'm not surprised that Heather was feeling negative on that front; don't think there would've been enough light to finish if the set was a tight one so better to come off at 0-0 than say 4-4!

Here's hoping Heather has a fast start today :)