Great to see Laura back on court and a very encouraging first three games. Expect Rodina to win as Laura will throw in some bad games, but all the shots are still there which is good to see.
One (or a couple) of bad line calls was hardly what the match was about.
Hev didn't lose the first set because of them. Or win the second despite them.
I thought Caro looked well in trouble. And, as a young player, having gone off and had a whole team of coaches, with plenty of time, to get her back on track and right the ship ..... - i think Hev made a bad mistake (but hope to be wrong).
On a separate court, HOW GOOD is it to see Laura back on court, whacking the ball......
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".
Hmm, interesting angle, but not one that remotely wins me over. I am happy with the way that I continue to look at it.
In practice whoever governs / runs the Slams, they are the four elite / most prestigious annual events in world tennis. And I simply continue to be believe that these should be contested by the best ranked players and others that have qualified, most obviously by the Slam qualifying tournament or I have seen some argument in perhaps earned by say particular tournament or series of tournament wins. Not events for highly lucrative freebies for players from whatever nations.
Whatever happens in the Laura match I'm impressed... considering she has been out for 17 months she's hitting that ball nicely.
It's going to be a long road back, but the weapons are still there! PLEASE stay injury-free now Laura and there'll only be one way from there! :)
As I have heard Laura say herself her big issues that she found at Eastbourne was much more a general match awareness, of the flow of points, where to be at given times rather than hitting the ball.
I've heard other pros saying they very much understood this. In many ways the mechanics of striking the ball well will be the easiest thing to get back to.
Really pleasantly surprised with what Laura is doing so far in this match - nice hitting, considering how long she has been out and how little time she's had to re-adjust since coming back.
A bit of a tough comparison and perhaps not fair, but I think she's playing more consistently and confidently than Vera Zvonareva did last Wimbledon (vs Tara and others) - and she had been back for longer.
Anyway, great to see her back on court and improving all the time.