Week 34 - WTA ($710K) Premier - New Haven, USA - Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

RE: Week 34 - WTA ($710K) Premier - New Haven, USA - Hard

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Well she's clawed another game out of it albeit with a fight on her own serve. Just hope McHale gets a few jitters closing it out and maybe Laura can swing free.

nicofrance · Strong Club Player

Helen40 wrote:
Well, she's not had the match practice, so I'm not expecting too much. She needs to get mentally tough again. It's not a bad scoreline, but I agree losing a set from 5-2 is NOT good.
still she's had 4 hours match practice this week, and she's always been a big stage player, so I'm hoping that she brings it for the USO.

Unfortunately unless she starts winning in smaller events then she won't be able to enjoy those big matches as her protected ranking won't last forever. This was often her problem even before the injuries with losses to lowly ranked players but some great performances against much higher ranked ones.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

The final blow has been struck 6-3 in the third. I'm glad she's playing the dubs, abit more match practice won't go a miss. roll on the USO.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Shame today, but the general direction of travel seems positive.
Scheduling to the end of season is going to be interesting and very important.

indiana · Tennis legend

nicofrance wrote:
It's all going pear-shaped. Given McHale has already played a match today this is very disappointing from Laura Robson, her serve even before she got injured has been inconsistent. I feared the worst when she blew the 5-2 lead in the second set and sadly this looks like a desperate loss which will do nothing for her confidence.

I am sorry, but your expectations at this stage of Laura's comeback are far different from mine.

"Desperate loss" - certainly not for me as you will gather by some of what I have already written in this thread.

That first match back where she was a bit of a lost soul at Eastbourne is just two months and not that many matches ago.

Trading with McHale, whatever issues she may have had and her second match of the day, is not for me to be so sniffed at.

I also have great doubt as to whether her confidence will be particularly adversely effected. She seems to be well aware that she is in a process that will not be some smooth upward path.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 22nd of August 2015 10:28:55 PM

Peter too · Tennis legend

To get within two points of beating a top 100 player at this stage is very impressive and suggests there is lots more to come. Her service was pretty good in the 1st set and again towards the end of the 3rd so progress is being made from match to match but it is not yet locked in.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Peter too wrote:
To get within two points of beating a top 100 player at this stage is very impressive and suggests there is lots more to come. Her service was pretty good in the 1st set and again towards the end of the 3rd so progress is being made from match to match but it is not yet locked in.

Yep, third or so match back and almost took out the WR61. I'm not too disenchanted. I think she's got enough PR/WC to get back in the groove as well as just playing the naff little 25ks on her ranking. She'll get a new quota of WCs next year too.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Disappointing that she couldn't quite get over the line as a win over a top 100 player would have been a real confidence boost and she had the match in her grasp at 6-2 5-2. In the wider scheme of things the fact she got in that position against a top 100 player with a pretty solid game in McHale suggests a big step up in her level of tennis and shows that she can compete at the U.S. Open.

Frustrating but by tomorrow I expect I will be feeling rational enough to see it as a good effort. I don't expect Laura will feel down about the result for too long either though I suspect she isn't feeling great right now.

It's hard to pinpoint a level Laura is playing at in terms of ranking at the moment because it doesn't seem to matter much if her opponent is top 100 or not even top 500. Probably because the matches are mostly down to Laura's winners & errors.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

In advance didn't expect Laura to get much against McHale so that's better than hoped for...except that the win would've been even better of course; hey ho, fingers crossed for a decent draw at the USO :)

philwrig · Hall of fame

It looked like a good time to play McHale, and it so very nearly resulted in a win. Seems to be a good matchup having beaten her in juniors as well, and of course McHale had played for 90 minutes just a short while before. Looks like she ran out of gas in the 3rd, but got nervy in the 2nd. As Tony pointed out just about impossible to gauge what level Laura's playing at, anywhere from top 100 to top 400, depending on her opponent, whether' she's tired etc., etc.,. Defeats of this nature never impacted her confidence previously, in fact they tended to make her more determined to put things right in the future. Unlike most players, Laura has never really been a 'confidence ' player.

paulisi · Tennis legend

At the moment its all about getting match fit and finding out what level she is at.

I'm guessing it is a mental thing not seeing out these 3 setters, but Laura loks like she can fit back into challenger level comfortably.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

paulisi wrote:
I'm guessing it is a mental thing not seeing out these 3 setters, but Laura loks like she can fit back into challenger level comfortably.

I'd say lower WTA level judging by the scoreline last night.

I heard somewhere that she said her timing wasn't back, and that was gutting for her as it was the thing that had always come so naturally. Judging by last night, it is back now. I think with just some more match practice she'll get her consistency better (I know it was always an issue but it seems worse than when she left), and then it'll be fine.

After Andy taking about a year I'm not hitting any panic buttons quite yet. If I remember rightly he didn't have any secondary injuries as Laura's had.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Phil, Laura has always displayed "bouncebackability", indicating that she is not really a "confidence" player, certainly not to the extent of many others. Her performances and results over the years have often seemed remarkably unlinked to her immediately previous one(s).

This was very much of the reason why I really doubted that her confidence would be adversely effected, added to her own awareness of the rebuilding process she is involved in. To me, there seemed stuff there to if anything push her on.

I suspect she is still redeveloping being better in tight match play situations, though serve issues as has been pointed out are not exactly new.

When he feels he has got Naomi's serve consistent maybe Fitzy could contact Laura ! Less of a weapon there, but still potentially a weapon rather than a liability if she could ever find consistency with it.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 23rd of August 2015 10:33:48 AM

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Such a disappointing loss. To have such a lead and the lose is gut wrenching. More matches will help.