Week 17 - WTA International ($250K) - Rabat, Morocco - Clay

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Week 17 - WTA International ($250K) - Rabat, Morocco - Clay

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I hope you're wrong IF, but Laura's not a natural clay courter and certainly not anywhere up to her best. Still I'm happy for her for now and we'll see what tomorrow brings.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Well done Laura; a very kind draw but two breadsticks will do very nicely for 30 points :D

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

insomniacfolder wrote:
Score vs. Babos could well be the same as R1.
Timea is in very good shape

If Babos is in good shape I expect her to win more than two games off Laura - maybe 3 or 4 biggrin

Priesty · Challenger level

The bakery products as predicted by Jaggy are duly delivered biggrin

Personally I am just hoping that once the SEs/PRs/WCs etc are used up Laura will at least be ranked high enough to play Tour qualifying. The ITF scene clearly just doesn't bring the best out of her.

indiana · Tennis legend

Helen40 wrote:
Well done Laura. This will bump her to about WR 339. Babos WR 40 next..

Yes and up past Freya to GB #6 ( 109 points to 106 ). While Freya's points now come from a full set of counters I'm not sure if I'd yet put big money on Laura ( who has accumulated her points in err various ways, but thems the rules ) to beat Freya, might be close.

Now what would be very impressive would be if after R2 Laura was up to 139 points, into the top 300 and GB #4 ( or #5 given Tara is still in action this week ).

Like others, I think not for now, but it's a journey that hopefully will continue upwards.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Priesty wrote:
The bakery products as predicted by Jaggy are duly delivered
Personally I am just hoping that once the SEs/PRs/WCs etc are used up Laura will at least be ranked high enough to play Tour qualifying. The ITF scene clearly just doesn't bring the best out of her.

Well - she is guaranteed a minimum 2x 10pts for Paris and Wimbledon plus 3 x 1pt for Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne plus whatever SR's she still has remaining.

So you will have a guaranteed ranking of around the 300 mark plus any additional wins. That will be enough for ITF 25K main draw and the odd 50K, probably not enough for WTA 250 qualifying unless it is really weak.

Priesty · Challenger level

Babos will make for an interesting test of where Laura's game is at.

-- Edited by Priesty on Tuesday 26th of April 2016 11:43:24 AM

Sim · County player

paulisi wrote:
Well - she is guaranteed a minimum 2x 10pts for Paris and Wimbledon plus 3 x 1pt for Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne plus whatever SR's she still has remaining.
So you will have a guaranteed ranking of around the 300 mark plus any additional wins. That will be enough for ITF 25K main draw and the odd 50K, probably not enough for WTA 250 qualifying unless it is really weak.

Not quite as rosy in guaranteed points as she has 10pts for Wimbledon and 1 from Eastbourne last year in her total so a net guaranteed gain of 12 points which would put her on 122 points which is ranking of 324 which is where Katy Dunne is today.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

paulisi wrote:
Well - she is guaranteed a minimum 2x 10pts for Paris and Wimbledon plus 3 x 1pt for Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne plus whatever SR's she still has remaining.

Is the Wimbledon MD WC guaranteed? Has it been announced. If not, and if as declared, the intent is to use PR/SR (delete as applicable) for Roland Garros, then she can't use it for another Slam - is that right.
Personally, unless something dramatically improves, I would not give Laura a WC for Wimbledon.
I'd much rather see Katie/Katie/Katy/Maia/Freya given preference, irrespective of rankings.

My question isn't really about who should get one though, that's been discussed elsewhere.
Rather it's: do we know for a fact Laura will definitely get the WC and thus those 10 points from SW19, or are we presuming there will be a WC regardless of rank or form?

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

AliBlahBlah wrote:
My question isn't really about who should get one though, that's been discussed elsewhere.
Rather it's: do we know for a fact Laura will definitely get the WC and thus those 10 points from SW19, or are we presuming there will be a WC regardless of rank or form?

I'd say it's a presumption - but honestly, I can't imagine the she won't get a Wimby MD WC.

She probably won't be in under the guidelines, but she is an exceptional case coming back from injury and a crowd puller.

paulisi · Tennis legend

We are assuming due to her profile in the sport, it's almost a given.

indiana · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
We are assuming due to her profile in the sport, it's almost a given.

I'm saying nothing. Oh I just did

I fully expect that Laura will get a MD WC.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I remember their previous encounter very well, I think we were relying on Josh for live Twitter updates, 2010 being before the days of live internet scores. I think there was a short rain delay at the start of the match, and after that it was nip and tuck all the way through. Laura was slight favourite heading into the match, and whoever won that QF, was likely going to go on and win the whole tournament. Babos is heavy favourite tomorrow, and if Laura can make it anything like competitive that would be a positive outcome.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I think Laura had as much chance of losing today's match as she does of not being awarded a MDWC, especially as there are precisely zero players in the 100-300 ranking range.

At the start of the clay court season I would probably have guessed Laura would win 2 matches on the clay, and she has already reached that mark (in part thanks to being very lucky with the draws). However, when it comes round two the grass season, Laura will want to pick up a lot more than the 13 'appearance' ranking points.

Laura is last on center court tomorrow. If she wins a set it would be exceeding expectations but she can play with no pressure and 30 points in the bag.