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

scottie1 · Futures level

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

Jan · Hall of fame

cry

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

The good:
The ball striking was the best I've seen since 2013, and keeps improving incrementally - had she managed that early break, this might have been unlocked even more, but after that it drained away for a long while.
increased sense of purpose and belief in point construction
not as far behind a quality player, like Babos is again, as I had feared (still a long way, but not light years).

The bad:
Serve
Movement
- if you get Laura moving, she loses the point, invariably that shot. I kept rough score of when she had to move about 5 steps to make a shot that you would expect a ranked player to make, Laura netted or was wide 11/18 times, the effect is especially pronounced if the movement is required side to side (3/13 returned), though is also true coming up the court (2/5 returned).
- Drop shots are essentially winners against her (not included in the counts above).
Slow to set up for shots - if you give Laura the hurry up, with a ball that comes on to her quickly, she does not adapt 0-5 times she got the ball back in these situations.
That coaching break - find a coach you believe in, and to whom you will listen (I thought half fondly of Krajan whilst it was going on)

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

R2: (SR) Laura ROBSON, Laura (GBR) 426 lost to Timea BABOS (HUN) [5] 40 1-6 2-6

cakj1234 · Lower Club Player

More cheap points though. Glad when all PR.SE and WCs all finished. Her ranking flatters her at the moment. Every match she plays the same story. Rather follow the progress of Katie B. Sam and Eden and hopefully Elinore Dean if she comes back. May not have been in the same league a few years back but are making quick progress after injury. Unlike Laura yet she is ranked in the 300s. At this moment in time would put her in quilifiers at French and Wimbledon.
Just my opinion

indiana · Tennis legend

Clearly Laura has accumulated points in a variety of ways, but hardly her fault, thems the rules. And actually overall, given also how relatively few tournaments she's still played I certainly don't think that a 426 ranking flatters her, she's better than that and nor will her new ranking inside the top 350 flatter her. She will be just ahead of Freya in this coming Monday's rankings and I rather think as of now a match with Freya might be pretty close and I could see Laura winning it. Let's not make her out to be far worse than she is. The pity is not that her ranking flatters her ( as I say I don't think that it does ), it is that she is not by this time really playing much better than 300s.

As ISF indicates, and as has been said elsewhere there are clear improvements, she is on a path, but a seemingly rather slow path. It is rather alarming that her movement though is so bad, evidently far worse than pre wrist issue. She could have still done a lot of work on her movement during her time out, while accepting nothing quite replicates match condition movement. Disappointing.

As for the seeming problem with the wrist, while far removed from any sort of expert, aren't there still likely to be at times some pain issues related to such as scar tissue, which are not really problematic in the bigger picture ? Hope it no real issue anyway.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 27th of April 2016 07:05:09 PM

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

I'm beginning to rethink the idea that Laura cannot get motivated for ITF's. Perhaps those results really do represent her competency level and to conclude anything else is being unfair and prejudicial to her. The girl is in a rough place and it's sad to see.

GBJ · Club Coach

Laura's slow movement always bothered me even before the wrist issues. I have wondered for a while whether it's a case of her knowing she is talented so she feels she should look to use her talent but is not necessarily the hardest worker. I have absolutely no evidence to base this on other than her movement issues and don't think anyone should hold it against her even if it were the case. Just the fact you have talent doesn't mean you owe it to anyone to put the work in.perhaps someone can correct me.

I'm sure the issue got discussed somewhere before here over the years so please correct me if there is evidence against this my mere speculation - I just see a lot of ball sticking ability and it seems sad to see it go to waste and I could be way off. Also I think she owes the fans nothing and has the right to choose how hard she wants to work.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

indiana wrote:
It is rather alarming that her movement though is so bad, evidently far worse than pre wrist issue. She could have still done a lot of work on her movement during her time out, while accepting nothing quite replicates match condition movement. Disappointing.

I thought in a similar vein, but read somewhere (sorry don't remember my source) that she couldn't do movement work as it hampered her wrist recovery.

I am still hopeful for her reemergence as a top player, but am also finding it frustratingly slow. I only hope that the grass court season is going to kick her in to action and maybe the FO.

Strongbow · All-time great

skibbarriz wrote:
I'm beginning to rethink the idea that Laura cannot get motivated for ITF's. Perhaps those results really do represent her competency level and to conclude anything else is being unfair and prejudicial to her. The girl is in a rough place and it's sad to see.

Dead right. This is going to take a lot of time. All the best Laura smile

cakj1234 · Lower Club Player

Do you think she has the motivation and desire still.

Vandenburg · Futures level

I'm not sure she will ever come back to be honest.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

cakj1234 wrote:
More cheap points though. Glad when all PR.SE and WCs all finished. Her ranking flatters her at the moment. Every match she plays the same story. Rather follow the progress of Katie B. Sam and Eden and hopefully Elinore Dean if she comes back. May not have been in the same league a few years back but are making quick progress after injury. Unlike Laura yet she is ranked in the 300s. At this moment in time would put her in quilifiers at French and Wimbledon.
Just my opinion

I always felt that mentally Laura would find it harder to rebuild her career after a major period away with injury than the other examples you quote. In many ways she has had a very unusual career path. I remember her a little from the junior circuit before she won Wimbledon at such a young age. She had the most wonderful natural timing and belted the cover off the ball. At that time it was as likely to hit the back fence as trouble her opponent, but when a shot did go in it rarely came back. This led to her fantastic win at Wimby as a photogenic and charming 14 yo. Immediately invitations materialised to play in high level events and her career took off, largely bypassing the grind of futures and challengers. However, when you look at that career, apart from some stellar runs in GSs, she has rarely gone deep in events but rather has regularly won a round or two picking up a good allocation of points throughout the year but not really moving on to the next level, IMO because she has never really added to her game in terms of movement, point construction etc but rather relied on that wonderful, natural ball-striking ability.

Unlike Sam, Lisa et al who know how to dig in and grind their way through the lower tiers to get back, Laura has almost no experience there and maybe doubts her ability to do it. She maybe also feels that, never having had to slum it before, she shouldn't be now which of course makes it harder to go on court with the right attitude. Additionally the level at the top has not really stood still whilst she has been away, so her tactic of relying mainly on her natural ability stands up even less than before. And whilst her great strength of ball striking is still a bit rusty, all other areas of her game are an open invitation to her opponents to take advantage. I'm not sure who her coach is at the mo, but clearly she needs someone encouraging and supportive to guide her through these difficult times.

As regards motivation, I have always wondered how self-motivated she is. Going back to her pre-Wimby junior days, Mum was a very dominant figure, not necessarily in an unpleasant way but you felt that she was definitely the one driving the tennis project rather than Laura. Obviously as an outsider I accept that may have been a totally erroneous interpretation. I'm sure Laura loved being a top tennis player and would love to get back there but I don't believe she's ever had to dig in and fight and claw her way through as she has to now. New territory for her and I think she'll only come through it with a great deal more self-motivation than she's ever needed in the past.

Vandenburg · Futures level

I don't know Laura and do not really follow the British women, as much as the blokes. But from odd things I hear, and read, social media and the rest, I cannot help but think Laura would rather be a 20 something girl do what they do, eg living her life, going to uni, being with mates etc.

Could be wrong, just a inkling I get.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Laura IS making progress, it's not as meteoric as her climb as a teenager but last week she did achieve her best win since her return from injury. Laura's game is dependent on all out aggression, hitting the ball hard and hitting the lines. When most of those shots go in she can beat a top ten player when they go out she can lose to an unranked player. It is taking longer than we hoped for her to recover her power, accuracy and consistency but I see no reason for her to give up yet. Laura is still only 22, several of our players were knocked back by injuries in their early 20s and hit their career high ranking several years later.