Week 17 - WTA International ($500K) - Prague, Czech Republic - Clay

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Week 17 - WTA International ($500K) - Prague, Czech Republic - Clay

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Short, but sour.
R1: Naomi BROADY (GBR) 80 lost to Madison BRENGLE (USA) 54 2-6 0-6

We'll see what coach has to say. Well done for doing something you'd probably rather not in pursuit of future benefits

paulisi · Tennis legend

Naomi needs to learn to play on clay if she wants to progress up the rankings and earn more money. Two games in four years is not great preparation and it will be a long learning curve, but there are good points and prize money on offer, so it is definitely worth learning the skills.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Let's see what the coach say but I'm not too concerned. You can't expect to rock up on clay having played less than a handful of matches on the stuff and compete with the WR54, no matter how much practice you have...

Worth noting Brengle won a 50K on clay last month and is defending Semi Final points here from last year.

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

Just a shame Naomi picked this tournament rather than heading to Istanbul last week. Her one clay scalp from last year won her first WTA title on clay on Sunday and it's hard not to think Naomi could have gone deep there considering it was a much weaker field than is in Prague.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Of course Naomi should keep practicing and try and get better on clay.

But she can have a very successful tennis career without ever really getting to grips with the sandy stuff if she chooses. Just as many have very successful careers without ever playing on organic green stuff.

And, yes, if you do really want to put the time into getting better on clay, trying to do it at a good quality WTA event, i.e. at the top of end of your current level, is always going to be a big ask.

wimdledont · Challenger level

I think Naomi and Fitzy should consider entering her for ITF tournaments during the clay season. She only just scraped direct entry by ranking into this tournament, and she is not the 80th best player in the world on clay, so was very unlikely to play two matches here.

paulisi · Tennis legend

wimdledont wrote:
I think Naomi and Fitzy should consider entering her for ITF tournaments during the clay season. She only just scraped direct entry by ranking into this tournament, and she is not the 80th best player in the world on clay, so was very unlikely to play two matches here.

$2774 just for turning up - no point dropping down to ITF and losing money. Naomi has to pay for her coach.

Surprised Naomi didn't play doubles - would have got in with a top 100 partner.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I think wimbledont's point was that that's short-term thinking and that by investing in herself to do the ITFs on clay, she'll reap the rewards (financially) later.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Yeah...

1. Her best payday of the YTD was actually the 100k Midland winner's US$15,200.

2. In general, I think it's good policy for players to play a mix of seeded entries, main draw and qualifiers. Naomi is unlikely ever to be seeded on the WTA from WR80.

3. She's much more likely to get several (practice) matches per week as an ITF seed.

4. Financially, the big issue coming up is the French Open, where she gets US$35k? for turning up, and double that for winning a match.