Michael D wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Naomi now has ( or rather hasn't ) 114 points in 17 non counters.

Donate them to anyone and they wouldn't be far off getting in the mix for GB #4 !

There is probably a case as Fitzy said in podcast for her playing a bit less to help work on certain areas, but she does really like playing tournaments. Maybe used to such a schedule as well from at times financial needs.

And things aren't going badly ...

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I was trying to see whether Naomi has reduced her schedule at all so far this year, but is hard to tell, and if any not much. She has played 10 tournaments in the 4 months so far (Jan-April), not including Madrid. Last year in the 4 months to come (May-Aug 15) she played 14 tournaments but that includes the grass court and US hard court seasons. She played less end of last year. 

In comparison, JoKo has played 8 tournaments so far this year, and Heather 7, but both have had niggles on occasion. I think one difference is that Naomi is now taking some time out to work on her game, so expect that her tournament load will reduce a little, especially if she can maintain/ improve this kind of level. Good to see her reaction to the clay win, seems probably a good psychology on the surface for her! 

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 I think it's worth noting that Naomi plays a lot of very short points compared to other players, such as Heather or Jo for example. Not only are a lot of her service points decided on serve, so also for return points, where she often goes for broke and wins or loses the point on the return of service. So she's rarely involved in gruelling rallies.

I'd also see a danger that, as she's graduated from ITF to WTA, she will be involved in a lot less matches at each tournament. It was getting very rare for her not to make QFs at ITF level, playing 3+ matches per tournament. She could end up playing just one match per week very frequently at WTA level, and end up compounding the issue by becoming short of match practice, leading to more one-match weeks.