Week 19 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.1M) - Rome, Italy - Clay

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Week 19 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.1M) - Rome, Italy - Clay

rebel_rebel · Lower Club Player

Well done Heather

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

An excellent win. An excellent result. An excellent scalp.
About one third excellent performance, and two thirds bewildering and utterly un 'Hev-like'; literally and figuratively aimless.

Winning ugly, yup, that's still winning

GSM Heather 6-4 3-6 6-0

Strongbow · All-time great

biggrin biggrin biggrin

Spectator · All-time great

Thrilled for Ms Watson. With 255 points to defend at RG/Wimbledon/Eastbourne, she needed to defend her points here. And she did it! Well done she. A great week ... and only Monday.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Beating Errani in Rome on clay; well done Heather :D :D

And 90 ranking points in the locker :)

Jan · Hall of fame

I missed it
But hey well done Heather!!!!

Michael D · All-time great

insomniacfolder wrote:
But Heather closes out the set by breaking Errani again.
Errani clearly injured now; definitely seemed to happen mid-match in that eighth game. Heather was ahead at that point. Sara has fought through being seemingly hobbled before, memorably once in a Roland Garros SF. Beware the wounded lion.
Can Hev take advantage, put this one away?
6-3

Was Errani injured, ISF seemed to think so at this point end of first set?

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

R1: (Q) Heather WATSON (GBR) 56 defeated Sara ERRANI (ITA) [14] 18 6-4 3-6 6-0

R2: (Q) Heather WATSON (GBR) 56 Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) 36 (CH 20 02/2015)
H2H 1-1
2014 Roland Garros, France - Grand Slam - Clay - HW (Q) - R128, HW won 6-3 6-4
2013 Tokyo, Japan - WTA Premier 5 - Hard - HW [q5], BS [q11] - FQR, BS won 6-3 6-3

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Michael D wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
[...]
Was Errani injured, ISF seemed to think so at this point end of first set?

Well, I certainly did think so, the commentators also did, and so did Sara, telling the physio as she probed, "ow! it hurts, yes there, ow"

She certainly seemed heavily impeded at the end of the first set, and a little less throughout the rest of the match, after the painkillers had probably kicked in.

Michael D · All-time great

insomniacfolder wrote:
Michael D wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
[...]
Was Errani injured, ISF seemed to think so at this point end of first set?
Well, I certainly did think so, the commentators also did, and so did Sara, telling the physio as she probed, "ow! it hurts, yes there, ow"
She certainly seemed heavily impeded at the end of the first set, and a little less throughout the rest of the match, after the painkillers had probably kicked in.

Thanks! Safe to say she was then. Still, good that Heather managed to pull it all together again in the third set.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Well that was an entertaining match, quality of it ebbed and flowed. It looked like Hev would get a win by retirement, but then Errani's rib problem eased quite quickly. Rubbish 2nd set, but Errani did come out fighting after losing the 1st. 3rd set Hev played brilliantly at times and Errani wilted. Must be close to securing her Rio berth, and would probably like tomorrow off after 3 days and 3 consecutive 3 setters.

Just one footnote, I couldn't understand why Errani was targeting Hev's backhand all match, for a top 20 player not to go on court with an effective gameplan is somewhat baffling.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Glad to see Hev got the win and a good shot at another win.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Didn't know where to put this, so hope here is OK.

Some healthy GBR representation in the latest WTA stat rankings:

WTA Tour/GS matches only.

Spectator · All-time great

That is interesting, IF. Thank you for posting. Some not at all surprising (Ms Broady's ace and 1st serve points total ... Ms Watson's battling on break points). But I wouldn't have predicted that Ms Watson would be #9 for aces.

It seems a good sign for the next match-up that Ms Konta is #6 on aces and Ms Larsson #9 on DFs rather than the other way around!

-- Edited by Spectator on Monday 9th of May 2016 10:33:22 PM