Week 23 - WTA International ($250K) - Nottingham, UK - Grass

wimdledont · Challenger level

Week 23 - WTA International ($250K) - Nottingham, UK - Grass

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Very, very, very lethargic and leaden start from Naomi, 1-4*

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Hmm... this is not yet the grass show I signed up for or expected! 2-6

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Naomi getting more into it by the end of the set; hopefully she can turn this around :)

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Zikes; 4 first serves in out of 4; Hsieh wins them all
2-6, 0-1*

LordBrownof · Futures level

Zikes indeed. Naomi now 4-1 down. Serve not working at all. Are the conditions particularly slow out there?

wimdledont · Challenger level

Hsieh is playing very well. She was ranked 1 for doubles a couple of years back. She leads 4*-1.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Hsieh is very good on the grass as is Rybarikova, so Hev will have a tough match as well

scottie1 · Futures level

Naomi loses 6-2 6-1

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

That looked like a match between a top 5 player having a bad serving day and a player ranked outside the top 200. Hsieh was brilliant, apart from her terrible first serve percentage. Naomi was inept; if anything, she even worse than Laura.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Caveats about Hsieh accepted, but even given that context, that was still monumentally disappointing, and puzzling, too.
Naomi had nothing today. From start to finish, barely a flicker.
There are only 4 events on grass, and one is gone, for the winning of just 3 games.
2-6 1-6

Hopefully Hev can give us an up-tick to end on today.
It's hard to judge Rybarikova's form which has been generally very average this year, but then there was the run to the QF of Indian Wells, beating Gavrilova, Bencic and Vinci (RET), along the way.
Johanna beat her in R1 here last year, 3 & 3, and I'd more than settle for that scoreline again in Hev's favour this time.

scottie1 · Futures level

Can anybody tell me who is coaching Laura Robson apart from Beecher who was there I think today

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

C'mon Heather, cheer us up please :)

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

scottie1 wrote:
Can anybody tell me who is coaching Laura Robson apart from Beecher who was there I think today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Hadad

wimdledont · Challenger level

I thought Naomi wasn't too bad. She doen't move well; she doesn't like anything down too low; she can't cope if she has too retreat, especially on the BH side.

Hsieh exploited all of that; could return some brilliant serves from Naomi - you don't win (doubles) Slams if you can be served off court by the big girls; and just, easily the best player on the day won easily. She hardly made an UE, provoked Naomi into dozens, with good pressurising but 100% safe shots. Most of her winners came from wrongfooting Naomi, and landed a couple of feet inside the lines. Smart tennis.