Week 31 - ITF ($25K) - Fort Worth, USA Hard

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Week 31 - ITF ($25K) - Fort Worth, USA Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

I really can't see Laura sticking this out if she continues to lose in the first round of ITFs to journeywomen for the rest of the year.

I don't mind the losses if it feels there's a sense of progress but it seems she's going nowhere and no indicators of improvement. Any time she does get a lead she ends up making a meal of it, and that just blows the confidence further and perpetuates the issue. She can absolutely destroy these girls but she's folding when it comes to the crunch.

Noone will be more frustrated than her but she should be winning these matches by now, goodness knows she has plenty of chances then time and time again falls away. These match patterns were what we were seeing a year ago when she was losing to the likes of Hsu.

I want to believe it will come good. She's so talented, but this is so rough on her. Hopefully it will click back into place soon.

scottie1 · Futures level

I thought laura would fade followed the match on live scores first set comfortable to 5-1 then struggled after that. Without viewing the match she definitely has a problem with the serve it's going to be a long way back but good luck to her

murrayman650 · ATP level

-- Edited by murrayman650 on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 08:58:35 PM

-- Edited by murrayman650 on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 09:09:23 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

I think the key is the serve, powderpuff 1st serves, and an inability to find the box with the 2nd. I find it tough to really understand it all. She looked so good in practice at Nottingham but that didn't include any serving. My 1st port of call would be a serving guru, followed by a psychologist, and then getting as fit as physically possible, if she can make progress on some of those 3 things, there is still hope.

Grachka · County player

Man. Losing to Simmonds. disbelief

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Tara & Lisa taken to the MTB 6-1 3-6

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well done, Moo-bourn !

Dragged out the suspense but you're forgiven.....

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Looks like a familiar story for Laura, albeit she was unlucky not to win the second set that could have gone either way. She needs to sort out the serve, that is pretty obvious, and even if she can get back to serving how she was in the grass court season that would be enough given how regularly she is winning return games. Laura is playing another $25k next week and it is good she is getting matches, but would she be better off having a few weeks off of tournaments and just focus on getting the serve sorted?

korriban · Challenger level

philwrig wrote:
I think the key is the serve, powderpuff 1st serves, and an inability to find the box with the 2nd. I find it tough to really understand it all. She looked so good in practice at Nottingham but that didn't include any serving. My 1st port of call would be a serving guru, followed by a psychologist, and then getting as fit as physically possible, if she can make progress on some of those 3 things, there is still hope.

In other words, Laura needs a lot of work on the technical, mental and physical sides of her game......apart from that, it's all good!!!!!

Fraid to say, raw talent (and she has it in spades - winning a junior slam at just 14 is mind boggling really) just isn't enough. Watching Jo Konta's transformation from decent player to notable player through maximising everything she's got is a revelation. I think Laura probably has much more talent and upside than Jo, but we can only speculate how Laura is approaching the task of maximising her own potential. I had hoped her injury might be the catalyst to apply a, might I suggest, Konta-like logical approach to her weaknesses.......hasn't been the case so far.......same old issues as before, but less power, confidence and match sharpness.

I'm willing Laura on, really I am.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm happy with the groundies, I saw ample evidence that they are not far off, just that serve is a million miles off, but yes the mental and physical sides are major issues to be addressed IMHO.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

In total agreement with the constructive criticism. But feeling increasingly positive as to where she will be thus time next year.

It looks like Laura is now hitting pain free, ground strokes in order, now it is becoming obvious which parts of her game are slowest to comeback and for a bit of sustained work on the serve where wrist position is critical and on the mental side of the game and we have a player. I really think she needs 18 months rehab before we can begin to get too morose about the rest of her career.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Assuming Laura has been pain free since her comeback just over a year ago (not sure she actually was pain-free for the first couple of months..), then to my mind she has wasted a year and whoever is advising her is not worth the salary they are being paid. I know using her SR and high profile wildcards has taken her from UNR to 230ish despite only winning a couple of matches but it has done nothing to give her a solid base in matchplay or to give her confidence or mental match stamina. It may have helped keep her sponsors on board, but for how much longer? Playing challengers (or possibly even futures) is what she should have been doing for the bulk of the past year. Learning how to win again against lesser opponents by playing within herself. Not going for the lines, massive groundies or serves but playing solidly enough to win and get a solid base of tennis in the bank that she can build on going forwards. She has spent a year (and I think still is) trying to play her old WTA level flashy game when there is no longer any solid base underneath it. Looks good for a set, a few games or points but, not having played match after match for so long, it is littered with errors and opponents of all levels know if they just hang solid they will win in the end.

indiana · Tennis legend

Difficult to argue with a word of that, The Optimist.

As a lesson on how not to get your game back in consistent working order again it possibly takes some beating.

Shame, because so many are still very interested in her and want her to succeed. The disproportional interest may annoy / perplex some, notably the much missed ISF ( where are thou ? ) And that interest is in this forum ( I have become minorly fascinated how many are on this site whenever she is playing ).

I so hope yet that she can still get much of what she once had, including an at times potent and lovely action ( if inconsistent ) serve. Regularly no aces from a weak offering and so many DFs is such a reversal from that. And clearly needs big work on !

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 3rd of August 2016 12:02:54 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

Lisa's match about to start, and Katie will also be on in a few mins.
Timings are weird for the match on Lisa's court that just finished. Scoreboard says 6-1 6-1 in 36 minutes, but the first set took 0 mins !