Week 31 - ITF ($50K) - Granby, Canada - Hard

DF · Tennis legend

Week 31 - ITF ($50K) - Granby, Canada - Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

Final set tiebreak ...

DF · Tennis legend

Sam loses in the TB

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) SR 579 lost to HALBAUER, Ellie (USA) 413 6-3 5-7 6-7(2)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

cry

What a lot of effort for so little reward.....(although I guess that would apply to Ellie too if it had gone the other way....)

indiana · Tennis legend

Pity.

Looked fairly tough match, though in general Sam hasn't seemed to move on post her grass season and then non Wimbledon as much as I thought / hoped she would with a couple of less than successful Portugal 10Ks prior to this.

DF · Tennis legend

So much promise hinted at over the grass but not able to deliver.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And to cap it off:

R1 doubles:

Jovana JAKSIC (SRB) / Jessica WACNIK (USA) def. Samantha MURRAY (GBR) / Melanie OUDIN (USA) 2-6 6-4 [10-5]

wimdledont · Challenger level

So, as far as I remember, this is the first time that Sam has used her Special Ranking since her comeback from injury; opting instead to play, even through qualifiers, at 10k level using her current ranking, with some LTA wildcards thrown in during the grass season.

I'm wondering why? Does anybody know whether she can now start using her SR regularly, starting from this week? Perhaps she was previously not convinced that she could compete at a level higher than 10k?

If she does now have 12 months ahead of her in which she can use her SR, that's a canny move, as it should give her the maximum ranking possible come the grass season 2017.

Spectator · All-time great

Not able to deliver seems a bit overstating the case. She didn't close out a final victory after a hotly contested match in her first foray onto the US hard courts and against a higher-ranked opponent. Actually doesn't look bad to me. I have high hopes for the forthcoming tournaments!

DF · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Not able to deliver seems a bit overstating the case. She didn't close out a final victory after a hotly contested match in her first foray onto the US hard courts and against a higher-ranked opponent. Actually doesn't look bad to me. I have high hopes for the forthcoming tournaments!

She shouldn't have entered the tournament if she was looking for a lower ranked opponent. This was done as a test and she was given a relatively easy draw but was unable to win this time. Her team will take this on board and hopefully she will be climbing the rankings again.

christ · Futures level

DF wrote:
She shouldn't have entered the tournament if she was looking for a lower ranked opponent...

That's a bit harsh. I'm not sure that anyone hinted that she was looking for a lower ranked opponent, but I can't see that not beating a higher ranked opponent is "not delivering". Beating a higher ranked opponent is a cause for optimism as is, in fairness, narrowly losing.

For me this goes in the "better luck next time" bucket.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

wimdledont wrote:
So, as far as I remember, this is the first time that Sam has used her Special Ranking since her comeback from injury; opting instead to play, even through qualifiers, at 10k level using her current ranking, with some LTA wildcards thrown in during the grass season.

I'm wondering why? Does anybody know whether she can now start using her SR regularly, starting from this week? Perhaps she was previously not convinced that she could compete at a level higher than 10k?

If she does now have 12 months ahead of her in which she can use her SR, that's a canny move, as it should give her the maximum ranking possible come the grass season 2017.

Her 12 months when she can use the SR run from her first tournament back after the injury. I suspect you are right and she wanted to get her game running smoothly and some form of match sharpness under her belt first so she was in a position to benefit from getting into the higher level tournaments. Not quite this time but definitely competitive so it looks like a shrewd move. IMO a much more sensible strategy than Laura R has adopted, relying almost exclusively on her SR and WCs, getting regularly thrashed, getting no chance to hone her matchplay skills and just losing confidence as a result. Sam can see she's on an upward trajectory and as a result must feel confident about getting back to where she was, despite the odd bump in the road.