Week 40 - WTA Premier Mandatory ($5.4M) - Beijing, China - Hard

steven · Tennis legend

Week 40 - WTA Premier Mandatory ($5.4M) - Beijing, China - Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

Good stuff from Jo

Meantime Suarez Navarro, race #9, lost in R1. However Keys, race #8, won her R1, and remains over 300 points clear of Jo. Kuznetsova, race #10, has a bye into R2 ( as a semi finalist from Wuhan ).

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Jo avenges the US Open defeat in style - Sevastova was having the run of her career in the US Open so was always unlikely to repeat her performance, but was pleasantly surprised to see Jo win so easily.

Even if making the top 8 in the race is now a very tall order, with the potential for withdrawals before or during the event, ever place is worth something. Plus Jo has a great chance of being in the top 10 once the points from last year's event come off.

the addict · Tennis legend

Jo beat Timea Babos 7-5 6-2, and will play the winner of Pliskova/Kasatkina (on court now, one set all)

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Dang !!! I slept through it . Had been looking forward to watching that . Stats look excellent though . Well done Jo

Jan · Hall of fame

Great - well done Johanna!

indiana · Tennis legend

L32: (11) Johanna Konta WR 14 beat Timea Babos (HUN) WR 25 (=CH) 7-5 6-2

L16: (11) Johanna Konta WR 14 vs (5) Karolina Pliskova (CZE) WR 6 (=CH)

H2H: 0-5, last 4 in 3 sets, first in 2011 tiebreak 2nd set, two in 2016 being the only one on hard in Indian Wells and last Eastbourne SF.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 5th of October 2016 09:59:45 AM

blob · All-time great

Normally when someone reaches their first Slam semi, the pressure to defend the points in the following year comes with a probable rankings fall of 30-50 places if the player fails.

Jo has performed so well regularly throughout the year, that if you take off her 780 SF points she will plummet all the from WR14 to, erm, WR18

This is fantastic for the mind, as there is almost no pressure to defend the huge total.

If she can overcome her Pliskobot curse she will also be the first GB player to cross the 3000 point mark. Usually that's been the Top 10 threshold; 3K points = Top 10. It's not quite the same here now because Serena is hardly playing now, and not always winning even when she does, so the points hauls are divided up more equally between more players.
Still heady days, and certainly doesn't get the recognition, in any quarters, that it really deserves.

steven · Tennis legend

blob wrote:
Normally when someone reaches their first Slam semi, the pressure to defend the points in the following year comes with a probable rankings fall of 30-50 places if the player fails.

Jo has performed so well regularly throughout the year, that if you take off her 780 SF points she will plummet all the from WR14 to, erm, WR18 This is fantastic for the mind, as there is almost no pressure to defend the huge total.

If she can overcome her Pliskobot curse she will also be the first GB player to cross the 3000 point mark. Usually that's been the Top 10 threshold; 3K points = Top 10. It's not quite the same here now because Serena is hardly playing now, and not always winning even when she does, so the points hauls are divided up more equally between more players.
Still heady days, and certainly doesn't get the recognition, in any quarters, that it really deserves.

I won't mention names because anyone who has been following British tennis for any length of time will be able to name at least half a dozen examples off the top of their head but that's why it's always so sad when Brits make a big breakthrough then sometimes appear to sit on their laurels for a few months instead of pushing on, though I guess in some cases it's because the breakthrough result is a bit of luck and isn't representative of their overall playing standard. Either way, JoKo has done the complete opposite of that and it's wonderful to see

indiana · Tennis legend

I see that after this week Jo's 16th counter will be 55 !

While actually slightly restricting in how much she can make up ( if she needs to for a particular position in the next two weeks since say winning next week would 'only' add 280 - 55 ) it is a great testament to her consistency.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

The 13 big women's titles in 2016 so far (4xGS 3xPM 5xP5 OG) have been won by 9 different players with none winning more than two. This shows how wide open the tour is at the moment but makes it a lot harder for a consistent player like Jo to break into the top 8 without a big title. On the men's side where Djokovic wins a majority of titles and Andy wins most of the ones Djokovic doesn't, players with a weaker record than Jo will make it to the tour finals.

It sounded like a scrappy win today based on Jo's comments but I'll try and be positive about tomorrow by saying she is due a win against Pliskova

-- Edited by tony_orient on Wednesday 5th of October 2016 03:04:20 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Pliskova hasn't looked as good the last couple of weeks, so a decent opportunity tomorrow.

And I agree 300% that Jo hasn't received the recognition she deserves, it also beggars belief when you look at the number of followers she has on social media, you'd think she represents a tiny sports nation. She's quite a private person so she clearly doesn't want to share any of her private life with the outside world, but still I find it quite baffling. Katie S has e.g more followers on instagram than Jo.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Jo hasn't had a good run or high profile match at Wimbledon which is what she needs to gain wider recognition - unfair maybe but probably true! Luckily for Jo, twitter followers can't be converted into ranking points, and to be fair she only trails Karolina Pliskova by 34k to 40k.

indiana · Tennis legend

(Annoying) credit to Madison Keys who keeps on pushing up the race #8 points, now beating Kuznetsova to reach the QF. She's showing good consistency.

But push on Jo, both clearly for other good interests and who knows if everyone will turn up in Singapore. For now race #9 & #10 ( Suarez Navarro and Kuznetsova ) are out and within more immediate reach. Though behind the race #12 looks in err quite decent form, Kvitova, also into the QF here.

the addict · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
......who knows if everyone will turn up in Singapore. ........

With Serena still not playing, who knows whether she will be fit enough and turn up. And #9 is possible, and alternate spots to be claimed anyway, so keep going Jo !

As you say, there is the looming problem of PK in great form, who could jump right up the leaderboard if she wins the tournament