Week 47 - WTA ($125K) - Honolulu, HI, USA - Hard

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Week 47 - WTA ($125K) - Honolulu, HI, USA - Hard

marat99 · Newbie

Live stream link if anyone wants to watch Katie's match on now - Court two http://www.wtatennis.com/live-stream smile

blob · All-time great

marat99 wrote:
Live stream link if anyone wants to watch Katie's match on now - Court two http://www.wtatennis.com/live-stream

Welcome to the forum marat99

And, thanks for the link!

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Katie Swan's backhand reminds me of Andy Roddick's.

Not had much impact on return so far. All rather too easy for Rodina

Broken again after a rain delay, awful game from Katie, 4 gifts

Gets a bp but saved as Rodina takes the opening set 2-6

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 25th of November 2016 12:14:07 AM

the addict · Tennis legend

Typical, I start watching, and they stop for rain. Impressive display of line-drying instead !

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Needs to win more of the points that she has control of. Too often either missing the target or failing to attack.

Good serving from 0-30 at the start of the 2nd set. Both first and 2nd serves have real potential.

Crushing forehand return winner from Katie just before the heavy rain (also landed 2 in opening set)

Katie 3-0* and 0-40 (KS f ret winner and f pass winner) fails to punish two 2nd serves, sees R hold, then loses the plot with some shocking errors, especially a smash wide followed by an incredible miss near the net

3-4* near total loss of confidence

After a run of 11 points lost (mostly given away), KS wins two but R still holds for 3-5

Back to playing at a decent level, Katie wastes 4 game points (all 2nd serves) then saves 2 mps before a forehand long ends the contest 3-6

---

Plenty for the new coach to work on. Tendency to be too safe during rallies, alarming slump after 2 awful mistakes, not much variety in her play.

Having said that, there were some short spells that looked promising. Plenty of talent.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 25th of November 2016 03:09:20 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks for the commentary, kundalini. I see that Rodina won the Taipei 125K last week, though still in this match Katie looks as if the second set at least would have been much closer with more consistency and assurance. Just hope that steadily develops on top of her talent and that she can over time become more consistent and clinical. It seems natural that it will to an extent, the question more to what extent.

All in all her two matches here should be good experience.

To summarise the scoreline :

R2: (6) Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) WR 91 (CH 74 in February 2011) beat (WC) Katie Swan WR 429 6-2 6-3

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Unfortunately during the long rain-break, they put the standard pre-match caption Swan v Rodina on the screen then failed to remove it until Katie was 3-0 up so I only managed to see glimpses of her best spell. At the moment Katie has weapons but it's not clear that she sees herself as an attacking player except immediately after her first serve and when returning 2nd serves. During the rallies, Rodina was far more proactive, creating space into which to strike relatively safe winners. While Katie's movement looks great, it didn't seem to win her many points when on the defensive. My general preference is for attacking play with the associated mindset that accepts errors, even the occasional shockers, though perhaps against an opponent with different strengths and weaknesses to Rodina's, Katie's defensive game might be worth more.

Rodina played like an experienced professional while Katie displayed some talent but her inexperience ultimately cost her when she had complete control of the 2nd set. I think it would have been a tough match for Katie to win at this stage of her development, simply because Rodina's error count was fairly low and her high first serve percentage left Katie with limited opportunities to land crushing returns. A disappointing aspect for me was that barely any of Katie's errors were good shots that landed marginally wide or inches long.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 25th of November 2016 03:12:15 AM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I thought Rodina would be too canny for Katie so loss to be expected at this stage really. I'm really interested to see what her schedule is next year. I hope she plays lots of tournaments where she's regularly getting to SF at least to get lots of matches and build up that professional matchplay experience, rather than 'doing a Laura' and improving her ranking with WCs and the odd lucky win (which with IMG in her corner she could easily do).

PS the Laura comment relates to the past 18 months not when she first burst onto the scene....

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I am sure Fitzy is licking his lips given Katie's natural talent level. Very early days, and a game against an experienced pro in the top 100. I am confident we will get to see the type of development we saw during the Kyle, Beechy years. Exciting times but hopefully not too much pressure as at the moment it's all about development as opposed to rank.?

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Yes, thanks for the commentary kundalini :)

Didn't expect Katie to win but it's a pity she couldn't capitalise on her chance to take it into a decider.

Excited to see how she and Fitzy take it forward in 2017 :)

scottie1 · Futures level

vohor wrote:
Yes, thanks for the commentary kundalini :)

Didn't expect Katie to win but it's a pity she couldn't capitalise on her chance to take it into a decider.

Excited to see how she and Fitzy take it forward in 2017 :)

I take it Fitzy has ceased working with Naomi Broady when did this happen

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

scottie1 wrote:
vohor wrote:
[...]
I take it Fitzy has ceased working with Naomi Broady when did this happen

About October 21st: http://britishtennis.activeboard.com/t61649309/naomi-broady/?page=5#comment-62797001