Week 2 - WTA Premier ($711K) - Sydney, Australia Hard

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Week 2 - WTA Premier ($711K) - Sydney, Australia Hard

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

2 minutes of highlights (or whatever the WTA could find, apparently)

Kounosuke · Intermediate Club Player

Konta is playing right now and is up *3-2 in the first set.

Jan · Hall of fame

Jo takes the first set 6-2

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

They traded breaks early on, but after that it was Jo on the accelerator all the way.
Jo won 72% of all points on Genie's first service!

Jan · Hall of fame

*3-0 in the second
Some great play from Jo!

Jan · Hall of fame

Breaks exchanged
*4-1

DF · Tennis legend

Impressivei performance. She wins 6-2 6-2

Jan · Hall of fame

NICE!
6-2 6-2
Very impressive from Jo

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Pretty clinical from Jo there; once she was into her rhythm the power and depth of her groundies was terrific :D :D :D

wimdledont · Challenger level

Dream final.

Jo is now up to 2 in the Race, will be 1 if she wins the final, 3 if she loses.

Seems to me that she's hitting through the ball much more this year, noticably stepping into her forehand and generating extra power which is putting opponents on the back foot, without having to rely on the extraordinary accuracy of her hitting to length of last year. So she has a bit more margin for error.

Peter too · Tennis legend

SF: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 6 10 def BOUCHARD, Eugenie (CAN) WC 49 6-2 6-2

F: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 6 10 v RADWANSKA, Agnieszka (POL) 2 3 CH=2 2012
H2H 0-2
Cincinnati 2016 7-6(7) 4-6 0-6
Beijing 2016 4-6 2-6

-- Edited by Peter too on Thursday 12th of January 2017 11:29:02 AM

thejester · Satellite level

Fantastic stuff from Jo, last year felt like a bit of a dream and I'll confess I wondered if she could possibly sustain that but the way she's playing right now the only direction she's going is up. Hope she can finish the week with another title and get the better of Aga!

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

That was great, dominating on return.
Casually waltzing into the final of a Premier without losing a set!

That match in Cincy, Jo really could've won in straight sets. She had Aga on the ropes, but didn't quite believe enough to deliver the killing blow on a BP.
If Jo returns like today, she should have a chance.
415 points already, covers a nice chunk of that AO SF haul from last year, and takes the pressure off having to repeat the feat or suffer a huge rankings plummet, as is often the case with first time slam SF. She's already done most of the work by just keeping on winning last year, and building up that cushion to all behind her, but this year has further insulated her beyond even that.
Even losing R3/R4 at AO, though not what she, or we'd, ideally want, is not really a big deal now. She still has a great platform to continue the rest of the early months.

PaulM · Tennis legend

That was sublime