Week 2 - Australian Open Qualifying - Melbourne, Australia - Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 2 - Australian Open Qualifying - Melbourne, Australia - Hard

Jan · Hall of fame

cry cry cry

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A big thank you to Paul M for posting the streaming notice.

And to airsmashers too - you're right, chrome was great compared to my normal browser - thanks.

I don't think Amandine was even playing her game - it looked to me as though she'd been told to rein it in and just wait for the mistakes. Which came thick and fast. As someone said above, if it weren't for those wildcard pointers, laura's ranking would be nowhere. Nothing good in that match whatsoever.....

Shame for Tara - was always going to be tough, that match.....

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

PaulM wrote:
Laura was appalling. She's made no improvement in months andis hugely overranked. If it wasn't for all her 10pt for first round exit counters she'd have been nowhere near this field.

Tara simply lost rythym on her serve as she started to tire, confidence went and she fell apart. Galfi definitely a good prospect.

Not good enough from either although I didn't really expect Tara to come through (and to be fair the first set was good, it's just the fall off was like a cliff edge). But never nice to drop a set and a break advantage.
I don't see how Laura is playable at Fed Cup. She's not good singles back up right now unfortunately.

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 12th of January 2017 05:38:51 AM

On those showings Tara definitely deserves the Fed Cup slot over Laura; Annie can still revise her selection can she not? Tara is our #4 in the singles rankings and these performances suggest that is the truth of the matter at the moment.

Wakey · Junior player

indiana wrote:
Such a pity to see an almost 24 yo that has never entered the top 150 ease to victory over Laura like that.

So far away. Yet while these too few weeks last year were outliers, they were not illusions. I watched her at Landisville ( even with a relatively yippy service then ) and much of her game was suddenly in pretty good nick. Composure at building and ending rallies and she was 'on', chasing balls down with enthusiasm. So to hear that she looked "uninterested" quite apart from the form - what gives ?

Time is marching on, however relatively young Laura still is. It's becoming increasingly worrying

In the BBC article about the loss she says

"I had a weird thought just before I went on court - I thought last time I played a match here I then didn't play for 18 months," she said.

"It maybe wasn't the best thing to happen before a match and I felt flat."

She added: "I just never got going, it felt like my feet were stuck in mud."

And I think that kind of sums up where her problem is and thats mentally. She clearly has yips on her serve based on how frequent DF's have been with her which is almost always a mental issue rather than a technique one and those comments show further issues of getting in her own head. She really could do with taking a leaf out of Kontas book and make sure she has a full time sports physiologist in her team and for as much time put in with them as on the practice court because if she can get her head sorted she has the shots to certainly get back in the top 100

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Sounds like Tara has 2 issues - fitness and serving. Fitness she can surely work on if she identifies that as the issue as to why she fades away after starting well. Serve probably more problematic. I haven't seen her serve recently but before she had shoulder surgery if was an absolute and very effective flat bomb with no margin for error. If she's had to change her action it would explain the inconsistency with it. Her serve of choice over the years was not one you could really adjust slightly and major changes at Tara's stage of development would be hard for any player.

As for Laura, she is just not back to tour level yet. As someone pointed out, her ranking is still inflated by points from WC and PR losses. I think she would be better to ply her trade at her 'true' ranking and build up confidence through wins, even though the opposition might not be spectacular. I cannot see how she was selected for Fed Cup.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Laura going well in practice, is something which I've seen myself at Nottingham, clearly most of her problems are mental, when she hits the match court she struggles, very frustrating. Whether she's overranked or not you could debate for hours, because what she did in Landisville and at the US open would suggest she is underranked. Until she gets her mojo back for long periods, she will probably continue to struggle at this level. If and when that happens,it is just impossible to predict. In Landisville her movement was the best I've ever seen it, and that is a massive part of whether she's in the right position to play her big shots. On current form Tara is playing better, but a quick flick of a switch could easily see Laura play top100 tennis again.

the addict · Tennis legend

Well it does seem that Laura recognises where her problem lies. Article in The Times today by Stuart Fraser
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/robson-ill-try-anything-to-find-form-j2vhn3fsw

"I had a weird thought just before I went on court where, not in a negative way, I thought the last time I played a match here I didnt play for 18 months, Robson said. It maybe wasnt the best thing to happen before a match.

Such thoughts are not doing Robson any good, which is why she turned to Andy Murrays former sports psychologist Richard Hampson for help during the off-season.

Ive started working with a really good guy but its not an overnight change, Robson said. I wish there was a switch. I thought the US Open was going to be my switch and my big moment. All I can do is try everything. You have to commit to this sort of thing. In the past Ive been a bit sceptical, but Im at the stage where Ill try anything.

indiana · Tennis legend

It must be so very frustrating knowing the potential you have, but for whatever reasons not being able to release it.

She does appear to be overthinking and elements of contradiction - no switch, but then she thought she had found the switch.

Got to for now keep on working, but again a much better game is already there somewhere as shown so briefly last year. And not being able to reproduce that again so frustrating.

So much does point to a lot now being in the mind. Hopefully her "good guy" can really help - go with it, Laura.

blob · All-time great

Maybe at Fed Cup, Johanna can quietly slip Laura the numbers of Messrs Carrill & García