Week 9 - WTA International ($227K) - Acapulco, Mexico Hard

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Week 9 - WTA International ($227K) - Acapulco, Mexico Hard

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

2 MP saved 3-5* deuce

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

A point, and then a 20th DF from Kiki.
Dare we dream?
*4-5

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Ooooh!
Will M'lady's serve hold now?
5-5*

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Yup.
Come on Hev, make it a third TB.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

3½ hours for naught.

R16: Heather WATSON, Heather (GBR) 73 lost to Kristina MLADENOVIC (FRA) [2] 30 6-7(4) 7-6(5) 5-7

Peter too · Tennis legend

Both of them having to go for strong 1st and 2nd serves. Neither of them managed to get 50% of their 1st serves in. Heather finished with 18DFs to her opponent's 20.

-- Edited by Peter too on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 03:21:20 AM

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Outside the darkest days for Dementieva, I can't immediately recall a higher DF total than that. Laura & Tara have had some high totals, but the oppponents never co-operated to really bump the total up.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Ouch

All that for nothing. Great battle but she was always playing catch up. Outside the top 100 now

So many doubles from both!

She loses way too many of these sorts of matches. If she could flip a couple in her favour somehow I've no doubt she could get a run going. Just needs to keep at it and try not to worry about the ranking drop (big points from IW and Miami coming off too), she'll have plenty of opportunities to get it moving back in the right direction

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 07:53:33 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Ouch I agree but what desire and resilience to come so close against the second seed is frustrating but gives me confidence that a good run is round the corner.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Apparently the longest WTA Tour match of the year. The only longer women's match was Jankovic/Kuznetsova in the Australian Open, which was 4 minutes longer.

Heather hit 59 winners to 29 UE (+30); Kiki was 22 winners to 23 unforced (-1).

Mladenovic has recently won St. Petersburg Premier, so hopefully that means Heather is playing a decent standard, even if it's not pretty; and it's just a case of a few more tweaks. Back to mostly qualifying though, like quicksand for many a talented player.

PaulM · Tennis legend

I think that's my concern Ali. I wouldn't be quick to reach the view that because she's lost a few close matches to good players that means she'll be back up in the top 100 by the end of April, if not sooner. Very easy to get sucked down and down. She loses close matches to lower ranked players as well sadly, though Fed Cup did give me real confidence she was playing well.

Hopefully she can get some cushioning to limit the damage of IW (35 points) and Miami (120) which if entirely undefended will drop her to about 140, then she's heading back to Monterrey where she can hopefully have a good run again, before we head onto the clay.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Argh; Heather got much closer than I dared dream but to come away with the loss will be hard to bear. Dig deep Heather :)

Jan · Hall of fame

I waoke up in the early hours and checked the score - it was 1-1 in the 3rd.
Sooooo close cry

-- Edited by Jan on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 10:41:07 AM

Peter too · Tennis legend

Mladenovic does seem to set problems for British players, counting junior and senior:-
Jo Konta 0-5
Heather Watson 3-6
Laura Robson 1-2
Naomi Broady 0-1
Tara Moore 0-1 (a close 3 set match)
Anne Keothavong 0-1
Katie O'Brien 0-1