Week 27/28 Wimbledon Main Draw - Singles

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Week 27/28 Wimbledon Main Draw - Singles

nicofrance · Strong Club Player

Sad to see Laura Robson making no progress for the last few years . Many players have injuries and come back to something closer to their old form.

With her weapons to not even be close to getting back into the top 100 is hard to fathom. She's always lacked mobility but at times today she looked like a statue .

blob · All-time great

murrayman650 wrote:
I know Sam Smith said that if you are a fan of Laura Robson, not to give up on her , but how can we still have faith in her , if she has no faith in herself.

That is why you have to have the faith.

'Big match player', 'big tournament performer', 'good on grass'...
A pretty abject and mentally directionless performance, as it has been each of the last three years on a WC.
Infinitesimal signs of improvement. OK, not really, I can't see much difference between today and 2015. Which is completely contrary to all the reports given about her this year from various correspondents.

What is not in doubt is that, if she needs and wants a fourth consecutive WC next year, she will get one, regardless of anything else.

Hope the other Brit WC at least show some signs of life at some point in their matches.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Weeping (for Laura really and all those fans who made such an effort to get to watch her today) - but hey, it's just a game of tennis

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
Had the opportunity to watch Laura for the first time in over a year for the last set or so. Opponent fairly solid, but frankly not much more.
Laura's erve about 10mph down on her old best.
Court mobility considerably worse than I remember it, and it wasn't great. Footwork similarly even worse than I remember it, and that was a huge weakness. Anticipation also very slow. All things that can be really worked on, none of which are affected by your wrist. Great ball-striking as always, but not relevant if the opponent doesn't hit it to her, and even then often striking the ball to far away from the body on her forehand, almost by choice - putting strain on her wrist.
Can't see her getting inside the top 100 ever again on this performance. Makes me very sad, as I rate her so highly on the "natural talent" scale. I ask myself what an earth has she been doing in terms of training on the basics in the last 2-3 years?

Nice to see you, Korri ! smile

(and you're not wrong.....)

Grachka · County player

It was quite dispiriting watching her, and quite baffling. I've seen her play a lot better in the last three years, but that was pretty dire.

If she wasn't already perfectly set up for the shot, there was a strong chance the point was ending immediately as she was perpetually off-balance.

wolf · Tennis legend

Doubles is the way forward for Laura. She doesn't need to move and can just hit the ball. And she enjoys it a lot more.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

scottie1 wrote:
Sorry folks but this should be Laura's last wild card is she better than Tara who didn't get one--- answer No

Been lucky to have made it through qualifying.

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

And winning that 60k tells you all you ought to know about the quality of that field.

christ · Futures level

Sim wrote:
Laura needs to start winning a few games in the second set otherwise she could face the embarrassment of being the 1st player to be knocked out of the championship.

Kyrgios beat her - just. But he had to retire to do so.

indiana · Tennis legend

Now a player winning or losing a match doesn't show bookies' odds to be right or wrong. Players are not automatons and especially not Laura.

But I saw when the odds against her were being rather queried it still coming with a comment that being Laura, it wouldn't be advisable to put much stake on. Either all things considered the odds appear to offer good opportunity or they don't.

Sad to see. There seems a bad mixture of ongoing technical issues and an often questionable mindset and I just don't know where she goes now. Doubles is an interesting thought.

Michael D · All-time great

korriban wrote:
Had the opportunity to watch Laura for the first time in over a year for the last set or so. Opponent fairly solid, but frankly not much more.
Laura's erve about 10mph down on her old best.
Court mobility considerably worse than I remember it, and it wasn't great. Footwork similarly even worse than I remember it, and that was a huge weakness. Anticipation also very slow. All things that can be really worked on, none of which are affected by your wrist. Great ball-striking as always, but not relevant if the opponent doesn't hit it to her, and even then often striking the ball to far away from the body on her forehand, almost by choice - putting strain on her wrist.
Can't see her getting inside the top 100 ever again on this performance. Makes me very sad, as I rate her so highly on the "natural talent" scale. I ask myself what an earth has she been doing in terms of training on the basics in the last 2-3 years?

The last is also the question for me. Even though Laura has played the ITF circuit this year to get back into things, it is hard to see what she has been focusing on in terms of areas of improvement. Her confidence appears shot too, not surprisingly. Somehow her weaknesses have amplified themselves and her strengths have not returned. If she does want to continue she'll have to work on her mental attitude and her court movement to stand any chance of improvement. Otherwise the suggestion to focus on doubles is probably a good one.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

With it being Wimbledon, naturally a lot of comparisons are made to where Laura was before (i.e. 2013) but what was disappointing was that Laura didn't play at the level she is capable now, and if she had done so it would have been at least a very close match. Haddad Maia served well and played the big points quite well, but was by no means unbeatable today. Laura was a bit unlucky to go 2-0 down and maybe because of that she never got fully into the match - she was nervous at the start and then a bit despondent in the 2nd set.

When they played some long rallies (of which there were none in the first set but a few in the 2nd) Laura looked much more in control and dominated those points. However, even then she missed the final shot too often, or if she did finish off a good point followed it up with a couple of cheap errors.

Laura will need to put in some time with her new coaching set up and then try and build on her performances in Japan when she goes back to ITF level tournaments.

Sim · County player

I hope Steven, or anyone else on the Forum, didn't place a bet on Laura to win.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Sim wrote:
I hope Steven, or anyone else on the Forum, didn't place a bet on Laura to win.

One good betting tactic is always to bet (in small amounts) against the British player.

It means you're always in a win-win situation: the player wins and you don't care you lost 50p, you're so pleased they won; the player loses and you're miffed but at least you've made a few bob. Unfortunately it's working well this morning....