Week 31 - WTA International ($227K) - Washington, USA Hard

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

Week 31 - WTA International ($227K) - Washington, USA Hard

paulisi · Tennis legend

Hev's returning has been poor and far too many errors.
Tig has played solid.

seagull · Hall of fame

What a strange match this is

PaulM · Tennis legend

Saves match points, gets back on serve, then scraps to a break point again and plays a howler second serve return

Tig still in front

*5-6

PaulM · Tennis legend

Jeezo. Disappointing and another body blow to the confidence.

Tig snaps a 7 match losing streak.

So poor in both breakers. Her returning on the big points was really bad, break point at 5-5* and the point at 3-5* in the breaker two good examples.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 1st of August 2017 08:16:19 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Disappointing, an average performance would have been enough for Heather to get through today but she really wasn't on her game at all. I still thought she was going to win once she saved match points and broke back in the 2nd set.

nicofrance · Strong Club Player

Dreadful stuff and sums up Watson over the last few years . A few good performances within a pile of dross. A nice draw wasted by another mental implosion. I'm afraid unless Heather sorts out her fragile mindset then she's going nowhere and will just hover around 80 in the rankings occasionally falling out of the top 100 and then returning as another false dawn beckons!

jb288 · Satellite level

I mean, she did win more points, so.....not all bad. Such is life.

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

What is worse is that Tig looked a barrel of nerves towards the end but Watson still contrived to lose.

PaulM · Tennis legend

On the plus side she's defending nothing over this swing so at least the two wins here count for something.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Well that was a frustrating watch !! Comfortably the better player, but playing patball tennis, littered with errors ain't going to get it done, thought she was turning it around late on, but a poor TB sealed her fate. Looks like she's pressed the reset button following Wimby, which she didn't need to do. Desperately needs a win at the US open, to get the confidence going again.

Michael D · All-time great

Personally I think Heather is rather in denial about her choking and the extent to which it is damaging her game. If she wasn't she would do something serious in terms of getting a mental coach and dealing with the issue. However I see no reference to her using anybody to deal with her end of set/ match nerves, which right now is the single biggest thing holding back her tennis career.

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: WATSON, Heather (GBR) Q 75 lost to TIG, Patricia Maria (ROU) 134 6-7(4) 6-7(3)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I feel it is taking Hev a bit of time to settle, psychologically the dog days of summer ie the American swing through August and September is so different from the first half which comes with the nervous energy and national expectation of being British at Wimbledon. I don't think she is entirely motivated by self and just finds it harder to get up psychologically when the reward is much more overtly fiscal. Definitely some work to do but not so much around choking

indiana · Tennis legend

I really like Heather and want her to do well. But there most certainly is a finishing off issue, whatever you want to call it. She often becomes markedky over passive compared to what brought her to winning positions. Like please give it to me opponent, rather than just seizing it herself which on pure tennis she can perfectly do. That's not motivational that's other things in her mind which I agree I really do think she needs to try and address.

Maybe she is quietly behind the scenes, who knows, but as said nothing apparent as so openly with Jo.