Week 47 - WTA ($125K) - Mumbai, India - Hard

wolf · Tennis legend

Week 47 - WTA ($125K) - Mumbai, India - Hard

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Junri Namigata looked a nice player who simply lacked the weapons to compete against Naomi. Naomi's forehand dominated most of the rallies, which is unusual to say the least. She could have done a better job returning 2nd serves and got broken when her first serve went missing but apart from that, a good performance overall. One sensational low stop volley winner that many of the top male players can pull off on a regular basis but very few women; don't ever recall seeing Naomi execute that shot before. Several delicate drop shots winners cross-court and tons of unreturned first serves.

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 23rd of November 2017 12:18:53 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Sabalenka can be a bit hit and miss - so you never know.

One more win will push Naomi close to the top 110. A final place will almost certainly get her into Aus Open main draw.

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

Sabalenka has just lost the first set tiebreak

Peter too · Tennis legend

R2: BROADY, Naomi (GBR) 5 117 def NAMIGATA, Junri (JPN) 210 6-2 6-2

QF: BROADY, Naomi (GBR) 5 117 v SABALENKA, Aryna (BLR) 1 96 CH=76 16/10/17

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 24th of November 2017 01:16:39 AM

blob · All-time great

Sabalenka had a noticeable rankings drop this week, to 96, but still a stern test if she finds any where near her Fed Cup form for any length of time.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Great win for Naomi there :D
GL in the QFs :)

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

blob wrote:
Sabalenka had a noticeable rankings drop this week, to 96, but still a stern test if she finds any where near her Fed Cup form for any length of time.

Hope Naomi's wearing earplugs during the match. I saw Sabalenka at Didsbury-she is very loud when she hits the ball.

blob · All-time great

Early days, *1-1

Jiwan · Club Coach

Naomi was 3-1 up in the first set then it all went Pete Tong. She lost 10 of the next 11 games. 4-6 0-4

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Sabalenka was impressive. Naomi appeared frightened of her opponent's heavy hitting and never came up with a formula that would allow her to compete. A huge number of dfs, some ambitious attempts that missed narrowly, others weak efforts that wouldn't have troubled anyone, even if they had made it inside the box. Too often Naomi's initial ground-stroke after her serve was poor, either an error or failed to finish off the point when presented with the opportunity. 2nd serve return she didn't do enough to trouble Aryna.

Thus ends a season in which Naomi never really looked top 100 quality and ultimately finished about 100 points off the top 100. She achieved 5 top 100 wins, down from 12 the previous year. Good performance in defeat against Daria Gavrilova at the Australian Open. Decent run at Midland, surprising win over Bellis in Monterrey (I missed that one), got some wins in the 100Ks on the grass before beating a disinterested Alize Cornet in Birmingham, after which the rest of the grass season was disappointing, admittedly against decent opponents. Losing to Nicole Gibbs in the final round of US qualifying not a great result, though her wins in the earlier rounds had been closer matches than might have been expected. Autumn form has been reasonable but with the exception of her win over Maria in Luxembourg, not that spectacular. I only saw one of her matches in Taipei, and missed the loss to Soylu in Hua Hin.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 24th of November 2017 05:48:23 PM

Peter too · Tennis legend

QF: BROADY, Naomi (GBR) 5 117 lost to SABALENKA, Aryna (BLR) 1 79 4-6 2-6

Michael D · All-time great

kundalini wrote:
Sabalenka was impressive. Naomi appeared frightened of her opponent's heavy hitting and never came up with a formula that would allow her to compete. A huge number of dfs, some ambitious attempts that missed narrowly, others weak efforts that wouldn't have troubled anyone, even if they had made it inside the box. Too often Naomi's initial ground-stroke after her serve was poor, either an error or failed to finish off the point when presented with the opportunity. 2nd serve return she didn't do enough to trouble Aryna.
Thus ends a season in which Naomi never really looked top 100 quality and ultimately finished about 100 points off the top 100. She achieved 5 top 100 wins, down from 12 the previous year. Good performance in defeat against Daria Gavrilova at the Australian Open. Decent run at Midland, surprising win over Bellis in Monterrey (I missed that one), got some wins in the 100Ks on the grass before beating a disinterested Alize Cornet in Birmingham, after which the rest of the grass season was disappointing, admittedly against decent opponents. Losing to Nicole Gibbs in the final round of US qualifying not a great result, though her wins in the earlier rounds had been closer matches than might have been expected. Autumn form has been reasonable but with the exception of her win over Maria in Luxembourg, not that spectacular. I only saw one of her matches in Taipei, and missed the loss to Soylu in Hua Hin.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 24th of November 2017 05:48:23 PM

And hope she finds a way of solving her coaching dilemma.

indiana · Tennis legend

Will Naomi be the top 50 player ( maybe even comfortably top 50 ) that got away ?

She has done really well in all the circumstances of her career, but some of these circumstances have been self inflicted,

Jaffa · Challenger level

I think all this stuff regarding Fitzy is wide of the mark.

I doubt Naomi let him go, rather fitzy received an offer to work with a top ten player... so obviously he took it!