While we often talk about players being extremely underranked, in general top players will not be very overranked in respect of their absolute top level ability ( I realise to a degree some would argue particularly re some of the men just now ).
But that top 10 rise ( indeed briefly to WR 4 after Wimbledon last year ) was no figment of the imagination or she somehow hugely lucked out. I can't really see that any player's natural position is well down the rankings from where they have fairly recently been. To say even drop quite well out of the top 20, as she clearly may well do post Miami, would be at odds with her proven abilities. Possibly her race position #36 is a reasonable reflection of where she is at just now, with a ranking that could certainly fall even further during the grass court season but then with much scope to climb again over the latter months of the year. To me, even now, she doesn't seem to have been operating at outside top 50 level and I most certainly hope that there is no further form deterioration but things can spiral for players. That previous game is there lurking somewhere and can hopefully be refound but does need the right focus and back up.
While there are often many reasons for tennis choices that we are no party to, some of her decisions do seem to have been a bit strange, though the first move on decision and subsequent events on different levels may be inextricably linked to the awful passing of her former mind coach.
Got to just wish her the very best to refind much of that past game.
I'll repeat the claim I made in the AO thread: Johanna will not finish the year as GB #1 I've already done the calculations just to be sure she won't need a WC for Wimbledon (she won't - USO is another matter). There is nothing there, everything has shifted slightly, and none of it works now. The FH is 'off' again unable to stay in the lines, the serve has no pop or bite, and opponents aren't being hit back behind the baseline, the overheads and volleys have deteriorated from an already poor position...
Things can change, and turnaround, and get back into fine fettle, of course. I always had faith in Carril and Fissette - even in the ling drough under the latter - that there was a clear plan, and that solutions would be found to the natural variations and variability in Johanna's game. My initial disapproval of Joyce was based on the Sharapova connection, and the things he implied about Serena rather than his techincal merit. Now though, every time I see him, I can't believe he is a good match for Johanna. They never seem to be on the same wavelength - she has to ask him what he means more often than either of the other two, and English is his first language. They invariably end up talking about how lucky the other player is being, rather than the contrast of Carril & Fissette, who came down, had a plan, a good plan, perhaps not always the best or a successful plan, but you could see where the process was directed, and they imparted that clearly and concisely, and Johanna focused on what she was told because she is an impeccable student and professional and did what she was told, even when she didn't necessarily believe it, and the results came. [that's a long sentence!]
So, I'm... not worried exactly... resigned... no, not quite... just... realistic. I want to say otherwise, not just a Brit, Jo is my player, the one (Bally apart) I have championed and rooted for hardest (well maybe tied second with Hev). But I just can't based on what I'm seeing. I don't know how many others watch enough to pass judgement, but I'd really like someone to just tell me to shut up completely (generally) but in this case to do so because they have evidence to present an opposing case so compelling there's no other alternative but to withdraw. I don't like talking players down.
Thank you though blob. In spite of your own relative misgivings, to me this forum is always the better for people giving their honest considered thoughts, while in general most of us want the best for British tennis players and individually for some players in particular.
And sorry I have not seen much of Jo lately nor can give that compelling opposing case. Other than as I have kind of indicated in my last post I am for now not as pessimistic re Jo's ongoing ranking in that I expect her to finish the year at least in the top 50 and GB #1. But that could still be an uncomfortable fall.
But Michael D - I didn't realise her mental coach had taken his own life. The other thing I have to say, as many people who have lost close ones in life is that you never really get over it. I remember a close loss in my life that happened almost 10 years ago and it's only been in the last 2 years or so I have really come out of actively grieving.
But Michael D - I didn't realise her mental coach had taken his own life. The other thing I have to say, as many people who have lost close ones in life is that you never really get over it. I remember a close loss in my life that happened almost 10 years ago and it's only been in the last 2 years or so I have really come out of actively grieving.
I know.. Jo's hasty move on from the coach who had just supported her through the most successful year in her career struck me at the time as being more about fleeing from memories. And somehow that's started a roller coaster ride that I am not sure where it's going to stop. And now I certainly don't want it to stop at Joyce.
It is a great pity in so many ways, and while it may go back to that first move on, clearly without fully understanding the relationships just one that can be looked back to but surely very difficult to criticise.
It is a great pity in so many ways, and while it may go back to that first move on, clearly without fully understanding the relationships just one that can be looked back to but surely very difficult to criticise.
Yes, one can't criticise Jo's reactions at all, whatever the specific motivations, at a time of emotional upheaval like that.