Week 9 - ITF ($15K) - Macon, France Hard

blob · All-time great

Week 9 - ITF ($15K) - Macon, France Hard

blob · All-time great

Meanwhile Alicia and Anna have received a w/o into the SF of the doubles.

the addict · Tennis legend

Alicia serves three aces in one game, but after a DF Maia breaks back 2-1* on serve

Michael D · All-time great

This has been a good performance from Alicia thus far. She did let her first set lead slip though she then won the subsequent TB, but otherwise she has been comfortably ahead in both sets and the match. Now a double break up in the second set, so will be a real test of Maia's fighting abilities as to whether she can drag it back again, albeit more successfully this time. Good serving stats from Alicia, as addict notes, 7 aces overall and she is ahead on 1st serve % and 1st and 2nd serves won.

However.... Maia has indeed managed to pull back one of those two 2nd set breaks. Alicia leads 7-6(3) 4-2*

-- Edited by Michael D on Wednesday 28th of February 2018 12:07:23 PM

Michael D · All-time great

Maia can't hold her own serve though... as far as I can tell it was a series of breaks thereon to the end of the match. A good win for Alicia, but disappointing for Maia.

R16: Alicia BARNETT (GBR) 671 beat Maia LUMSDEN (GBR) [7] 453 7-6(3) 6-4

Next up for Alicia could be the top seed, who will be in action later on today.

-- Edited by Michael D on Wednesday 28th of February 2018 12:35:02 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yeah bit of a shame if you are neutral and have no personal preference to either player. You'd generally prefer the player 5 years younger and significantly higher ranked to do better.

the addict · Tennis legend

Maia did recover to 4-4, but then was broken to 0, and Alicia served it out.
4 breaks to 3 in the set

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Would have wanted Maia to win that but Well done to Alicia

paulisi · Tennis legend

Alicia is stuck in that awkward ranking section, so quite happy to see her pick up some points.

indiana · Tennis legend

Alicia has progressed quite steadily over the last 18 month. I think at US College before that ?

Certainly looks on the face of it to still have a fair bit of upward potential.

blob · All-time great

In the all-Latvian tie to determine the opponent for the winner of the All-Brit tie, Alicia, Vismane, the newest wunderkid product of the increasingly prolific Latvian production line, overcame the top seeded senior of the Marcinkevica sisters. Which is good, because Diana Marcinkevica is a notorious Brit-basher.
But bad, becasue Vismane is seriously highly touted - Ostapenko levels.

QF: Alicia BARNETT (GBR) 671 v. (Q) Daniela VISMANE (LAT) 871 (CH 869, Feb. 2018 - 17yo, JWR 17, =JCH)

Michael D · All-time great

Yes, Vismane took out Diana Marcinkevica 7-5 6-3, ignoring a 600 position ranking gap, although Marcinkevica's 13 DFs will not have helped her cause. Well, let's see how Alicia fares. A few more 4+ points scorers in her tally will help nudge her upwards. Alicia is at a CH btw.

the addict · Tennis legend

I am fairly certain Alicia was at college in the US, and returned summer 2016. She played the British Tour event at Sutton in that August, coming through two rounds of qualifying and then the R32 before losing in three sets to Lucy Brown in R16 - her fourth match in three days. Clearly there is a lot of potential there to continue moving upwards.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
Yeah bit of a shame if you are neutral and have no personal preference to either player. You'd generally prefer the player 5 years younger and significantly higher ranked to do better.

Nah. If both of them are playing full time and giving it their all, and I'm neutral, I'll always want the older player to win. (The younger one has plenty of time - but it's often 'do or die' for the older one). NB I see it differently if the older one is now basically part-time, coaching or whatever.

Alicia most certainly was at college. I've got a soft spot for her - although she's a bit of a moaner, bless her. But I saw her play at Roehampton in Sept. 2016, when she was unranked, and had just done a couple of months on the pro tour. She played the most fab match against Klaartje Liebens, (as well as two other good matches) and I rated her from that moment. (Especially as someone else here said, around that time, that she didn't stand much chance of getting any sort of ranking...). I don't know what her goals are, and she's not going to make British tennis headlines, but I assume she'll be wanting to break the top 400 by the end of the year (top 500 minimum).

Mind you, the youngster has been impressive and the number one seed was only slight favourite with the bookies which shows that a lot of people had money on the Latvian, and rightly so. Allez, Ali !

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
Yeah bit of a shame if you are neutral and have no personal preference to either player. You'd generally prefer the player 5 years younger and significantly higher ranked to do better.
Nah. If both of them are playing full time and giving it their all, and I'm neutral, I'll always want the older player to win. (The younger one has plenty of time - but it's often 'do or die' for the older one). NB I see it differently if the older one is now basically part-time, coaching or whatever.
Alicia most certainly was at college. I've got a soft spot for her - although she's a bit of a moaner, bless her. But I saw her play at Roehampton in Sept. 2016, when she was unranked, and had just done a couple of months on the pro tour. She played the most fab match against Klaartje Liebens, (as well as two other good matches) and I rated her from that moment. (Especially as someone else here said, around that time, that she didn't stand much chance of getting any sort of ranking...). I don't know what her goals are, and she's not going to make British tennis headlines, but I assume she'll be wanting to break the top 400 by the end of the year (top 500 minimum).
Mind you, the youngster has been impressive and the number one seed was only slight favourite with the bookies which shows that a lot of people had money on the Latvian, and rightly so. Allez, Ali !

Yeah that's fair enough. I guess a lot of it will come down to perspective. This is obviously a dedicated, niche messageboard so interest will be widespread, but my main interest is the main WTA tour and of course Grand Slams (and qualifying) and as I do watch the majority of the tournaments on BT Sport, it would be great to see a few more British girls making an impact at those events, especially as it would also take over BT's generic showing of random unknown home players on centre court in Tashkent, Tianjin etc.

I have followed the ITF circuit far more closely recently, but that's probably mainly to see the progression of these younger players who could make a name for themselves. If I'm being honest, although perhaps harsh, I'm not too bothered about the likes of Emily Webley-Smith at this stage of their career. I didn't know much about Barnett's college backstory but when I saw she was 25 this year and still ranked nearly 700, then as you say, she is probably unlikely to make headlines and enter the wider sporting fans attention at all, then to me this result is just harming the progress of someone who actually might.

It's obviously great for her and again as you say, she will have less time so might need it more and if she is closer to circa 300 then she might forge more of a career, but at the same time, as there are hardly any events ITF events in the UK now and very few of these $15k tournaments are streamed, we'll hardly get to see them in action anyway unless they do move to in and around the 200 mark.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Wednesday 28th of February 2018 11:28:04 PM