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

Michael D · All-time great

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

Michael D · All-time great

Not to be, second set Alicia lost the crucial break at the end of the set

QF: Alicia BARNETT (GBR) 671 lost to (Q) Daniela VISMANE (LAT) 871 (CH 869, Feb. 2018 - 17yo, JWR 17, =JCH) 6-7(3) 4-6

blob · All-time great

Much closer than I'd imagined. I'll count that as a constructive defeat.
Just Emilys (Emilii? Emilies? Emiloi?) left.

Michael D · All-time great

blob wrote:
Much closer than I'd imagined. I'll count that as a constructive defeat.
Just Emilys (Emilii? Emilies? Emiloi?) left.

Apologies to Emilou Harris, but I quite like Emilou as a plural

indiana · Tennis legend

blob wrote:
Much closer than I'd imagined. I'll count that as a constructive defeat.
Just Emilys (Emilii? Emilies? Emiloi?) left.

Yes that looks another decent performance. The pre match odds were a bit closer than I would have guessed. Quite encouraging going forward. The 2 points from here will take her to a new CH, likely in the 650s.

blob · All-time great

Michael D wrote:
blob wrote:
Much closer than I'd imagined. I'll count that as a constructive defeat.
Just Emilys (Emilii? Emilies? Emiloi?) left.
Apologies to Emilou Harris, but I quite like Emilou as a plural

With all the love and respect in the world to all of our tennis Emilys - one of whom I've followed fervently for almost two decades now: ain't a single one of them can carry a candle to Emmylou Harris.

Michael D · All-time great

blob wrote:
Michael D wrote:
blob wrote:
Much closer than I'd imagined. I'll count that as a constructive defeat.
Just Emilys (Emilii? Emilies? Emiloi?) left.
Apologies to Emilou Harris, but I quite like Emilou as a plural
With all the love and respect in the world to all of our tennis Emilys - one of whom I've followed fervently for almost two decades now: ain't a single one of them can carry a candle to Emmylou Harris.

Yes on that too; nor inspired quite so many people.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Alicia finished her college career in the spring of 2016, we are now approaching the spring of 2018.

She had a very solid college career putting a decent shift in playing all 4 years at North Western, a genuinely academic school running decent college sports programmes in a power conference. She did political sciences so I would guess a fairly hefty academic workload possibly accounting for her playing at her highest level as a junior.

She played mainly at 4/5 as a freshman, 3 as a sophmore, in the number 1 slot as a junior in singles but then slipping back to 3 as a senior. Her doubles was mainly at no 1 in her sophmore and junior years again slipping to the no 2 slot as a senior. Alicia is obviously a good all round athlete not just Tennis but also football, hockey and discus from a family who play a lot of sports but not that I can a tell a family of tennis coaches. She played to a decent standard as a junior getting to some grade 4 finals and a junior CH of 400ish.

Alcia has a lot of strings to her bow but not really the type of college success nationally in the US that would suggest she will charge on up into the top 300 in the world but who knows if she had been brought up by a family of tennis coaches and not allowed to play any other sport but Tennis from 8 it may be a different story regardless I hope she continues to enjoy her tennis and this journey on the futures circuit with as much success as possible.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 4th of March 2018 05:14:08 AM

Michael D · All-time great

Well, this will be the year to test herself and see how much higher she can make it. Her serve seems a useful weapon. Note that her career best scalp is her win over Agnes Bukta (WR:348) in Glasgow last month, so that is something else she needs to push on upwards. Good luck to her.

blob · All-time great

NU is also the alma mater of Sam Murray, as she says, " NU Wildcat for life."

Michael D · All-time great

blob wrote:
NU is also the alma mater of Sam Murray, as she says, " NU Wildcat for life."

Ah Sam, now what has happened to her this year? She entered the two UK tournaments, then withdrew, and nothing has been heard from her since... so wonder whether she will still play this year or... she has made other life decisions?

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Michael D wrote:
Well, this will be the year to test herself and see how much higher she can make it. Her serve seems a useful weapon.

One would hope so she is 5ft 10 and a county level discus thrower, it is really hard to know how much work has been put into that part of her game. If the attitude has been great serve lets look at everything else then perhaps she could take the Naomi route but she would need a bit of Fitzy magic and how do you get your hands on that type of know how when your ranked 600 odd and playing 15Ks.

Honestly that is a major frustration for me, there is a lot of cheap technology out there to facilitate LTA coaches keeping an eye on their top 25 players and offer some sort of distance support for futures players particularly up until they are 24 or for the graduating college players for their first couple of years on tour. With all the technology and capacity to watch and analyse film there are alternatives to travelling with players giving one to one support. In most working environments one is constantly looking at trying to do more for less.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 3rd of March 2018 06:39:30 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Alicia has a decent serve and, as you say, could obviously focus on it. But it doesn't have the potential to be a Naomi style weapon, IMHO - and after all, there are quite a lot of relatively tall girls playing tennis.

But she is also miles and miles away from Naomi in terms of movement, i.e. miles better ! And also in terms of general technique - she uses her legs well and gets a lot of power (unlike Naomi where it's all arm and whip). She has also had four years or so of direct, pretty intensive coaching so I don't really think it's coaching that she needs. When I said above that she's a bit of a moaner, bless her, it's not an understatement - a bit of 'positive' mental coaching would go a long way, if the right person could be found.

the addict · Tennis legend

Interesting reading all of the above. Alicia must have made great strides since she finished college, because I can't relate the comments above to the girl I watched at Sutton in the British Tour Premier Event in August 2016. Certainly the serve didn't stand out that day.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The addict, to be honest, my point was that her serve doesn't stand out either. It's decent. But no more.