Week 9 - WTA $125K Challenger ($150K) - Indian Wells, CA, USA - Hard

blob · All-time great

RE: Week 9 - WTA $125K Challenger ($150K) - Indian Wells, CA, USA - Hard

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Amanda is a very promising player but that's a fair draw for Broady. Her other options were - Linette (1), Lepchenko (2), Brady (5) or Golublic. If she does come through then it's Gibbs or Vikhylantseva in the next round and the latter is in very poor form, on the verge of slipping out of the top 100 after being around 50/60 just a few months ago.

blob · All-time great

Not the ideal start, 2 DF and broken to 15

0-1*

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

Now 1-4

-- Edited by hoots on Monday 26th of February 2018 09:27:55 PM

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

Now 1-6,1-6. 52 minutes. Oh dear

-- Edited by hoots on Monday 26th of February 2018 10:01:00 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

That's awful that. AA i clearly talented and has big potential, but shouldn't be losing 1-6 1-6 at this stage of their respective careers.

blob · All-time great

That... was ... ... brief.
Naomi won just 11 points on return; just 3 in the first set!

blob · All-time great

Will Naomi finish the year in the GB top 5?
That battle at least now looking increasingly possible.
But writing Naomi off is a mugs game; she does seem to need to find another magic key to unlock something though, as the sense of atrophy in her game has been around for a while now, and hasn't been gettling any less palpable.

Michael D · All-time great

blob wrote:
Will Naomi finish the year in the GB top 5?
That battle at least now looking increasingly possible.
But writing Naomi off is a mugs game; she does seem to need to find another magic key to unlock something though, as the sense of atrophy in her game has been around for a while now, and hasn't been gettling any less palpable.

I will be surprised if Naomi finishes the year 3rd. She will indeed need a resurgence of some sort again, which would be good. Her points gap to Katie B is now 178 and to Gabi 184. Naomi's points this week are not sufficient to be a counter for her.

Strongbow · All-time great

Naomi is like a number of GB women that - if she can find some sort of regular form - should be far higher in the rankings.

Not holding my breath

Michael D · All-time great

Strongbow wrote:
Naomi is like a number of GB women that - if she can find some sort of regular form - should be far higher in the rankings.
Not holding my breath

Well, I think blob's point is that the cohort behind Naomi are acting in a different way so far. Heather and Naomi yes could/ should both be higher, and one could certainly say that of Tara, who was at one point the person languishing behind them. Now Tara is no longer in the top 10 GB women, and even with Sam Murray not having played so far this year and not being clear what her plans are, it is still going to be hard for Tara to get back into that top 10. Meanwhile the #NewGen, Katie B, Gaby, Katy D, Harriet, Katie S (and hope she will be back on court soon) and then there is another cluster a little further back (Maia, Eden, maybe Freya, Jodie B, Fran), are swarming on. Even Laura R is now being overtaken, and could slide into increasing obscurity, unless she can also find something more this first half year leading up to the grass, which with her hip problem in Aus, is still a large question mark. This though is certainly the hope, that the NewGen displays a different set of characteristics. It is of course still very early days... which is what makes it all so exciting too.

christ · Futures level

blob wrote:
christ wrote:
Oakland2002 wrote:
She wont have played many women who play like Naomi.
To be fair, not many have!
Mmmmm. I think it's probably fair to say that unless you have played Naomi, you haven't played anyone else who plays remotely like Naomi

It turns out that women that play like Ms. Broady don't seem to hold much fear for her.

indiana · Tennis legend

Poor scoreline from Naomi, but we know that she's inconsistent.

Though what she has been consistent at is keeping a season end ranking within the top 120 the last few years, and inside top 160 the last four years if we add in 2014. She pulls together enough good results and decent runs to keep up a relatively decent ranking. As blob suggests, whatever is said year to year, her ranking has been holding up, and I don't see that dramatically changing.

And if Naomi is even still anywhere near the top 160 (and I think that she'll probably be higher ) I think she will still be top 5. Good as the girls behind her have begun the year I doubt 3 of them are going to get up to around that mark. If say Katie B, Gabi and Laura do that would be great, and it is certainly possible ( I don't see anyone behind Naomi beyond these 3 reaching that sort of ranking level this year ), but one way or another I see Naomi still being GB top 5 by year end. Hopefully that being with Naomi herself maintaining a pretty good ranking with others still continuing to move up the world rankings.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Naomi achieved her position in the top 100 with a consistent powerful serve. It became very hard to break her serve, even by the top players. She became the Karlovic of women's tennis. Her serve doesn't seem to be as effective now. Is that because players have learnt how to handle it or has it lost speed and consistency since she changed her coach?

Michael D · All-time great

Peter too wrote:
Naomi achieved her position in the top 100 with a consistent powerful serve. It became very hard to break her serve, even by the top players. She became the Karlovic of women's tennis. Her serve doesn't seem to be as effective now. Is that because players have learnt how to handle it or has it lost speed and consistency since she changed her coach?

Many of the players beating her now have not played her before, so safe to say it is a less consistent weapon than it used to be. Fitzy stated that his aim was to strengthen Naomi's serve to make it her most powerful weapon, and then aim to build the rest of her game around the serve to mitigate some of her weaknesses (like return of serve). What isn't clear now is a sense of how much Naomi is really able to maintain a strategy around the development of her game, given she does not have a full time coach now (as far as I understand).