Week 25 - WTA Premier ($936k) - Birmingham, Grass

TomTraubert · Futures level

Week 25 - WTA Premier ($936k) - Birmingham, Grass

flamingowings · All-time great

Would comment but watching Garbine play so...

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: WATSON, Heather (GBR) WC 86 lost to TSURENKO, Lesia (UKR) 37 6-7(2) 5-7
R1: BOULTER, Katie (GBR) WC 139 lost to OSAKA, Naomi (JPN) 18 1-6 2-6
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 22 lost to KVITOVA, Petra (CZE) 4 8 3-6 4-6

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Could be another wipeout in grass today GB wise, on the womens side its looking that way.

flamingowings · All-time great

Still got Kyle and Dan to play yet. Might have at least 1 win from them.

Samson · Lower Club Player

Did not think Jo played poorly (bar a couple of errors and DFs at unfortunate moments) but Petra just had too much power and Jo was not able to keep up.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

flamingowings wrote:
Still got Kyle and Dan to play yet. Might have at least 1 win from them.

You were right there Nearly had two, but sadly just the one.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jaggy1876 wrote:
Am I right in saying if Heather doesnt play before Wimbledon her ranking will drop to outside the top 100?

My prediction that Gaby will finish above Heather may even be closer than year end if thats the case.

You are right. Heather has 185 SF points coming off from Eastbourne last year. She will have to reach the Eastbourne QF this year to have any chance of remaining top 100 in the rankings at the start of Wimbledon ( where she has a further 130 points coming off ).

Nix · Futures qualifying

indiana wrote:
Jaggy1876 wrote:
Am I right in saying if Heather doesnt play before Wimbledon her ranking will drop to outside the top 100?

My prediction that Gaby will finish above Heather may even be closer than year end if thats the case.
You are right. Heather has 185 SF points coming off from Eastbourne last year. She will have to reach the Eastbourne QF this year to have any chance of remaining top 100 in the rankings at the start of Wimbledon ( where she has a further 130 points coming off ).

Heather was playing really well last year. I saw her at Eastbourne against Wosniacki and although she didnt win the match, she had the resilience to come back after a period of struggling and pushed Wosniacki hard. From her performance at Surbiton this year this belief has evaporated. She started brightly but just got brittle when Gabi came back at her. Im not sure if she works with a mental coach but I think it would benefit her in a similar way to JoKo.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Lovely win in the dubs by Katie B and Hev.

Were 4-2 up in the second set before losing 4 games on the trot. But played a lovely MTB.

Good job !

indiana · Tennis legend

Katie B, currently doubles WR 1116 on 11 points, adds a little matter of 100 more points for reaching the QF here and will shoot up into the top 500.

She very rarely plays doubles these days but judging from Fed Cup earlier this year and this she certainly can contribute.

TomTraubert · Futures level

hev & boults strugled out 2+0

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

So, Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail reports that this event makes an annual loss of over £500,000......

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 20th of December 2018 03:10:35 PM

flamingowings · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
So, Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail reports that this event makes an annual loss of over £500,000......

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 20th of December 2018 03:10:35 PM

I wonder what other WTA tournaments do and if any of them make a profit?

The experience vs Queens is vastly different - Queens has a lot of opportunities for you to spend money. Birmingham, shall we say, does not. Birmingham seems to be much more "I found a marquee in the shed and put it up" compared with Queens.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

With this year being exceptional, they have been extraordinarily unlucky with weather at this tournament which I am sure hasn't helped.