After seeing how well she played against Katy in R2, especially in the 2nd set, I'm not at all surprised that Riske went on to win the title without even dropping a set, or even being taken to a tiebreak.

I was lucky enough to see the Harriet v Conny semi-final despite the weekend tickets having sold out before I'd even realised they were on sale. Somewhat embarrassingly, just after I'd written on here (re. Gabi) ...

steven wrote:

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It's hard to imagine her having much trouble getting past Conny (famous last words!), who seemed to be struggling a bit in her doubles match today (though she had played singles not long before and will have a day off to recover on Thursday) but Gabi is still going to need to keep playing near her best to get past top 200 players, even if they aren't that keen on grass.

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 ... Tara messaged me to say that if Conny made the semis, she'd have one player guest pass she didn't need and I was welcome to have it if I wanted it. I thanked her, it was very kind, but didn't expect (or want) her to get past Gabi in the first place.

When she did, I checked with Tara that they were aware that my loyalties might be a bit ... er ... mixed.  Let's be totally honest - even before this, I was always going to be cheering forlornly (given the Riske effect) for the winner of this semi in the final, but Harriet is one of my favourite players and I really, really wanted her to prevail! She said that was fine (and I know, from likes and RTs, that Conny appreciates me highlighting their doubles wins so I didn't feel toooo bad!) so I ended up sitting with Conny's team (or rather, in a seat just behind them) for the semi-final, diplomatically sitting on my hands and keeping my mouth zipped, as it were.   

Although I didn't talk to Conny's team, they were a good, very supportive bunch, and even had me close to willing on their girl to win at times (shhh! ), but it was fairly clear early on that even they didn't really expect her to. I also had to laugh at the Brit on her team, who insists on pronouncing her surname as if she were related to Reggie LOL

Conny did win the first two games but then Harriet came out firing and looked well in control for the rest of the 1st set. She has improved a lot since I last saw her, looks in super shape and hit some brilliant winners at times, and I have little doubt that of the two players on court, Harriet will end up with a significantly better career high in the end. However, at times she did let herself get too affected by dodgy line calls (which weren't always that dodgy, in my opinion, though one close to me certainly seemed to be), whereas Conny was supremely professional throughout, though she is of course quite a lot more experienced.

The match was a lovely contrast of styles, both playing decent grass court tennis but in completely different ways. I don't know the stats, but I'm pretty sure Harriet hit far more winners but Conny far fewer UFEs.

Harriet was very aggressive at times, which was great to watch, if quite high-risk - a bit like Bally at a similar age in some ways, which suggests significant upside potential if she can reduce errors and avoid getting distracted. Conversely, Conny looked like a clay court specialist adapting reasonably well to grass, generally playing softer shots than Harriet but with fantastic placement at times, and (maybe thanks to her doubles experience) she was also quite effective at the net when she came in. Keeping her head while Harriet was losing hers slightly is probably what sealed the win, but if Harriet had taken one of her three match points, I'd probably be telling you she was clearly the stronger player!

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Moving to the shallow end, in my opinion, Nike have really let down their players (not for the first time) - those dark turquoise crop-top + skirt two-pieces they've got all their tall blondes in (*) are really unflattering, in terms of both colour and fit - even the lighter turquoise (like Rafa's RG final shirt rather than his shorts) would have been an improvement. 

Conversely, the outfit Harriet was wearing in the final (and Katy in her matches) looked really great - cool, flowing and very summery. A grey top/shorts combination Harriet wore in the doubles match I saw was, if anything, even better. I ought to know who their clothes sponsor is but I haven't a clue!

(*) I found myself wondering whether Nike only sponsor tall blonde WTA players (trying to find the next Shazza?!), or maybe it's just that even they realised that the dark turquoise would look even worse on non-blondes!

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Anyway, Surbiton is a fantastic event, really well-run and perfect for those of us who follow the players at this level, and many thanks to Tara and Conny, who were very, very kind to give me a chance to watch the semi-final when they really didn't need to. 

Coup Droit wrote:

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Great report, steven. And who's a lucky bunny .... just shows that people get what they deserve ... and nice of Tara.

It's strange about Harriet - several/even lots of people have now commented on how badly she gets affected by perfectly-fine-but-in-her-opinion-dodgy line calls. It's been a trend over many matches. (Really bad at last year's Wimbly qualis). You do wonder why her team don't really address this head on. I mean, where's her coach and why isn't he/she shouting out 'the ball was out, move on' ? Like you, love the Taco team - really nice spirit they've got going there. (But I like the teal blue colour of the Nike strip; in the sunshine it looks really pretty !)

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 I saw her lose in the first round at Manchester last year and the same happened there. She got herself wound up by what she perceived were bad/dodgy calls[they weren't]so much so that as she walked through the gap between the courts ,she didn't look where she was going and walked straight into me-she apologised straight away-but she had a face like thunder as she walked off.

indiana wrote:

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Spatial awareness issues ?? Balls to lines, self to other people ?!

Seriously, as CD says, she needs to sort out this 'in Harriet's eyes' issue sooner rather than later. It is clear that it is actually pretty common with her. And with so much else going well, she doesn't want to be getting derailed in important matches.

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 To be fair, there were one or two others in the matches I saw who were equally as bad if not worse. And it was the same yesterday.