Michael D wrote:

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Jaggy1876 wrote:

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Dommie is one of my favourite women to watch love her game, so wont be too fussed if diva Jo loses to her today. Not sure what everyone else thinks but my support of Jo is wavering these days.

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Well, there is plenty still to like about Jo, and she is still the spearhead of British women's tennis. However, I think she has found that increasingly tough, and she does not currently have a likeable coach. The trap Jo has got caught into this year is that she has become defensive and is not learning well. Her responses to set backs seem increasingly to be the wrong ones - like coming into the grass court season saying she needs to be more aggressive, when she has finished the clay seasons spraying the ball all over the place being far too aggressive and not nearly varied and nuanced enough in her game. She needs a period of better reflective rethinking, but I'm not sure she currently has the team around her to enable that. I'm not surprised she's going out today... I'd like her, perhaps wishfully, to have a better mental preparation before embarking on the next stage of her season. 

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 I do so agree with this.  The main frustration watching Jo is the ridiculous number of unforced errors she gives away which you just can't afford when playing the top players.  When I've heard on court coaching she just seems to get told to be aggressive and go for her shots, but that's what she's doing all the time so it doesn't help.  I'd like to see her play a match where she just concentrates on being accurate and mentally strong.  Sad today but she didn't deserve to win

Jajon wrote:

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1 break point against Cibulková is...not good

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Domi actually loses fewer points per service game in 2018 than does, for example, Sloane, Venus, or Ostapenko.

The paradox of our most encouraging Wimbledon for a while actually delivering the worst number of match wins for a while, as our ladies all exit stage left by afternoon of the first Thursday.
We wait to reap next year what promise 2018 has sowed...

indiana wrote:

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Maybe indeed some working out of Jo by the ladies but I doubt that here has been a committe meeting on the way to play Jo.

I certainly think that very much the main issue is that she simply isn't playing as well as before. Always should be looking for tweaks ( and that doesn't include being more aggresive! ) but her previous controlled aggresion would IMO still have her in a hugely better place if she was doing it as well as before, in particular the "controled" bit.

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 As Sam Smith noted on the Beeb, her first serve % is way down this year. She has become much tighter in her whole approach. 

nicofrance wrote:

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A hard draw and Cibulkova played very well but Konta has no plan B.

When things are going well thats fine but her game has little margin for error and players have worked out how to play her. Maybe this might take some pressure off , she has very few points to defend for the rest of the year and she needs to find more variation in her game .

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I have said before on this forum that Konta has no back up plan it's hard hitting and little finesse last year the ladies did not really know her game well but now it is no surprise.

She will struggle to get back up the rankings 

Of course as professionals they study aspects in preparation but in general the biggie to me remains Jo's form rather than players having worked out her general play so much that they are neutralising it. Do it as well as before and she would be having a much better year. I guess we will continue to agree to disagree on the main issue.