Week 29 - ITF ($15K) - Vienna, Austria Clay

Michael D · All-time great

RE: Week 29 - ITF ($15K) - Vienna, Austria Clay

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

Michael D wrote:

SF: JONES, Francesca (GBR) [2] 537 beat Betina PIRKER (AUT) [Q] UNR (CH:456 Feb 04) 6-2 6-3

F: JONES, Francesca (GBR) [2] 537 vs Marta LESNIAK (POL) [1] 469 (CH:418 Feb 18)
Interesting that Fran's opponent in the final is a sprightly 30 years, but her CH is only from Feb this year. Seems to be having a resurgent second stage to her career. And indeed a quick look at her activity list shows that she did not play between October 2008 and November 2016.

Marta played college tennis between 2008 and 2012 for Southern Methodist University with a 102-18 record. She took a break from tennis for 4 years after that before taking up coaching.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

RedSquirrel wrote:
Michael D wrote:
Interesting that Fran's opponent in the final is a sprightly 30 years, but her CH is only from Feb this year. Seems to be having a resurgent second stage to her career. And indeed a quick look at her activity list shows that she did not play between October 2008 and November 2016.
Marta played college tennis between 2008 and 2012 for Southern Methodist University with a 102-18 record. She took a break from tennis for 4 years after that before taking up coaching.

She was also a very decent junior, and is good friends with the new Wimbledon champion, part of the inner circle, if you will; she used to play regularly with Kerber in junior doubles.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Glad Francesca only lost the one week to play on that weird slippery green clay

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Not really a surprise. Fran will get there, just not this week.
Useful points nonetheless

F: Francesca JONES (GBR) [2] 537 lost to Marta LESNIAK (POL) [1] 469 0-6 3 3-6

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

A shame she didn't win the title but another good week. Very excited with Frans progress. Her and Jodie for me seem to the leading the 2nd lot. Maia was but has stalled as of late.

indiana · Tennis legend

Mervatron2 wrote:
A shame she didn't win the title but another good week. Very excited with Frans progress. Her and Jodie for me seem to the leading the 2nd lot. Maia was but has stalled as of late.

Assuming Laura falls out of the GB top 10 following her surgery, and that the current very clear top 8 remain there, it will be interesting to see which two players end 2018 filling out that top 10 and whether one or two players do so fairly clearly. I was having a think but find it a very hard one to predict. Tara and Maia are the current leading 2, both in the rankings and the race.

For further down the line Fran is certainly looking very good.