Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.7M) - Wuhan, China Hard

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

RE: Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.7M) - Wuhan, China Hard

flamingowings · All-time great

Jo+ have lost the 1st set 6-2.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

flamingowings wrote:
Jo+ have lost the 1st set 6-2.

And the second set 6 -1 I think. I watched a few games. Woeful performance for the most part.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Julia Carrot wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Jo+ have lost the 1st set 6-2.
And the second set 6 -1 I think. I watched a few games. Woeful performance for the most part.

Was the woeful performance from Jo or Zhang or both of them?

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Well, Zhang had to work a lot more than Jo, the opponents seemed to feed her more of the shots but Jo was pretty useless at intercepting most of the time. They both made loads of errors and serving weak or erratic. I only stomached 3 or 4 games though !!

the addict · Tennis legend

Michael D wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 43 lost to BARTY, Ashleigh (AUS) 16 17 CH=16 29/1/18 5-7 4-6

At least she defended her 1 point from last year hmm

(Even if it was a non-counter)

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Like or lump it I feel Jo's recent efforts profoundly depressing in that last year she was beating Vekic, Barty and Garcia and now she is losing to them all in straight sets. It may make no difference but I hope she finds herself a new coaching set up soon as there seems little to be gained with the present set-up. I cannot see what is to be gained with another year of Michael Joyce.

Strongbow · All-time great

the addict wrote:
Michael D wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 43 lost to BARTY, Ashleigh (AUS) 16 17 CH=16 29/1/18 5-7 4-6
At least she defended her 1 point from last year
(Even if it was a non-counter)

Definitely a crinkly mouth after that. She is our only player who can play at this level or higher. All you can say is good luck smile

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Unless Jo can get a win at Beijing (can't be too optimistic about this) then she will get about the same ranking points in the 2nd half of 2018 as she managed in 2017. Her year end ranking will be on a par with the end of 2015 but she was on the rise then. I read somewhere that Michael Joyce suggested Jo play doubles which was at least one good idea.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Strongbow wrote:
the addict wrote:
Michael D wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 43 lost to BARTY, Ashleigh (AUS) 16 17 CH=16 29/1/18 5-7 4-6
At least she defended her 1 point from last year
(Even if it was a non-counter)
Definitely a crinkly mouth after that. She is our only player who can play at this level or higher. All you can say is good luck

And therein lies a big problem. We had 5 players (excludes Naomi Broady)getting wild cards at Wimbledon in the range 100 to 300. One hates to say this but one cannot imagine any of them reaching the standard Jo reached. Katie Boulter would have reached the top 100 if only briefly but was stopped by Heather Watson beating her. Her ranking is now likely to go down because of losing ranking points. Although under Andy Murray's wing,Katie Swan seems injury prone and Gabi Taylor seems illness prone. Added to this Katy Dunne and Harriet Dart have been overwhelmed by the opposition since Wimbledon. The only junior to really register was Emma Raducanu in reaching 3 junior Grand Slam quarter finals. In the Maureen Connolly Trophy held in June the USA U16's defeated the GB U16's by 12-0. The US team had some really strong players but our team was struggling to win sets. Basically nothing much in the pipeline. Getting on for 10 years ago there was far more optimism for the prospects of Laura Robson and Heather Watson.

KK · Club Coach

ROSAMUND wrote:
Strongbow wrote:
the addict wrote:
Michael D wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 43 lost to BARTY, Ashleigh (AUS) 16 17 CH=16 29/1/18 5-7 4-6
At least she defended her 1 point from last year
(Even if it was a non-counter)
Definitely a crinkly mouth after that. She is our only player who can play at this level or higher. All you can say is good luck

And therein lies a big problem. We had 5 players (excludes Naomi Broady)getting wild cards at Wimbledon in the range 100 to 300. One hates to say this but one cannot imagine any of them reaching the standard Jo reached. Katie Boulter would have reached the top 100 if only briefly but was stopped by Heather Watson beating her. Her ranking is now likely to go down because of losing ranking points. Although under Andy Murray's wing,Katie Swan seems injury prone and Gabi Taylor seems illness prone. Added to this Katy Dunne and Harriet Dart have been overwhelmed by the opposition since Wimbledon. The only junior to really register was Emma Raducanu in reaching 3 junior Grand Slam quarter finals. In the Maureen Connolly Trophy held in June the USA U16's defeated the GB U16's by 12-0. The US team had some really strong players but our team was struggling to win sets. Basically nothing much in the pipeline. Getting on for 10 years ago there was far more optimism for the prospects of Laura Robson and Heather Watson.

There is much to be optimistic about with Emma.

indiana · Tennis legend

I still think there is quite a lot to be optimistic about with our batch of 5 younger, rising over this year, players in our top 8 with some very good wins and performances in there.

Yes, the year seems to have caught up with them all for a variety of reasons but let's not overlook the undoubted progress of still relatively young players, which I would suggest has been much more than our generally thought of optimistic forecasts for the year.

Not saying any in particular will reach the very upper levels but at least let's give them the close season refreshment, recuperation and watch them with interest in 2019.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes. The problem with Emma is that she's only 15.

A whole heap of things can change/go wrong between now and getting into the WTA top 100.

Whereas the batch of girls you've mentioned are close to getting there.

And Joko was only 200 or so on her 21st birthday. And 160 or so on her 22nd birthday. And about 100 on her 23rd.

So the batch of girls we have are pretty similar.

TomTraubert · Futures level

of 16 seed here barty been the only 1 to make qf
joko clearly had worst draw

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Heard some of Lauras commentating. I have to admit she was much better than I expected. Better than Anne was when she started actually.