Week 5 - WTA Premier ($823K) - St. Petersburg, Russia Hard

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Week 5 - WTA Premier ($823K) - St. Petersburg, Russia Hard

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

TomTraubert wrote:
boulter got happy knak for digging in and grinding the result not usual with players of her power game style but very useful and stand her in good sted going forward

Guess the magic wore out ...... cry

Jan · Hall of fame

cry cry

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Lost 7-6(3) 4-6 2-6.

Pretty disappointing to lose 10 of the last 12 games from such a promising position to a lower ranked player, but at least there was a net points gain, another top 100 win and she still has a chance of making the main draw.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

So, Bonaventure, Gasparyan, Alexandrova and Martincova all qualify, leaving Katie and 3 Russians Vikhlyantseva, Kudermetova and Kalinskaya as FQR losers. Katie is the highest ranked out of those so should join one other in the LL lottery, Vik and Kud are currently 108 and 109 respectively in today's rankings, not sure who was higher last week, but it'll be one of those 2.

All Q matches are complete, so we should know soon.

Michael D · All-time great

And it's Kudermetova who has the LL place cry

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yep, disappointing. And looking at her scoreline of losing 6-1 6-0 in the FQR raises questions...

Although actually, to be fair, I think her match started before Alexandrova-Kalinskaya, so if it was 1 from 2, then she probably wouldn't have been in contention if Alexandrova lost. It always makes me suspicious though, like when Puig lost by the a similar score in Sydney the other week.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 28th of January 2019 02:04:36 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

She got the best placing as well facing young WW Danilovic who has done very little since winning the Moscow River Cup last year. Hasn't really produced away from clay yet, so very winnable.

Michael D · All-time great

yes unfortunate for Katie. She is the highest ranked player to miss out and had the only 3 set FQR loss, not that that is of any consequence to a LL draw.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

But then again, she was a set and break up and just 2 games away against an older (i.e not a young phenom coming through), lower ranked player and didn't see it out. On to the Fed Cup and Shrewsbury then.

indiana · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
TomTraubert wrote:
boulter got happy knak for digging in and grinding the result not usual with players of her power game style but very useful and stand her in good sted going forward
Guess the magic wore out ......

As I said earlier, I do think Katie is at heart a scapper to add to her talent and has pulled out some very good tight wins.

But towards the end of last year she also said her prevous illness, when she could barely get out her bed, was still effecting the amount of training she could do and at times effected her in matches, particularly in back to back matches when she relatively suddenly had little more to give.

Now maybe today was simply a form turnaround from either or both ( having seen none of it ) but with that history there must be a question of still issues in this third match in three days and quite a bit of tennis.

And if this has again handicapped her today I can only have real sympathy regarding, while she herself has continued to progress very well over the last year or two with theses ongoing issues. Certainly maybe a consideration in response to some negative posts.

Again in this tournament, her level straight out the blocks against a relatively high ranked player has been good, adding to that record vs top 100 players.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I seen Bonaventure did back the Katie win by beating Siniakova. LL Kudermetova also progressed further.

the addict · Tennis legend

Just seen on twitter
Tennis on telly
@tennisontelly
55 seconds ago

Dominika Cibulkova withdraws from St Petersburg, Katie Boulter takes her place as a lucky loser, will play Ekaterina Alexandrova first up tomorrow.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Wow! Great news, hopefully she stuck around.

Alexandrova will be the favourite and has generally been in very good form these past few months, but from Katie's perspective, she is potentially 2 Q's away from a Premier Quarter Final.

Edit - although hopefully nothing serious for Domi.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 29th of January 2019 04:58:14 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Just checked Alexandrova's recent indoor record and she is 14-1 (11 in straight sets) and a lot of those against top 100 players. Katie'll be up against it, but an unexpected chance and not beyond her.