20+ points game 3
taylor save bp miss game points trouble landing serves and some brave or foolish low % shots under dures but pbg breaks in the end

sets points up open court for a winner over plays it and misses again and again
other she tries to play very poor selection inside out down the short side or change the angel and over high part of the net
hmm
25*

Thanks Tom, it's interesting to read all your comments here on the game. Yes and sad about the self-flagellation since it's clearly not helping Gabi, especially when she starts pressing too much, instead of continuing more relaxed and focused as she clearly was in the first set.

No doubt playing on her mind is the fact she won here last year when the tournament was a 25k... and will now have 50 points dropping off soon, and by mid-March will lose a further 100 points from her other two 25k wins last year... Those 150 points, nearly half her current total of 320 points, will drop her about 100 places in the rankings, if she does not replace any of them so far, which in these 2 60k events she has failed to do.

However, there are a run of three W25 tournaments in 4 weeks in Australia in March, the odd run of grass at Mildura and then two clay tournaments in Canberra, and I assume Gabi will look to return for those. She won at Mildura last year, though in the clay events did not do quite as well, reaching the SF and QF, so will have a chance of rebuilding her points tally there.

So far though of the players that made runs last year, Gabi is the one that has not yet gone on to progress further. At one point she was ahead of Katie B, which is how she made the GB Fed team in April. That seems a long time back now, as since then Katie has gone from strength to strength, whilst Gabi has made no further progress. Does seem to be a combination of a lack of power in her game, the wrong mental attitude (getting too tight and too frustrated far too quickly), and the need to focus more on consolidating her strengths, so she is more consistent in matches with these. She is still only 20 but I think this is a crucial year for her to come out the right side of this difficult period for her... Oh, and she really needs an injury free run too, especially during and post the grass season, a period she has fallen foul of lengthy injuries the last two years running...

Well good luck to her, she seems to have good advisors, so hope she can put this frustrating start behind her now. At least she finished yesterday's match, which she didn't do last week!

Yes, would be very good to see Gabi really fit and ready for the grass season ( and survive it! )

In early years she looked rather proficient on the surface so it could potentially be good for her.

ROSAMUND wrote:

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Who is Gabi's coach?

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From Nov 2017 her coaches have been Xavier Budo and David Sunyer, and I assume they still are now. She trained in Barcelona mainly last year, I believe. Budo was Carla Suarez Navarro's coach in 2016 when she reached the world top 10. 

Change this. From Sept 18 Budo became Paula Badosa Gibert's coach. Sunyer was still coaching Gabi after this date but don't know if he still is.

-- Edited by Michael D on Wednesday 30th of January 2019 05:55:41 PM

Coup Droit wrote:

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I thought she has some Argentinian bloke?

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 Last October - Bendigo, Victoria - it was definitely still David Sunyer Capella, who is from Catalonia. Whether she has changed more recently I don't know. 

Michael D wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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I thought she has some Argentinian bloke?

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 Last October - Bendigo, Victoria - it was definitely still David Sunyer Capella, who is from Catalonia. Whether she has changed more recently I don't know. 

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 Probably me who's confused...