Week 6 - (ITF W25) - Grenoble, France Hard

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Week 6 - (ITF W25) - Grenoble, France Hard

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Good stuff Eden.

Maia struggling this year

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Gracheva did back up her Maia win by beating the #7 seed on a MTB in the FQR
Brescia also backed up her Alicia win with a straight sets win over the 4th seed

Q placements include:

Katy Dunne
a WC
#3 seed
#5 seed
2 x ITF reserves

So a bit of a mixed bag. To be honest, I wouldn't mind Eden drawing Katy at all. Eden has done well to get this far, putting out 2 higher ranked seeded players and Katy is in such poor form that she could struggle with most of the Qs, so it would be a good test and we'd be guaranteed a place in the 2nd round.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Really pleased for Eden. I'm hoping that 2019 could be a bit of a game changer for her.

TomTraubert · Futures level

terrible carnage again for the women
we geting maybe 1-2 player a week this year winning any matches in a given week we bare got any interest past tuesdays now
silva and hill got something good today but will we get just 1 this week with md run
we way down on wins after compared to last decade avg
is this the new systrem or we just having a mare???

indiana · Tennis legend

I'm really not sure things are as bad as some folk are making out lately.

Early days this year, let's see it develop. Still a group of very promising young female players, currently being led by Katie B and Harriet, capable of pushing on further with our top 10 average at 196.3 still being not too far from its historic high of 190.1 achieved in June last year having had a big rise over the year ( started last year at 214.7 ).

I reckon lots to look forward to following this year. Hopefully some of our players will get a kickstart to their years from Shrewsbury and Glasgow.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 4th of February 2019 09:12:30 PM

TomTraubert · Futures level

indiana wrote:
I'm really not sure things are as bad as some folk are making out lately.

Early days this year, let's see it develop. Still a group of very promising young female players capable of pushing on further with our top 10 average at 196.3 still being not too far from its historic high of 190.1 achieved in June last year having had a big rise over the year ( started last year at 214.7 ).

I reckon lots to look forward to following this year.

in theory but that may never come and is stil only potensial

what has hapened in fact so far is real bad we losing a huge number of first matches in each event and in straight sets

dart + boulter and a bit of burrage cant cover over how the majority of our outings at all levels have been very dispiritng well below par and against our rescent solid-to-good starts to years where we make running up to wimby and then slump thereafter

might be invers this year but equal might just be terible with the new system hitting us as a nation on the women side in particualr for a right burton as none of our players eem to quite fit into the levels that they find themselves having to play now

qualies are stifer test and a round less this year so we fall earlier and harder we used to get some through in $15k most weeks to md and when we are strait in to md we crashing hard at the lowest level

our crop aiming at $25K and it fringes also seem inbetween a bit

whatever may come or what we hope to come dont change what has been already and its been sparse pickings by any mesure

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

They did avoid each other.

Eden gets the lesser known Ekaterina Makarova, one of the 2 ITF reserves, and Katy gets qualifier Georgia Brescia who beat Barnett earlier.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

TomTraubert wrote:
terrible carnage again for the women
we geting maybe 1-2 player a week this year winning any matches in a given week we bare got any interest past tuesdays now
silva and hill got something good today but will we get just 1 this week with md run
we way down on wins after compared to last decade avg
is this the new systrem or we just having a mare???

TomT, this isn't really true.

If I look back to week 5 last year, we have

(1) the Burnie event with, on 30/1/18, paulisi writing:

"What a disaster of a tournament for our girls.... "

Coz they all lost (in the singles) in R1

(2) Sharm - EWS lost in R1

(3) Midland - Naomi lost in R1

(4) WTA Petersburg - Hev lost in R1

THAT'S a mare - not this year's effort.

TomTraubert · Futures level

yeah but if in week 5 you were judging ytd by looking at one week thats real unrepresentative
you cant take one slice and call that the whole banana
week 5 can be bad but what about 1-4 to flesh out the ytd picture

wk 1 hev q for wta | joko wta qf - 5 players won >0 matches
wk 2 em ap made f | hev q and made wta sf - 3 >0
wk 3 em ap sf | dart qf - 4 >0
wk 4 swan qf - 5 >0
wk 5 that you pick - um maia made f that week in a $25k!!! - 4 >0

2017
wk 1 joko wta sf | broady won a wta round | moore $25k f - 3 >0
wk 2 in a mostly bad week joko win sydney - 2 >0
wk 3 joko slam qf | hev win slam round - 4> 0
wk 4 robson $60k qf - all 3 actice won >0
wk 5 broady midland $100K f | 15 >0

etc

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

It's not all doom and gloom:

Konta unfortunately is clearly not the player she was 18-24 months ago, but still has a top 10 win, won a match at the AO and showed signs she was getting back to a good level against Muguruza.

Boulter has had a solid year, a couple of disappointing losses (Minnen, Bonaventure), but a first overseas GS win, another top 100 win vs Pera and 'qualified' for a Premier event. Obviously as a LL, but she still had to be in that position. She'll be happy enough with her 2019 so far.

Dart certainly will. 7 solid wins. Qualified for a P event as well as a Grand Slam.

Swan has made a semi final although you sense she hasn't really got going due to retirement and a lack of events.

Jodie's F was an unexpected big boost and Freya did the hard work putting out the initial seed and only one of those could make the QF due to the draw.

Fran has been pretty unfortunate with the weather, but still has managed to win 4 of her 5 matches. It does feel stop start, but as Indy says hopefully some of our players can use the 2 ITF events to kick start their season and Fran and Maia would be two people where that certainly applies.

Katy, Naomi and Gabi are basically continuing from where they left off at the back end of *2018 (unfortunately), but it's still early days.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 5th of February 2019 12:09:00 AM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Oh and we're at least guaranteed someone with a British connection in round 2 of Grenoble. Small mercies and all that... wink

TomTraubert · Futures level

we not getting any much wins in $15k level this were the squeze is hiting us so far in q and md we getting no play
just today 6 losses in straights - but we ignore em maybe coz honest almost all people even here dont care about those events or those players they see them as pretty much irelevant they reckon as those players never gonna be top 100 level or anywhere near that who cares - it never said that way but thats the sentiment - like how many dont give a stuff about dubs, but only one person outright say it (over and over afain!

) they only interest in the potential stars - nothing malicous just the value judegement they make - so just blip over those, omit them and cherry pick to make the alternate case
i dont just look at our ~top 10 or better players we got few enough follows each week now

again say it early days but you compare early days yoy as there no garantee that the later days gonna be anything niether dreaming about whats to come is irelevant when analyssing what has hapened

game is shrinking soon maybe a senario like whehre the euro money tourney threads are gonna represent 50% of our weekly interests and we be forced to only follow the top dozen or so as thats all we have left

i alredy find myself checking scores less and following less keen as the game rots from the inside out it all seem empty
i seen the messages from dozens players special on the womens side about the situation and they blame the itf and the wta - madness wta andd itf are fighting for survival as the atp-pique-gimmelstob cabal squeezes ever tighter and laugh whilst others get the blame - game changed in last 12 months, forever never going back to what it was and still plenty more upheaval to come - might be good - but more likely to follow the sport-entertainment model ufc or wwe and that makes me sick to think of it all that extra nonsence it already flooding in (anyone see the tunnel go-go girls in st petersburg! all the plaeyrs even the locals could barely contain they disgust - zvonareva has a top line in disdain at the spectacle)

ah ramble
but something rotten in the state of tennis overall and so far 2019 women gb

indiana · Tennis legend

Jeepers creepers, well I will still look forward to the year with historically for GB a really decent crop of female players, and good ages. So much better than many times past.

Yes I am there particularly looking at our top 10 ( and they are my main interest ) but I do look beyond them and certainly wish more were coming through. A big part of the problem here is it's the LTA that seem too obsessed by the top players, and certainly don't care much for 15Ks, not putting any on themselves, and this has been widely discussed and criticised on the forum. A broader base anyway arguably helps towards finding the elite ( their clear focus ) rather than purely focussing on the current supposed elite / potential elite.

Tom, to say "almost all folk even here don't care about these events" or the players in them is the stuff of nonsense given how much their dearth has been been talked about, how they are followed and indeed attended by quite a number to a bigger extent than myself. Many of your understandable wider concerns about how some things are going have been brought up by many others on the forum and discussed at some length. It goes through phases but it is all there and it is real concern for people.

Finally back to recent results - yes, it's not been a great start to the year by quite a few but has been by some. Ace sets out a good (IMO) post providing good context in their "it's not all doom and gloom" post and again yes, it's soo early days.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

TomTraubert wrote:
we not getting any much wins in $15k level this were the squeze is hiting us so far in q and md we getting no play
just today 6 losses in straights - but we ignore em maybe coz honest almost all people even here dont care about those events or those players they see them as pretty much irelevant they reckon as those players never gonna be top 100 level or anywhere near that who cares - it never said that way but thats the sentiment - like how many dont give a stuff about dubs, but only one person outright say it (over and over afain! ) they only interest in the potential stars - nothing malicous just the value judegement they make - so just blip over those, omit them and cherry pick to make the alternate case
i dont just look at our ~top 10 or better players we got few enough follows each week now

again say it early days but you compare early days yoy as there no garantee that the later days gonna be anything niether dreaming about whats to come is irelevant when analyssing what has hapened

game is shrinking soon maybe a senario like whehre the euro money tourney threads are gonna represent 50% of our weekly interests and we be forced to only follow the top dozen or so as thats all we have left

i alredy find myself checking scores less and following less keen as the game rots from the inside out it all seem empty
i seen the messages from dozens players special on the womens side about the situation and they blame the itf and the wta - madness wta andd itf are fighting for survival as the atp-pique-gimmelstob cabal squeezes ever tighter and laugh whilst others get the blame - game changed in last 12 months, forever never going back to what it was and still plenty more upheaval to come - might be good - but more likely to follow the sport-entertainment model ufc or wwe and that makes me sick to think of it all that extra nonsence it already flooding in (anyone see the tunnel go-go girls in st petersburg! all the plaeyrs even the locals could barely contain they disgust - zvonareva has a top line in disdain at the spectacle)

ah ramble
but something rotten in the state of tennis overall and so far 2019 women gb

I'll be honest Tom, I'm guilty on both accounts there.

I don't slag doubles off on here, but I genuinely have no interest in it and see it as a different sport. I fully accept it's place and that it can be good for improving aspects of someone's game as well as scheduling issues, but if I go on to the men's section here and see a thread with (doubles only), I'll absolutely avoid it. I only really like it in the slams where I might jump on the bandwagon if someone has made a good run to the SF / F or that the likes of Jay and Harriet can pick up decent money, to hopefully invest in their careers to ultimately develop their singles game...

In terms of the 15k's, obviously players have to start somewhere, but without naming names, if there's people like 20 or 21 (or even older) losing 0 and 2 every other week then I will sharp lose interest and I will think (in my head) is there much point in them continuing. I'm more of a general tennis fan than specifically a British tennis fan. In an ideal world, I would be following far more Brits on the main WTA tour or the upper echelons of the ITF scene, but I watch so much tennis on BT that I'm far more interested in a young international star breaking out than seeing someone lose badly in Antalya one week, Sharm the next etc. - that's just the way I am. I'd love more GB players in the top 400-500 and see if they can push on further after, so you could at least find a stream, but I follow so much general tennis (and other sport) that I don't really want to invest more in someone who's clearly not going to have much impact on my life, as harsh as that sounds. Fully understand and respect those on here who do though.