Week 33 - WTA Premier 5, Western & Southern Open ($2,944,486) Cincinnati, OH - Hard

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Week 33 - WTA Premier 5, Western & Southern Open ($2,944,486) Cincinnati, OH - Hard

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Was hanging on a bit in the past couple of games, but back level now, 4-4*.

Come on Jo.

HarryGem · Club Coach

Missed opportunity there. Can she hold serve now?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Just the one BP there, but that felt like a great opportunity for Jo to break, also 30-0* up, a lot of second serves to look at, and a fine margin winner from Peterson, so not to be.

Serving to stay in it, rather than for the match. *4-5.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 12th of August 2019 10:18:00 PM

HarryGem · Club Coach

1st serve needed

PaulM · Tennis legend

Her forehand is terrible today. Peterson playing a tidy match but these errors from Jo....

Having dragged herself into contention at 4-4 30-0* she did play some poor points.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Atrocious final game.

Out 6-3 3-6 7-5

Let's hope this weak run is leading to a good US Open, rather than doing good in lead-ups and having a poor Grand Slam

HarryGem · Club Coach

Very disappointing result. Since Paris I'd say she had a very decent Wimbledon but a poor Birmingham, poor Eastbourne, very poor Toronto and pretty poor today. Not great prep for the US open.
Complaining to the umpire now is no use.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

PaulM wrote:

Atrocious final game.

Out 6-3 3-6 7-5

Let's hope this weak run is leading to a good US Open, rather than doing good in lead-ups and having a poor Grand Slam

Yes !

Michael D · All-time great

One of the reasons that Jo did well on clay was that her thinking and game strategy on court was excellent, now she seems to have lost that again. Her new coach was trying to help her develop that side of her game, considering how much she lacked a plan B last year. But now she seems to have lost that again. When she's not playing well, Jo's on court decision making always looks wrong. Disappointing to see, this is a bad loss in terms of all the who, how and when.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Michael D wrote:
Well, I'm going to back Jo here on this. The US Open is next so she needs to step up this week. And since it often seems to be a head game with her, I hope she has got her head as well as her game adjusted to the US hard courts now.

Sorry but the doom merchant was proved correct. I have nothing against Peterson but if Jo cannot beat the Peterson's of this world she is hardly likely to do well in the US Open. Additionally she was arguing with the reporter at Wimbledon and arguing with the umpire here. What then is the function of her mind coach? I thought that was supposed to be a calming influence. As an aside during the Mertens-McNally match Jo Durie said one of the players she coaches had played McNally at junior Wimbledon in 2018. I looked up the result and found the player in question who is older than McNally had won 4 games against McNally in the 2nd round. Not much hope for the future from a British point of view.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

ROSAMUND wrote:
Michael D wrote:
Well, I'm going to back Jo here on this. The US Open is next so she needs to step up this week. And since it often seems to be a head game with her, I hope she has got her head as well as her game adjusted to the US hard courts now.
Sorry but the doom merchant was proved correct. I have nothing against Peterson but if Jo cannot beat the Peterson's of this world she is hardly likely to do well in the US Open. Additionally she was arguing with the reporter at Wimbledon and arguing with the umpire here. What then is the function of her mind coach? I thought that was supposed to be a calming influence. As an aside during the Mertens-McNally match Jo Durie said one of the players she coaches had played McNally at junior Wimbledon in 2018. I looked up the result and found the player in question who is older than McNally had won 4 games against McNally in the 2nd round. Not much hope for the future from a British point of view.

It was a poor result, and while you can mention depth, or point to individual results for pretty much any player in the top 100 these day to provide an explanation, drawing Peterson in the first round of a P5 is about as good as you can hope for, bar maybe a MDWC, although even that's less notable in US events as they will often be more accomplished than say in Canada. Although to be honest, Jo could go on to lose every match she plays from the end of Cincy to the end of the season (like she did in 2017) and she'd still have had a better year than I was expecting at the time of that Miami drubbing and heading into the clay, although I obviously want her to do well, starting next week in The Bronx and hopefully another extended Grand Slam run.

The GB female junior scene outside of 1 or 2 obviously isn't that encouraging, so maybe it's kind of a general observation, but I'm not sure the relevance of the seeded Caty McNally, who made the 2018 RG girls final a few weeks prior (losing to Gauff), and has subsequently qualified for senior Wimbledon, reached a WTA semi final, and is less than 100 points off the WTA top 100, has over comfortably beating Destinee Martins. You're literally comparing one of the best juniors, and now senior prospects, with someone who needed a WC to get in. With the likes of Anisimova, McNally, Gauff and Osiugwe all 17 or under and all currently inside the top 150, (as well as a few other decent juniors), the future (and present) is certainly looking rosy from a US women's tennis POV. Hopefully a few males will follow...

Michael D · All-time great

ROSAMUND wrote:
Michael D wrote:
Well, I'm going to back Jo here on this. The US Open is next so she needs to step up this week. And since it often seems to be a head game with her, I hope she has got her head as well as her game adjusted to the US hard courts now.
Sorry but the doom merchant was proved correct. I have nothing against Peterson but if Jo cannot beat the Peterson's of this world she is hardly likely to do well in the US Open. Additionally she was arguing with the reporter at Wimbledon and arguing with the umpire here. What then is the function of her mind coach? I thought that was supposed to be a calming influence. As an aside during the Mertens-McNally match Jo Durie said one of the players she coaches had played McNally at junior Wimbledon in 2018. I looked up the result and found the player in question who is older than McNally had won 4 games against McNally in the 2nd round. Not much hope for the future from a British point of view.

Yes you were Rosamund, sadly, hence my comments in the past above on Jo's on court thinking and game strategy. I agree with you on the role of her mental coach, since so much of Jo's ability to win or lose seems to play out in her head. So many of her losses seem to be down to her play rather than it clearly being a case of being beaten by a better opponent. She is an enigma at times that's for sure.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Ace Ventura wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
Michael D wrote:
Well, I'm going to back Jo here on this. The US Open is next so she needs to step up this week. And since it often seems to be a head game with her, I hope she has got her head as well as her game adjusted to the US hard courts now.
Sorry but the doom merchant was proved correct. I have nothing against Peterson but if Jo cannot beat the Peterson's of this world she is hardly likely to do well in the US Open. Additionally she was arguing with the reporter at Wimbledon and arguing with the umpire here. What then is the function of her mind coach? I thought that was supposed to be a calming influence. As an aside during the Mertens-McNally match Jo Durie said one of the players she coaches had played McNally at junior Wimbledon in 2018. I looked up the result and found the player in question who is older than McNally had won 4 games against McNally in the 2nd round. Not much hope for the future from a British point of view.
It was a poor result, and while you can mention depth, or point to individual results for pretty much any player in the top 100 these day to provide an explanation, drawing Peterson in the first round of a P5 is about as good as you can hope for, bar maybe a MDWC, although even that's less notable in US events as they will often be more accomplished than say in Canada. Although to be honest, Jo could go on to lose every match she plays from the end of Cincy to the end of the season (like she did in 2017) and she'd still have had a better year than I was expecting at the time of that Miami drubbing and heading into the clay, although I obviously want her to do well, starting next week in The Bronx and hopefully another extended Grand Slam run.
The GB female junior scene outside of 1 or 2 obviously isn't that encouraging, so maybe it's kind of a general observation, but I'm not sure the relevance of the seeded Caty McNally, who made the 2018 RG girls final a few weeks prior (losing to Gauff), and has subsequently qualified for senior Wimbledon, reached a WTA semi final, and is less than 100 points off the WTA top 100, has over comfortably beating Destinee Martins. You're literally comparing one of the best juniors, and now senior prospects, with someone who needed a WC to get in. With the likes of Anisimova, McNally, Gauff and Osiugwe all 17 or under and all currently inside the top 150, (as well as a few other decent juniors), the future (and present) is certainly looking rosy from a US women's tennis POV. Hopefully a few males will follow...
Agree with your comment about if Jo loses every match till the end of the season. She'd finish up with a ranking of about 20 at the year end which is actually very good. Most of this is based on her clay court season and her Wimbledon quarterfinal. At least she had 2 good Grand Slams this year. Wimbledon followed underwhelming performances at Birmingham and Eastbourne. I notice that Rebecca Peterson beat Sloane Stephens at Washington recently. Perhaps Paris takes something out of players because I notice that Vondrousova has won only 1 match since beating Jo in Paris. She has pulled out of recent tournaments for unspecified reasons.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Ace Ventura wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
Michael D wrote:
Well, I'm going to back Jo here on this. The US Open is next so she needs to step up this week. And since it often seems to be a head game with her, I hope she has got her head as well as her game adjusted to the US hard courts now.
Sorry but the doom merchant was proved correct. I have nothing against Peterson but if Jo cannot beat the Peterson's of this world she is hardly likely to do well in the US Open. Additionally she was arguing with the reporter at Wimbledon and arguing with the umpire here. What then is the function of her mind coach? I thought that was supposed to be a calming influence. As an aside during the Mertens-McNally match Jo Durie said one of the players she coaches had played McNally at junior Wimbledon in 2018. I looked up the result and found the player in question who is older than McNally had won 4 games against McNally in the 2nd round. Not much hope for the future from a British point of view.
It was a poor result, and while you can mention depth, or point to individual results for pretty much any player in the top 100 these day to provide an explanation, drawing Peterson in the first round of a P5 is about as good as you can hope for, bar maybe a MDWC, although even that's less notable in US events as they will often be more accomplished than say in Canada. Although to be honest, Jo could go on to lose every match she plays from the end of Cincy to the end of the season (like she did in 2017) and she'd still have had a better year than I was expecting at the time of that Miami drubbing and heading into the clay, although I obviously want her to do well, starting next week in The Bronx and hopefully another extended Grand Slam run.
The GB female junior scene outside of 1 or 2 obviously isn't that encouraging, so maybe it's kind of a general observation, but I'm not sure the relevance of the seeded Caty McNally, who made the 2018 RG girls final a few weeks prior (losing to Gauff), and has subsequently qualified for senior Wimbledon, reached a WTA semi final, and is less than 100 points off the WTA top 100, has over comfortably beating Destinee Martins. You're literally comparing one of the best juniors, and now senior prospects, with someone who needed a WC to get in. With the likes of Anisimova, McNally, Gauff and Osiugwe all 17 or under and all currently inside the top 150, (as well as a few other decent juniors), the future (and present) is certainly looking rosy from a US women's tennis POV. Hopefully a few males will follow...
I'm sorry that the observation on McNally went off at a bit of a tangent. Agree that the USA have some outstanding junior talents at the moment. We seem to have loads of ex players in GB involved in coaching yet at the end of the day our junior players are overwhelmed by the best from abroad. Destinee Martins played in the Maureen Connolly Trophy in 2018 that lost 12-0 to the USA including the 3 above mentioned talents excluding Anisimova. So assume Destinee must have been one of our best players available. When Anne Keothavong was asked by John Inverdale about our lack of juniors in Paris she waffled about tennis being expensive and the event being at wrong time of year. i.e never answered the question. Admittedly we did have in our time a 14 year old who won junior Wimbledon in Laura Robson. Unfortunately her time is now spent on commentating on Jo's matches etc . instead of playing in WTA events with Jo.