Week 6 - WTA Premier ($783K) - St Petersburg, Russia Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 6 - WTA Premier ($783K) - St Petersburg, Russia Hard

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Jo is also playing in the doubles with Caroline Garcia. They are playing V.Heisen/V Strakhova. .

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

It'll be Kuzmova or qualifier Dodin in R2, so that's not too bad.

the addict · Tennis legend

Doubles
L16:- Caroline Garcia (FRA)/ / Johanna Konta (GBR) CR677 (205+472) v Vivian Heisen (GER) / Valeriya. Strakhova (UKR) CR497 (163+334)

Heisen and Strakhova are in on their doubles rankings, not singles. Im surprised that the cut is so low for a Premier event - perhaps Beth and Eden picked the wrong tournament !

Edit - last Alt DA was CR183. Heisen and Srakhova were on-site alts, and are the lowst-ranked in the draw

-- Edited by the addict on Sunday 9th of February 2020 05:01:54 PM

ROSAMUND · Futures level

A note of caution over Jo's prospects here but excluding the Grand Slams she hasn't won a WTA singles match since beating SakkarI at Eastbourne. Also she will need to show better form than her 2 matches in Australia.As an aside I notice that Sakkari skipped the Fed Cup last week and Greece were relegated to Europe Group 2.

Babfive · Satellite level

Jo's doubles is on the schedule for today.

flamingowings · All-time great

ROSAMUND wrote:
A note of caution over Jo's prospects here but excluding the Grand Slams she hasn't won a WTA singles match since beating SakkarI at Eastbourne. Also she will need to show better form than her 2 matches in Australia.As an aside I notice that Sakkari skipped the Fed Cup last week and Greece were relegated to Europe Group 2.

I don't think you need to caution us we already know!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JoKo and Caro seem to be getting on well - so far leading 6-3 1-2

Neither seem to be playing much 'classic' doubles - but they wallop the ball well, and it pays dividends

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Either Jo has a cold or she's being ultra wary of coronavirus because she's refusing to touch hands with anyone, not her partners, not the umpire, nor the opponents (and refusing to kiss the opponents at the end too). And people are laughing at her, and she's laughing too - but she's not touching hands !

Anyway, they won the MTB, and seemed to be having fun

the addict · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
JoKo and Caro seem to be getting on well - so far leading 6-3 1-2

Neither seem to be playing much 'classic' doubles - but they wallop the ball well, and it pays dividends

Very true, but it seemed to work for most of the time. Weight of shot rules OK !

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
Either Jo has a cold or she's being ultra wary of coronavirus because she's refusing to touch hands with anyone, not her partners, not the umpire, nor the opponents (and refusing to kiss the opponents at the end too). And people are laughing at her, and she's laughing too - but she's not touching hands !

Anyway, they won the MTB, and seemed to be having fun

I'm not sure about being ultra cautious but Jo never travels on tubes for fear of catching a cold.

Babfive · Satellite level

Doubles
L16:- Caroline Garcia (FRA)/ / Johanna Konta (GBR) CR677 (205+472) defeated Vivian Heisen (GER) / Valeriya. Strakhova (UKR) CR497 (163+334) 6-3 3-6 10-5 smile

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Dodin has just taken the first set against Kuzmova 6-2, but she was the 8/15 pre match favourite to win, despite being the qualifier, so it wouldn't be an upset if she finishes the job off. Winner plays Jo in R2.

Dodin won comfortably in the end, 6-2 6-2. It's good to see her climbing the rankings again as she has been rocked with illness and injury over the past couple of years. Still just 23, but a WTA title winner at 19 and inside the top 50 at 20. Could be an interesting match considering where Jo is at, but you can't have too many complaints about playing Dodin for a 100 points.

Kuzmova's poor (WTA) start to the season continues.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 11th of February 2020 11:20:56 AM

mbturner · Lower Club Player

Any insight as to why Jo would play doubles as part of her body protecting regime?

Status Quo · Intermediate Club Player

mbturner wrote:
Any insight as to why Jo would play doubles as part of her body protecting regime?

General rustiness. She's had very little momentum on hard courts over the last 52 weeks, and going straight into singles cold would probably be a thankless task. And exposure time on court might help her get back some feelng or rhythm.

Also, there must be considerable pressure on Johanna already. All her points are pretty much concentrated on a surface in which, historically, she has not excelled. Maybe she can repeat last years annus mirabilis on clay, and defend a majority of those points. The doubt would be that she will revert to type on the dirt, and defend only a small fraction. If so, she has nothing much to fall back on. That makes these hard court weeks - her career bread and butter, excepting the anomaly of last year - quite stressful. You feel as though you need to get back to business as usual, and get some points banked as insurance to not be playing qualies should the clay not work out again.

In that frame of reference, one might do anything to try and get their form ticking over again, even coming back from injury to soon, or overplaying, or playing doubles - anything that might help.