Status Quo wrote:

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mbturner wrote:

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

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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.

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 Jo has only played 2 singles plus one doubles  since the US Open last year.Doubles is at least providing match practice which might have helped in Australia. I have an uncomfortable  feeling her  ranking could come crashing down to earth. Our defeat in the Fed Cup was caused because we don't  have  top class replacements for Jo which explains why Anne K was so desperate  for her    to play in the relegation  play off.

PaulM wrote:

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Lost 63 64

Pretty poor. Couldn't really have had a better draw at this stage but never looked like getting on top.

Hopefully she can get some more court time in the doubles. She does just look massively rusty and awkward. 

 

On the plus side, it does rather suggest that even if she had played Fed Cup it wouldn't have made any difference.

I think you're putting Jo down a bit over the   Fed Cup. It's hypothetical how she would have performed but she was unbeaten in her last 11   Fed Cup singles. Don't forget she lost badly in Miami last year but came back to  wi n   her   Fed Cup matches    in April.As regards Jo being  rusty, Dodin has  actually   played more singles matches in St.Petersburg i.e 4  than Jo has played in the last 5 months I.e 3. I hope Jo continues with the doubles to get more match practice and recovers from what seems a cold.

 on Wednesday 12th of February 2020 03:00:20 PM

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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

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 Unfortunately that did not prove the case against an opponent Dodin who has played more singles matches in the last 5 or 6 days than Jo has managed in the last 5 months. Added  to that Jo appearing to have a cold probably didn't help either.

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But as PaulM says, in the last 16 of a premier event, she couldn't have really had a better draw when you consider she could have drawn the likes of unseeded Kuznetsova, Alexandrova etc. 

It's good to see Dodin playing well, and climbing back up the rankings, but if Konta was considering that a bad draw, or one she was not ready for, then she probably shouldn't have played.

Ace Ventura wrote:

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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

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 Unfortunately that did not prove the case against an opponent Dodin who has played more singles matches in the last 5 or 6 days than Jo has managed in the last 5 months. Added  to that Jo appearing to have a cold probably didn't help either.

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But as PaulM says, in the last 16 of a premier event, she couldn't have really had a better draw when you consider she could have drawn the likes of unseeded Kuznetsova, Alexandrova etc. 

 

It's good to see Dodin playing well, and climbing back up the rankings, but if Konta was considering that a bad draw, or one she was not ready for, then she probably shouldn't have played.

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I would regard Alexandrova as a difficult draw but not Kuznetsova these days.  To be honest we don't know what Jo is/was thinking and we don't know how fit(knee/cold) or otherwise she is. She is certainly in need of match play. Was she better playing here  rather than possibly letting her country down in the Fed Cup when not  fully fit?  As far  as not playing in the Fed Cup is concerned  we don't  know what her relationship is like with Anne Keothavong. After all in the newspapers Anne described Jo as quirky and different which I would not take as a complement. We don't know how the team members get on with each other or otherwise apart from the year Gabi Taylor was selected and looked like a spare part. Having produced that side of the argument on the other side of the argument  looking at Doha and Dubai I wonder who she can draw there who  she might beat.