ROSAMUND wrote:

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Michael D wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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Hmm, no massive disgrace losing to Khazaniak, the 7th seed, in what would probably be a 50/50 or 45/55 all things considered, but this was the Israeli's first proper tournament of 2020 (not sure if she played Fed Cup), and she ended 2019 losing 7 of her final 8 matches (I guess not too dissimilar to Gabi outside of those W15s), so it hasn't been a great 6+ months for her.

Hard to see her massively pushing on either any time soon if she can't hold serve and isn't particularly dominant when she was playing those W15s.

Did we ever agree to that sub 10th player in the predictions in the end?  

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Haha yeah, I think we'll all want that sub   

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 Yes her fall is quite remarkable in a way because it's only 2 years ago  that Gabi  was winning  $25k's  and  some of us (like myself) thought she should have played in the Fed Cup against Nara rather than Heather. Someone did explain later on why Katie Boulter was a better prospect than Gabi and serve did come into it somewhere.

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I really do hope that Gabi can turn round her form this year.

I think her late 2018 CH 162 was arguably an overranking based on her results and who they were against. But there is surely at least a 200s, probably top 250, player still there to come out again. It can't be much fun playing so far below her previous best. 

indiana wrote:

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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 Yes her fall is quite remarkable in a way because it's only 2 years ago  that Gabi  was winning  $25k's  and  some of us (like myself) thought she should have played in the Fed Cup against Nara rather than Heather. Someone did explain later on why Katie Boulter was a better prospect than Gabi and serve did come into it somewhere.

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I really do hope that Gabi can turn round her form this year.

I think her late 2018 CH 162 was arguably an overranking based on her results and who they were against. But there is surely at least a 200s, probably top 250, player still there to come out again. It can't be much fun playing so far below her previous best. 

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I watched Gabi quite a bit the year of her rise, especially her matches in Australia where she won about 3 tournaments, and Gabi's strengths then were that she varied her game, she had a few good shots on both wings, she stayed in control, and she could adapt her game well to the conditions (two of the tournaments she won had very windy conditions throughout much of the week if I recall). Her serve was never brilliant, but it was consistent, she hit her spots, and didn't get broken that much. And of course Gabi brought a lot of confidence into her game too. I remember her losing a very tight match to Donna Vekic in the Nottingham WTA event at the beginning of the grass season. That was almost peak Gabi though she lost - Vekic was about WR 63 at the time, the first two sets went to 7 and then Gabi lost a close TB in the third.

It's incredibly hard to imagine Gabi doing this today. Her serve for a start has clearly fallen off woefully. Today's serving stats were very poor, and 14 DFs is Naomi/ Tara territory at their serving worst. There's something certainly wrong with the way her game has been put back together in the last months after her on off injury woes last year... just hope something starts to click better soon.