HarryGem wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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As long as Sam is fit and well, I'd be very surprised if having got all the way back into the top 200 and missed out on so much of her potentially best years, she was to retire any time soon.

On the assumption ( of course, could be wrong ) that she will be carrying on for at least a year or two yet, I'd lean to preferring Sam to win.

But of course, it will still be really good to see Katy into the final if that's how it turns out. Great to see such form from her.

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 Personally I really don't mind who wins. It will be good to see a British player in another final. It is especially good to see Katy return to a bit of form. She has most of her points from one big win so needs to get some wins under her belt.

These last two weeks have been the most encouraging for British women's tennis for quite a few months. What with Heather's win and Emma R's appearance in the final along with this semi final and Sam's semi last week to which I think we can add some hopeful perfomances from Amarni ( I will be intersted to see how she fares in the next couple of weeks if she does indeed play the W15 tournaments she has entered) things are looking up. 

Add to that katie B's return to fitness, hopefully, and that she has very few points to defend now so her ranking should shoot up. Same for Heather, who has a good few weeks now with no points to defend and Sam too. Whilst there remain some big questions about some players further down the rankings things look more positive than for a while.

 

As to Sam's long term intentions I would say the question of whether she and her husband wish to start a family would likely be the one which will determine where her career goes. She will be 33 this year and though by no means old the biological clock does start to tick over. Of course if that is of no interest to them then a career high ranking and staying in the top 200 for a couple of years is a distinct possibility.

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Yes I think you're probably right there Harry, as to quite what her priorities are in the next year or so. However I've just been so impressed at the way that Sam has managed to get everything together again, stay healthy (and clearly happy), and get back up into the top 200 again, and now conceivably challenge for a CH ranking. In this era where longevity is not easy to achieve in women's tennis, beyond a few exceptionals, its really encouraging to see for me. So even if this was her last year, I'd love to see her just get as high as she can.   

On the match itself, Sam had a chance to serve for the first set at *5-4, but after a long game and badly timed DFs, Katy broke back on quite probably her 5th BP of the game. Katy then held, so Sam now needs to hold to reach the TB. Sam was 40-15 up, but loses the next two points... and the one after so Katy now has SP... and takes it... 7-5 to Katy.

A good battle and interesting match so far!!

Worrying Katy has retired after dropping the 2nd set 6-1

That's a shame, I was hoping it would be close all the way. I hope it isn't anything serious, and that Katy will be able to play next week. Two full days at least to recover.

Argh. Last I checked it was early days in the 2nd set, and I went back to check, and saw the match was no longer in play, so thought there wasn't enough time for Sam to win 2 traditional sets, so either Katy would have won in 2, or there'd have been a retirement, and unfortunately it was the latter.

Like others, I hope it's just something minor and she's back on court soon, and good luck to Sam in the final.

Ace Ventura wrote:

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I also agree with Harry in that these last couple of weeks have been the best for GB womens tennis for quite some time. Before that it was mainly just Hev and Harriet, whereas now a fair few others have really stepped up and have started to get things going.

 

Hard to believe that Katie B only got 15 points for her 2 wins, including a fine one over a circa top 50 player, which is less than reaching a weak W25 SF, but if she can stay fit, and continue to play like that, then her ranking should surely head back to a more realistic number in due course. 

 

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 Yes I agree I was surprised too Ace, but it was because her first round was only a R48 match - and this is a big reason why I use R48, R32 etc and not R1, R2, since for an event like the 125k, the distinction is really important! So Katie got 15 pts for winning her R48 and R32 matches and reaching the L16. If she had reached the QF she would have got 29 pts.