Well Gabi certainly had her chances in that match. Slightly better stats than her opponent, but all down to the key points. 5-7 in the tie-break.
When she was winning, Gabi's serve was never brilliant, but it was consistent and she won it more often than not, and she was good for a few aces per match through good placement. Today she lost 8/17 service games and the fact that her 11 DFs was exceeded by Hourigan's 13 DFs, shows how lacking was Gabi's performance. Three chances to serve for the match and you can't bring up a single MP shows that your service game is nowhere near competitive enough.
Gabi won 120 points in the match as opposed to her opplnents 117. She hsd 11 DF's as opposed to her opponents 13DF's. Still needs to practise her serve then. Fed Cup selection again seems way off at the moment.
If she'd won I'd have still posted this, but it would have been a bit different as the general consensus may then have been 'great battling' etc. but these are Hourigans most recent results stretching back to October:
343 Dunne - 1-6 1-6 481 Ramialison 2-6 2-6 UNR WC Gibson 3-6 4-6 3 wins for NZ against whoever they could have rustled up from Singapore and Pakistan 380 Hontama 1-6 1-6 UNR Brankovic 6-3 2-6 12-10 Wozniacki 1-6 0-6 (can obviously look past this due to the levels) 615 Guillermo 1-6 2-6
So just a week ago she was losing 1 and 1 to Katy at the same venue, which clearly wasn't a one off bad performance going by her other results, nor does she seem to be playing anywhere near that mid 400s ranking judging by who she's been losing to, and especially the manner of the defeats, but then sadly, you can probably say the same with Gabi.
I thought that link up with one of her old coaches (not the main one Budo) may have installed a bit of a spark, and I did include her as my 10th pick - the overwhelming majority of us picked the same 9 players, with the other playing being a bit more varied, but at the moment (Coronavirus aside), it really is hard to see Gabi being close to GB #10 come December.
-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 10th of March 2020 10:54:07 AM
Thanks for this info.
Gabi is basically a player very low on confidence who has forgotten how to win. Her ranking ought to mean this is the correct level for he and she has tried dropping down a level but all to little avail. She's still young enough to come back but it is going to be a long hard slog as her ranking continues to drop.
Sam can't hold her serve at the moment and she won't win this match if she doesn't do so soon. Sam now *1-3 down final set.
This was a horrible draw for her to get first up. These two met in the SF last week, when Simmonds was also seeded.
true, but it is the same for both of them and Sam should have gone in with the confidence of winning last week.
Personally I thought it would be a tall order for her to beat Simmonds twice. Simmonds now has an extra rest day and these are her home tournaments. She will be determined not to lose in the first round here, whilst I think it will be hard for Sam to dredge up the end of week focus that she needs here for the first round.
She's looking to get a second break back now, but she still hasn't had a hold this final set.
Yes, as I said earlier it looked a pretty tough QF last week and went 3 sets and looked a tough one again, highest ranked non seed and playing at home.