Week 28 - Progress Tour Women's Championship - NTC, Roehampton, UK (Outdoor Hard)

Jan · Hall of fame

Week 28 - Progress Tour Women's Championship - NTC, Roehampton, UK (Outdoor Hard)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Not sure of the final score but Millie Bissett must have beaten Esther Adeshina very convincingly - it was all very one way traffic for the bit I saw (which is not surprising)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I think with the mens battle of the brits, we had a sense of a meaningful event that was effectively a british championship. The top players where all there, including the big 3 names and top doubles players, and an 8 player field kept it tight and competitive. Winning seemed meaningful. And it wasnt not against any other events.

The progress event has ended up with non of that. A heavily diluted field, up against another event, outdoors doesn't help the feeling of the event with no spectators, and none of the big names of the womens game. Without jo, heather, and Laura you lose the 3 names people really know, recognising Laura is long gone to most of us.

And it certainly has no feeling of a british championship now.

So it's a shame. Might be better called the Lack of Progress Tour. Sadly. Not the organisers fault, just sad.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yeah, didn't see any of it, but 6-1 6-1.

Jodie beat Emily Arb 6-2 6-3. Maybe a bit harsh on Emily as she always seemed to come out on the wrong side of the longer games, but never massively in doubt. Jodie saying that she's feeling it in her legs in her post match interview.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
I think with the mens battle of the brits, we had a sense of a meaningful event that was effectively a british championship. The top players where all there, including the big 3 names and top doubles players, and an 8 player field kept it tight and competitive. Winning seemed meaningful. And it wasnt not against any other events.

The progress event has ended up with non of that. A heavily diluted field, up against another event, outdoors doesn't help the feeling of the event with no spectators, and none of the big names of the womens game. Without jo, heather, and Laura you lose the 3 names people really know, recognising Laura is long gone to most of us.

And it certainly has no feeling of a british championship now.

So it's a shame. Might be better called the Lack of Progress Tour. Sadly. Not the organisers fault, just sad.

Yeah, agree with most of this, especially the BotB being the first event, and nothing else running simultaneously. I also prefer watching indoors in this era, and had just assumed it would be the same set up as the BotB with them both being at the NTC. So I was coming into this hoping it would be the obvious stand out event on the women's side.

Regarding the line up, Konta would obviously be a big miss (being the clear #1), but not an unexpected one, and I think the entry list even 5 days ago with Watson, Dart, Murray and Raducanu, while still not at the BotB level, would have still been good enough to clearly differentiate itself from all the other women's events, but even that's not really the case now.

Not the organisers fault as you say, and injuries happen, but a bit of a let down of what I was expecting when first announced.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 14th of July 2020 12:26:26 PM

sliced backhand · Lower Club Player

Ace Ventura wrote:
Yeah, didn't see any of it, but 6-1 6-1.

Jodie beat Emily Arb 6-2 6-3. Maybe a bit harsh on Emily as she always seemed to come out on the wrong side of the longer games, but never massively in doubt. Jodie saying that she's feeling it in her legs in her post match interview.

Day 12 of 16 for Jodie. Renewed congratulations to the LTA for sanctioning this farrago. 13 out injured so far out of 32 ranked players. I wonder if the betting companies will offer odds on how many are still standing by the end of this month?

paulisi · Tennis legend

Huge let down with most of the top players missing, this is almost a div 1 list.
We could make eight players that are missing that could have been playing.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Didn't realise they were playing 3 full sets either until I saw Nell and Sasha going the distance. I assumed it would be a MTB. Might not affect some of matches with the respective ranking difference in a lot of them, but I'd imagine most playing last week would have preferred the MTB.

BotB was MTB wasn't it?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
Didn't realise they were playing 3 full sets either until I saw Nell and Sasha going the distance. I assumed it would be a MTB. Might not affect some of matches with the respective ranking difference in a lot of them, but I'd imagine most playing last week would have preferred the MTB.

BotB was MTB wasn't it?

BotB was indeed MTB and, personally, I think it is the way we should go for ITF and even Challenger tour going forwards, personally. Even ATP250 level, leaving 500's and 1000's to full 3 set matches.

The obvious question is slams and what they do, I would be inclined to make them all at least the same structure and final set a normal 6-6 tie break as opposed to the mix we have planned currently

PaulM · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Not sure of the final score but Millie Bissett must have beaten Esther Adeshina very convincingly - it was all very one way traffic for the bit I saw (which is not surprising)

Was Adeshina considered a prospect a few years ago? Or am I thinking of someone else. I'm not great at keeping tabs on the juniors when they are coming up at 15/16/17

emmsie69 · Top national player

I don't think you can blame the LTA for the injuries given none of them are from overplaying, it looks more like over training, it's disturbing that after no play for 3 months our injury list is bigger that it was before lockdown.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

PaulM wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Not sure of the final score but Millie Bissett must have beaten Esther Adeshina very convincingly - it was all very one way traffic for the bit I saw (which is not surprising)

Was Adeshina considered a prospect a few years ago? Or am I thinking of someone else. I'm not great at keeping tabs on the juniors when they are coming up at 15/16/17

Yes, definitely, she was.

I know there have been some injury issues but I can't remember what exactly

I never really rated her , not that that's here or there. But she had a really frustrating game, she was a strong, athletic girl who, when she stepped onto the court, looked the part. And had the makings of decent shots. But just did not perform- rather slow, too far behind the ball, tended to push it, just always disappointing.....

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

A big issue given the initial marketing though is at the top end with the big names. All due respect to Harriet, she isnt a name outside tennis circles. There are 4 big mens names in reality, in terms of the casual observer.

In this order: Andy, Jamie, Dan and possibly Kyle. 2 very big names, 2 not as big but known.

In womens we probably have Jo, heather (that way round?), Laura and maybe katie b but I am pushing it to say katie b is that well known outside of tennis.

All 3 or let's say 4 of the mens played. And played well.

None of the top 3 womens names are here, all for valid reasons, ( and laura is still one of the known current tennis names) and the 4th, KB, is here.

But that stark reality shows the difference in the events as they have turned out.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Tuesday 14th of July 2020 01:43:07 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

I had got the impression before lockdown that Millie Bissett was maybe pushing on again.

I previously was rather underwhemed by her last year or two and the majority of her junior ranking points were from doubles ( even after the doubles divider ).

I will try to get a look at her.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
I don't think you can blame the LTA for the injuries given none of them are from overplaying, it looks more like over training, it's disturbing that after no play for 3 months our injury list is bigger that it was before lockdown.

Yeah. When you consider Emma Rad had to play W,T,F,S,S en route to the Sunderland final just prior to lockdown, if these players are wanting to be successful and signifiantly climb the rankings then you're going to have to get used to that kind of schedule at some point going forward. Murray injured after playing one singles match, and a few Fast 4 doubles last week, Eden injured after 3 completed matches, and even one of those was a 0 and 1 beatdown in under an hour. Emma had 4 matches in 4 days at the BT which is less than the aforementioned Sunderland schedule, and even more so with the MTB format eliminating the prospect of that long 3 set battle with Tomova in the S'land final, and while currently unranked, Marni is certainly one of our better 32 players, and would have been an asset this week, but she was injured (albeit an ongoing one) after 3 matches last week and 2 this week, so just 5 in 2 weeks.

You could kind of understand it if they were after 9 matches in 10 days or something, but all the one I've mentioned have barely played 5 MTB matches in 2 weeks, so just not great signs generally. I guess Emma might not even be injured and just being cautious with her schedule, and she's probably in more position than others to do so.