Week 5 - WTA 500 ($565K) - Melbourne Gippsland, Australia Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 5 - WTA 500 ($565K) - Melbourne Gippsland, Australia Hard

TTMan · Intermediate Club Player

JoFoes Pera, Gauff and Tomljanovic lurking in Jo's section. A potential QF with Osaka could be interesting given Jo's 4 wins to love H2H. Bernarda Pera also beat Donna Vekic in a close match in Abu Dhabi but perhaps a bit lucky (still available on Prime). Not the best section from Jo's perspective.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Here is the full correct Gippsland draw

mobile.twitter.com/josemorgado/status/1355081109319651329/photo/1

ROSAMUND · Futures level

If this tournament follows the usual pattern of the tournament before Grand Slams you find the winner doesn't generally do well in the Grand Slam. With such a long gap since players last played it will initially be difficult to predict players form.

the addict · Tennis legend

Here is the link to the WTA website PDF of the draw - it has the points/prize money/rankings at the bottom

http://wtafiles.wtatennis.com/pdf/draws/2021/2029/MDS.pdf

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Jo plays Bernarda Pera next. Pera leads 2-1 including 2018 Australian Open. All 3 meetings were in 2018.

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ROSAMUND wrote:
Jo plays Bernarda Pera next. Pera leads 2-1 including 2018 Australian Open. All 3 meetings were in 2018.

A match of two halves by Ms. Konta's upcoming opponent. Pera was a set and a break down, with break-points against her to go a double break down. to her young, Aussie, wild-card opponent. But then the Pera forehand found it's range and that was that.
It seems a bad match up for the Brit. If the Pera from the first half of today shows up, Konta should have a good chance to overcome her banana skin, assuming she doesn't start equally slowly herself. If Konta allows the American to get into her groove, it could be trouble. Best for Konta to get it done in two short sets (as, er, I guess it always is).

On another note: Any Kaia Kanepi followers will surely applaud the amazing conditioning work the Estonian appears to have done absenting matches. She almost looks like a powerlifter now, such that I didn't recognise her at first. I'd say the best shape of her career by several orders of magnitude. Perhaps that will help her resist the frequent injuries that have plagued her career. If so she may cause even more upsets over top players, combining greater mobility and resilience with all that power.

TTMan · Intermediate Club Player

Against Pera in Abu Dhabi, it was Donna Vekic who had all the opportunities in all 3 sets, including the first match point. However Pera hung around and took the first set in an incredible 87 minutes. In the end it was Pera's superior fitness that won her the match.

I believe Jo might be Pera's biggest scalp to date and she's done it twice (second time on clay). Just watched the highlights of their 2018 AO encounter. It was much closer than I remembered. Jo was at a low point then and the conditions were extremely windy. In their second encounter (Doha) Jo took set 1 on a tie break and set 2 6-1. Just as in 2018, Jo needs points to maintain her ranking (she will soon be defending her fantastic summer of 2019) which will add to the pressure. On the other hand a win should be a huge boost.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Tennis abstract rate Jo as a 68% winning chance against Pera. Katie is at 63% in her opener. Both strike me as optimistic.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
Tennis abstract rate Jo as a 68% winning chance against Pera. Katie is at 63% in her opener. Both strike me as optimistic.

Quite so when Pera has won 2 matches to 1 , including one at Melbourne previously. Additionally. Pera already has 1 singles win to her belt this year. Hard fought but good match practice.

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Sunday 31st of January 2021 01:07:43 PM

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Peter too wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 5 14 (CH=4 2017) v Bye
R1: BOULTER, Katie (GBR) 369 (CH=82 2019) v KALINSKAYA, Anna (RUS) 107 (CH=72 2019)

Katie played Anna in 2018 and won in two.

NB. I may have to swap the two Melbourne draws round as the WTA pages differ from other sources.

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 29th of January 2021 11:29:02 AM

Katie's match is first on Court 8 at 23.30 BritIsh time. i.e Sunday night.Jo does not appear to be playing overnight.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

ROSAMUND wrote:
Peter too wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 5 14 (CH=4 2017) v Bye
R1: BOULTER, Katie (GBR) 369 (CH=82 2019) v KALINSKAYA, Anna (RUS) 107 (CH=72 2019)

Katie played Anna in 2018 and won in two.

NB. I may have to swap the two Melbourne draws round as the WTA pages differ from other sources.

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 29th of January 2021 11:29:02 AM
Katie's match is first on Court 8 at 23.30 BritIsh time. i.e Sunday night.Jo does not appear to be playing overnight.

She has a bye so wont start until later

ROSAMUND · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
Peter too wrote:
R1: KONTA, Johanna (GBR) 5 14 (CH=4 2017) v Bye
R1: BOULTER, Katie (GBR) 369 (CH=82 2019) v KALINSKAYA, Anna (RUS) 107 (CH=72 2019)

Katie played Anna in 2018 and won in two.

NB. I may have to swap the two Melbourne draws round as the WTA pages differ from other sources.

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 29th of January 2021 11:29:02 AM
Katie's match is first on Court 8 at 23.30 BritIsh time. i.e Sunday night.Jo does not appear to be playing overnight.
She has a bye so wont start until later

I thought it might be to give Pera time to recover.

Just checked but players with byes such as Halep, Alexandrova, Muchova and Svitolina are all playing overnight. Must be split between some of the byes playing overnight Sunday/ Monday and the others overnight Monday/ Tuesday.

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Sunday 31st of January 2021 05:22:47 PM

ROSAMUND · Futures level

TTMan wrote:
Against Pera in Abu Dhabi, it was Donna Vekic who had all the opportunities in all 3 sets, including the first match point. However Pera hung around and took the first set in an incredible 87 minutes. In the end it was Pera's superior fitness that won her the match.

I believe Jo might be Pera's biggest scalp to date and she's done it twice (second time on clay). Just watched the highlights of their 2018 AO encounter. It was much closer than I remembered. Jo was at a low point then and the conditions were extremely windy. In their second encounter (Doha) Jo took set 1 on a tie break and set 2 6-1. Just as in 2018, Jo needs points to maintain her ranking (she will soon be defending her fantastic summer of 2019) which will add to the pressure. On the other hand a win should be a huge boost.

Just checked Pera's record on the Tennis Abstract and the highest ranked player she has ever beaten was Jo at the 2018 AO. Jo ranked 10 at the time.When she beat Jo for the 2nd time in Madrid May 2018, Jo then ranked 23. The only other players ranked higher than 23 she has ever beaten both in 2019 are Qiang Wang(16) and Caroline Garcia(22). Unfortunately based on previous performances this is a bad match up for Jo.A bit of trivia but on their 3 previous meetings Pera has been a qualifier.

-- Edited by ROSAMUND on Sunday 31st of January 2021 06:21:45 PM

dodrade · Futures qualifying

A rather interesting choice of skirt for Katie.

-- Edited by dodrade on Monday 1st of February 2021 12:53:31 AM