Week 21 - French Open (Roland-Garros) - Paris, France (clay) - women's qualifying

PaulM · Tennis legend

Week 21 - French Open (Roland-Garros) - Paris, France (clay) - women's qualifying

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Ha, well I've literally saw 12 games, and Bara won 11 of them, but nice to see Jodie stop the rot a bit there.

the addict · Tennis legend

It's OK now, I turned the stream off and Jodie got a break back.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

The losing 11 games in 12 was disappointing, but whatever happens from here, the scoreline is guaranteed to look respectable.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Obviously a little bit frustrating overall. But Jodie did play some very good tennis. And really force Bara to play better and better.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Oh Jodie, did all the hard work to get back to *3-4 deuce, then twice at deuce ballooned fairly routine drive volleys out the court.

Bara breaks and serves out quickly for a 7-5 6-3 win. Jodie had patches of great play on a surface that's a challenge, but she needs to find a method of controlling her emotions. Again with a match on her racket one moment is enough to flip it round and she goes walkies for half an hour.

She's got the potential for an amazing summer though if she can stay fit and healthy. Love her game, and hope she can keep progressing. Should be, on the whole, proud of her first Grand Slam appearance, hopefully there will be many more over the next few years.

emmsie69 · Top national player

That feels like a missed opportunity. Despite the difference in rankings Bars hasn't set the world alight and Jodie has the talent to win those matches. Hate to see players lose matches rather than get beaten (if that makes sense)

HarryGem · Club Coach

Well one player through out of four is probably about what we would expect. Decent effort from Jodie.

Harriet's section does look wide open and she must have a decent chance to qualify which would be great.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I think it's a decent enough effort. She was coming into this on the back of 3 successive defeats, 2 of them to 400+ players, and the other 300+, while Bara had reached a W100 green clay final in her most recent event, so a bit of a contrast there in form. I was expecting something like 2 and 3, before I saw she was 4-0 up.

I'm not sure what odds Jajon got, but looing at the retrospective odds, she ranged from 5.00 - 6.32 pre match, so like 4/1 to not far off 11/2. 10Bet (who I do actually have an account with) had Jodie at a massive 7.75, so it would have been a sizable shock had she pulled it off.

I'm pleased she got those 3 games in a row in the second to get it back on serve, as 7-5 6-0 (and losing 13 of the last 14 games) wouldn't have been great, but I'm more optimistic with that defeat than some of her other recent ones.

So on to the grass now, and hopefully she can get a few good early wins there, and at least ask the question of the AELTC/LTA for the big one.

the addict · Tennis legend

I put 50p on Jodie at the end of the first set, and got odds of 25/1

Chris · Junior player

IMHO British women have no consistency. They have a good result and then lose to someone they really shouldnt. Yes I wish and hope we get 8/10 women in top 100 but cant see it happening in my lifetime. Thing is the matches that they should be winning you all seem to make excuses for them. ie, its not her surface, she is self destructing, she was injured 3 years ago maybe its affecting her etc etc etc.
These women that you keep saying are coming through are now into their 20s. You have been saying the same excuses for bad losses since they were in their teens. Why dont some of you face the fact they are just not good enough. They may have the talent but not the know how to use it and win.
As I have said I hope we get at least half a dozen+ in top 100 but feel we may have to wait for the next generation who are all under 16 at the moment. Like I say just an opinion. I just get so frustrated with them. I dont feel anyone bar maybe Fran has really impressed this year.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

A lot of sympathy with what you write Chris.

Although I have no idea why you think the under 16s will be any different.

Indeed, that seems to me the thing that repeats even MORE often - i.e. the wait till the next generation comes, that'll be our saviour.

I get frustrated with some of the coaches, and some of the players choices about coaches. But bottom line, it's up to them.

To be a top player, someone like Jodie needs touch love. She needs a decent Argentinian coach who will take no cr*p. (Freya is the same).
But maybe Jodie doesn't really want that? There's no reason she should. She has her life, her boyfriend, her family, her circle. And maybe that's good enough.

This is where Harriet stood out from the crowd slightly - prepared to push herself into uncomfortable zones, out of the LTA.

But, yes, I've always thought Jodie could be top 100 if (IF) she really, really wanted to be.

SuperT · Futures level

I missed the start of the second set but on the whole I really enjoyed what I saw. For much of the time I felt Jodie was matching the higher ranked payer stroke for stroke, but a couple of missed drive volleys in each set turned her fortunes and cost her dearly as has been said above. I feel she should take a lot of positives from this match regarding her ability to compete at this level, but I also she will hopefully learn from it for the next time she gets to play on the big stage. I posted a very "half empty" comment the other day expressing my frustration at our female players constantly retiring injured or withdrawing just before the start of a tournament so feel I should balance that today with a "half full" comment in contrast to Chris. Not that I necessarily disagree with him / her, but you can't be pessimistic all the time!!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Although it's worth saying the vast majority of tennis players have no consistency and an awful lot get stuck in the 150-300 range in their 20s. We just notice it more with the Brits because we are following them closely every week.

But yes, Harriet does need to get herself back up towards the top 100 sooner than later you feel (and she has her Wimbledon points to defend), and beyond that I don't see anyone coming through in their late teens/early 20s.

But then I still remember the days where Lucie Ahl scraping into qualifying at Roland Garros and losing 61 60 in 40 minutes was the extent of our participation at this level, so having then been around to see Anne, Bally (and Katie O'B and Mel to a lesser extent), then Laura, Heather and Katie B all crack the top 100, along with Jo getting a British player into the top 10 and grand slam semis, I guess I'm inclined to just be grateful we have players competing regularly on the Tour to talk about! Doesn't make me a very objective voice though I admit!!

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, there is no particular time in the open era where we can say we were generally particularly better off overall and we have often been worse off.

What's disappoiting is that we have had a historically pretty big batch of players of similarish age coming through together and two or three years ago there seemed promise of progress towards clearly the best group we have had in many decades.

It is disappointing that general progression has not been as hoped for them at ages where it was not unreasonable to expect more progession. And I too would thus question some of the coaching for this. Though I agree that whether GB women are intrinsically more inconsistent is debatable. Women tennis players are inconsistent everywhere as are very many men tennis players.