Week 23 - WTA 250 - Viking Open, Nottingham (grass)

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Week 23 - WTA 250 - Viking Open, Nottingham (grass)

PaulM · Tennis legend

Yeah on bet365 for me. Very annoying it's not on Prime.

Fran saves two match points, misses a game point and goes out 6-4 in the third. Titanic battle but just short. Hobbling badly at the end but not sure whether that is the implications of her condition after a lot of running or something else.

She might actually have been better playing Sharma, who wouldn't have had such a big serve to rely on. She's not a natural grass courter is Fran, but I think she can settle into the next few weeks and I can see with a good draw and a loud crowd her picking up a win at Wimbledon.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Poor Fran loses the last set 4-6

She seemed to be playing freely but when she came to shake hands she was practically hobbling. Looked really injured.

That said, I don't know what the actual rules are but Garcia's MTO went on for well over 10 mins. It looked perfectly genuine but the amount of time was ridiculous, IMO. And it certainly changed the momentum in the third set.

ADD: crossed with PaulM - and we both had the same word, 'hobbling'. And, yes, I thought Fran looked pretty decent on grass too, better than I'd expected.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 7th of June 2021 12:46:30 PM

Andy Parker · Club Coach

Can't believe that Katie B is 28-1 - she has a much better chance than that. She would be my tip to win....which of course is the curse of death.

Sorry to see Fran fall at the first hurdle.

indiana · Tennis legend

Andy Parker wrote:
Can't believe that Katie B is 28-1 - she has a much better chance than that. She would be my tip to win....which of course is the curse of death.

Sorry to see Fran fall at the first hurdle.

Katie will hopefully compete well but I don't at all see her winning 6 matches over 7 days for the title, her odds are about what I'd expect - ha, balanced your curse

I've been a wee bit surprised with some of the general optimism, indeed expectation, re Brits getting to the sharp end here, diluted tournament as it may be, but I'd love to end up surprised.

Still I hope to see such as Katie and Emma showing up well to encourage for the future.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 7th of June 2021 07:53:02 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I know, Indy

Somehow I felt that this would be same old, same old, 'good efforts, came really close, shame, good chance for points but couldn't quite take advantage' etc etc

And, to be honest, Fran and Jodie and Sam (and possible EWS?) are already in that camp.

Kudos to Tara, though, who's already had a great tournie (no chance of winning it though....)

And so now it's over to the others......maybe someone will be the surprise package.... Or JoKo will just do the business ?

Andy Parker · Club Coach

indiana wrote:
Andy Parker wrote:
Can't believe that Katie B is 28-1 - she has a much better chance than that. She would be my tip to win....which of course is the curse of death.

Sorry to see Fran fall at the first hurdle.
Katie will hopefully compete well but I don't at all see her winning the 6 matches over 6 days for the title, her odds are about what I'd expect - ha, balanced your curse
I've been a wee bit surprised with some of the general optimism, indeed expectation, re Brits getting to the sharp end here, diluted tournament as it may be, but I'd love to end up surprised.
Still I hope to see such as Katie and Emma showing up well to encourage for the future.

I'd love someone to balance my curse - every prediction I have made at the French Open has turned out to be wrong - I am on one hell of a losing streak, but glad no money is changing hands.

I know that winning 6 matches in a row is a big ask, but I do feel that fairly soon Katie B will return to the fine form that previously got her into the top 100.

Maybe it will be gradual, but maybe, just maybe, she will suddenly explode into form here or in one of her next few tournaments. From my point of view, she is too good not to return to fine form; her injuries have derailed her career massively, but if she can get an injury free run, I don't see why she can't get back into the top 100.

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Looks like Nottingham will be available live on iPlayer via Roku today, not sure why it wasn't yesterday. Would be better still on the Red Button but bizarrely the BBC are showing BMX on it instead.

-- Edited by dodrade on Monday 7th of June 2021 02:41:32 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yep, would have been much easier if you could have just pressed 981 (if on Sky platform), rather than loading up various apps. Could have also much more easily switched to the French Open between games as well.

LTA YouTube is probably the easiest method from where I am.

On a different note, is this Emma's first WTA main draw match?

the addict · Tennis legend

I'll stick with the BBC website, so I can have it on my other screen whilst working.
Still think it's going to be tough for Emma to make an impression, after so few matches this year, and not standing out on the British Tour

emmsie69 · Top national player

Tara/Eden was on iPlayer yesterday

PaulM · Tennis legend

Harriet went up 4-0*, but Emma has settled down a bit and now *4-3

indiana · Tennis legend

Harriet beat Emma 6-3 6-4. Anyone see it?

Jan · Hall of fame

Only the last game. Completely forgot about it cry

the addict · Tennis legend

I watched most of it, on and off. Emma played well, but started badly (nerves probably). From 0-4 she pretty well matched Harriet, winning 4 breaks to 7. Harriet was a bit erratic, needed the match on grass after playing on clay.