Amanda has managed to take the first set 7-6 (4)

Freya is playing now and it is being streamed by the itf ! click tne top of the live score page

Freya played a very good second set and won it 6-2

But that's Freya - she has the game - she's easily top 300/400 when she plays like this, with margin for improvement.

But she then has the other side, where she spends so much time 3 metres behind the line, attacks but refuses to come in on the easy lofted ball, and ends up losing - so we'll see....

Yep, I guess it's because it's getting a bit late? all the courts seem to be empty. Mind you, Spain often plays a lot later. But certainly not raining, so I guess they're just calling it a night

Coup Droit wrote:

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Freya played a very good second set and won it 6-2

But that's Freya - she has the game - she's easily top 300/400 when she plays like this, with margin for improvement.

But she then has the other side, where she spends so much time 3 metres behind the line, attacks but refuses to come in on the easy lofted ball, and ends up losing - so we'll see....

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 It's such a shame isn't it. I'm not an technical expert like you but just from an amateur basis she looked like she had so much potential a few years ago. Has she not had the right kind of coaching, or is it just that they can't put it together in matches? I've often wondered that about many of our young players who haven't quite reached their potential despite seemingly having oodles of talent. 

emmsie69 wrote:

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Nix wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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Freya played a very good second set and won it 6-2

But that's Freya - she has the game - she's easily top 300/400 when she plays like this, with margin for improvement.

But she then has the other side, where she spends so much time 3 metres behind the line, attacks but refuses to come in on the easy lofted ball, and ends up losing - so we'll see....

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 It's such a shame isn't it. I'm not an technical expert like you but just from an amateur basis she looked like she had so much potential a few years ago. Has she not had the right kind of coaching, or is it just that they can't put it together in matches? I've often wondered that about many of our young players who haven't quite reached their potential despite seemingly having oodles of talent. 

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 She definitely needs a change in coach at the very least.  It's not working for her currently and she does have potential. She might benefit from a KJT change and move way out of her comfort zone to progress

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Thanks Emmsie. In that case, I hope she gets that chance. 

This is a typical Freya point:

Freya hits a heavy ball, deep into the far right corner. Ball comes back mid court. She hits a deep, heavy ball into the far left corner. Opponent is now full stretch, and hikes the ball up. Freya only has to come in three or four strides, take it out the air, and put the ball back on the right hand side. Not drive it into the corner. Or do a difficult touch volley. Just put it in the open court.

BUT what she does is wait on the backline, bouncing up and down, as the girl chases it down, hikes it up, the ball drops, bounces right up - Freya's got enough time to read the Daily Mail, cover to cover (which doesn't take long, admittedly, but....)

And then she has a shortish high ball, it's true. Which she can hit a winner off. BUT she now has to hit the winner deep and well-placed into one of the corners as the other girl is back on position. As opposed to just literally placing it into the open court because she's taken the time away from the other girl who is miles away.

So sometimes she hits a winner. Often she overcooks it and makes a fault. Or she undercooks it, the girl can play a proper shot and now Freya is out of position, mid court, and she gets caught out. And then she gets cross because she knows it was her point.....

She's good at the net. But she doesn't even need to get right into the net, certainly not as a classic approach shot. She just needs to finish her points off out the air, from mid court, which she does really well, the couple of times a year she does it. But she's not quite fit and deft enough, or accurate enough, to win the long drawn out points, where she's making all the running but it goes to 8+ shots or whatever.

However, she does seem to have moved away from the backhand slice a bit - which is a step in the right direction....