Week 38 - WTA125 Columbus, USA Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

Week 38 - WTA125 Columbus, USA Hard

Priesty · Challenger level

Lost 7-6 6-3

PaulM · Tennis legend

Sigh.

Strongbow · All-time great

cry cry

emmsie69 · Top national player

As Harriet is in Chicago qualifying, she wouldn't have been able to progress much further without jeopardizing that tournament so not a complete disaster losing yesterday

Priesty · Challenger level

emmsie69 wrote:
As Harriet is in Chicago qualifying, she wouldn't have been able to progress much further without jeopardizing that tournament so not a complete disaster losing yesterday

True, and tbf she was up against somebody 70+ ranking places above her and barely in her 20s so presumably on the way up.

the addict · Tennis legend

OER and live-tennis.eu almost agree for once. Dropping 18 points from Tashkent, but gaining 15 from here, and a rise next week of three or four places.

emmsie69 · Top national player

Qualifying starts Saturday am, sign in must be Friday, wonder if she had that in her mind when she got to 5-1.

PaulM · Tennis legend

No. There is absolutely no way she did.

Not being fully committed to a lower event doubles match on a Friday lunchtime so you can make it for singles qualifying the next day, maybe, it happens a lot in ITF 25ks when people want to get to the singles qualies for a 250. But being in a winning position against a top 100 player and #1 seed in a WTA 125 with qualifying for your next tournament 3 days away? Come on.

If you are going to apply that logic it's saying players shouldn't compete in the main draw of any event where the following week they have to qualify.

The only thing that happened at 5-1 is Harriet got a little tighter and missed her chances, with Li continuing to apply pressure.

The suggestion a professional athlete would decide at that point they'd rather lose so there's no risk of missing the next week's tournament is (and I know you didn't mean it this way and are just throwing some thoughts out there to generate discussion, but it's how it comes across to me) a bit insulting to Harriet's commitment and ambition.

I just think speculating, or trying to explain away, a player loses from a lead was because they weren't trying as they wanted to get to another event that's not very far away and doesn't start for 3 days is a bit of a stretch.

I'm sure Harriet will be pleased to get to Chicago and have the opportunity to play that 500, but was that going through her mind during her match yesterday? No chance.

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 23rd of September 2021 10:38:55 AM

emmsie69 · Top national player

I never said she tanked. I said maybe her mind was on the possibility of missing qualifying. That does not mean she purposefully tanked.

indiana · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
I never said she tanked. I said maybe her mind was on the possibility of missing qualifying. That does not mean she purposefully tanked.

Even then, I just can't imagine that her mind was on that to any material extent if remotely at all.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Not a British tennis issue but the tournament is another illustration of a player failing to translate junior success into senior success. Whitney Osuigwe was the ITF junior world champion 2017. She also won the French juniors in 2017. However she lost in the first round of qualifying in Columbus which was her 15th singles defeat in a row. She has lost 19 out of her last 20 singles matches. The senior tour has proved a difficult transition.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
Not a British tennis issue but the tournament is another illustration of a player failing to translate junior success into senior success. Whitney Osuigwe was the ITF junior world champion 2017. She also won the French juniors in 2017. However she lost in the first round of qualifying in Columbus which was her 15th singles defeat in a row. She has lost 19 out of her last 20 singles matches. The senior tour has proved a difficult transition.

If you look back at some of the comments from juniors etc - from having seen her live at the Bank of England - Whitney was never going to find it easy to transition, in my view.

Firstly her game was/is a rather junior game.

More importantly, though, I always got the feeling she was doing it very much to please her dad.

I sat next to them for 2 hours one lunch, he was trying to get her to do extra training, extra drills, basically a whole load of 'extra' to help her specifically for her next match.

Whitney was a sweetie, but you could tell she was utterly disinterested. Her dad had to give up - horse to water and all that. And Whitney did indeed lose her next match. Not sure she was bothered though...