flamingowings wrote:

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SuperT wrote:

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Aberdaberdonian wrote:

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To be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if Heather called it quits this year. This is what, her 14th year on the tour? Other than Emily, i don't thing there will have been many british women who have played that long.
After Acapulco drops, it looks like she's not defending much until June when her 110 points from Birmingham drop. So if she's hasn't managed to bank some points before then, maybe one more go at Wimbledon before bowing out.....?

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 Personally I don't think she's ready to retire yet. She's not Jo who seems to have many interests outside tennis and she's only 29.  I think she's more likely to try the ITF rote.  I remember she won a the Midland Miami 100K a few years ago and there are several events at that level in April / May.

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 Also, as far as anyone knows, Heather doesn't have a chronic injury unlike Jo to manage, it's just woeful form.

Gael Monfils had a really poor patch, when he partner and now wife Elina Svitolina was doing really well. Now Gael has been doing better on court and Elina not so much! 

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 The unpredictable vagaries of the game we love and (think we) know 

Aberdaberdonian wrote:

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To be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if Heather called it quits this year. This is what, her 14th year on the tour? Other than Emily, i don't thing there will have been many british women who have played that long.
After Acapulco drops, it looks like she's not defending much until June when her 110 points from Birmingham drop. So if she's hasn't managed to bank some points before then, maybe one more go at Wimbledon before bowing out.....?

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 I don't feel Heather will quit just yet. 

She's been close a couple of times to wins but her run of poor form in 2021 just keeps going. Like others have said I think she would have been better off following Emma's current route. The vagaries of the current ranking has meant she's been overranked for a while if you take off the points from 2019 and early 2020.

Seems likely she will have to qualify for the French Open now which ironically may lead her to gather more points than if she was just opening up in round 1. 

If the defeats keep on coming though will she have the motivation to continue by dropping down a level?

Complete guess but I think she'll play at least another 2 or 3 seasons.

Steve J wrote:

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Aberdaberdonian wrote:

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To be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if Heather called it quits this year. 

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 Neither would I. If she wanted to turn things around, she would have sorted out her coaching situation. She took an old friend down to Australia and her mum to Dubai.

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 She hasn't really had a coach for some time? Her mum has been her on/off coach over the years.

SuperT wrote:

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Steve J wrote:

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This is not the first time that I have looked at Ms. Watson's choices as to which tournaments to play and wondered what she was thinking. There is a 250 in Mexico this week with a weak field that would be a much better fit for her current level.

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 She's also had a lot of success in Mexico in the past so you would have thought she might have wanted to play there again.

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 I was expecting her to join Emma there as well, not sure why she gave it a miss this time.

I don't know if Mexico was a late addition to the schedule but it sounds as if Heather didn't know about those being an option. After the AO she was asking for more tournaments

"Well, there's not really many options. It's just Dubai and Doha, which is what I'm entered in, but because there aren't many options,"

"I was just talking to one of the players in the locker room actually that I'm going to have to enter an ITF just in case because everybody is going to be playing the same thing. "I know they've made the draw bigger in Dubai, so that should help, but still... a lot of players in the in between -- it's not even in between, but like from 70 to like 250, it's hard to -- you either play a lower ITF or Dubai/Doha."

L28: Sam Murray & Bibaine Schoofs (NED) CR 315 (186+129) LOST TO (8) Anna Danilina & Beatriz Haddad Maia (KAZ/BRA) CR 63 (23+40)
6-0 6-4


L28: (WC) Mirjam Bjorklund (SWE) & Emily Webley-Smith CR 428 (188+240) vs Kristen Flipkens & Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL/BEL) CR 236 (138+98)
Currently in play, 2-4*

Lost 63 63. Needed one more deuce game in each set to go their way and they'd have been right in the mix. But a cool opportunity to play here while travelling with Gaby D.

-- Edited by PaulM on Monday 21st of February 2022 08:16:14 PM