GAMEOVER wrote:

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Peter too wrote:

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Emma hasn't had a run of tournaments or a run of matches ever since the US Open and I fear that might continue till the next US Open. If she loses early in the next US Open she will lose most of her ranking points and find herself back in WTA qualifiers and WTA125s. She may then get a lot more matches and be able to rebuild from there. It was wonderful that she was able to win the US Open but the points she acquired in that one tournament have been something of a curse to her long term career.

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 Doesn't winning a Grand Slam entitle a player to plenty of wild cards if needed? I am thinking of Andy  Murray and Venus Williams in particular. 

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 Not to mention, the players management company sometimes helps out with WC opportunities

wales1994 wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Peter too wrote:

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Emma hasn't had a run of tournaments or a run of matches ever since the US Open and I fear that might continue till the next US Open. If she loses early in the next US Open she will lose most of her ranking points and find herself back in WTA qualifiers and WTA125s. She may then get a lot more matches and be able to rebuild from there. It was wonderful that she was able to win the US Open but the points she acquired in that one tournament have been something of a curse to her long term career.

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 I am much more optimistic and although I hoped for better I had expected almost anything in the short term from Emma. As it is she hasn't played much and overall much closer to WR 100 level (?) which is a bit of a drop off but hey from where she was a year ago ...

Short term, maybe this year into next, a bit problematic. Longer term she will come again. Whatever he brought to the party, it was Emma, not Andrew Richardson, that played and won all these matches for the US Open triumph. I think talent will out in the longer term and we will have a serial contender.

Hope it does show again fairly soon but no real drama for now, just continuing to adapt to last autumn's events.

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Definitely agree! She has the things that can't be taught, positive mentality, champion mindset, fights hard and tries to play smart. This is by far her worst loss, and I was hoping for a run here to boost her confidence but it didn't happen. A bit concerned with the regularity of physical issues though, hope she can really fine tune her physicality to last the rigors of tour life. 

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 I don't in any way doubt her ability or her potential to return to the standard she reached at the US open. The problem is lack of matches. It can't be doing her game or her confidence much good to play one tournament every few weeks and then get knocked out in the first or second round. She might get lucky in one of these WTA250s and get qualifiers in the 1st and 2nd rounds and get a roll going but she really needs to play a tournament that she could win at her present playing standard, which is more like WR 100 than 12 but dropping down a level is hard to justify with a WR of 12. It would be interesting to know what her team are thinking. 

L16: Emina Betkas (USA) & Tara Moore CR 229 (114+115) beat Xinyun Han & Yana Sizikova (CHN/RUS) CR 343 (231+112) 6-7(5) 6-4 [10-8]

QF: Emina Betkas (USA) & Tara Moore CR 229 (114+115) vs Sara Sorribes Tormo & Sloane Stephens (ESP/USA) CR 1512 (84+1428)

Get in, the new GB doubles #1 ranked and partner. Great to take that spot in style rather than inherit it. Well other than by Sloane netting

QF: Emina Betkas (USA) & Tara Moore CR 229 (114+115) beat Sara Sorribes Tormo & Sloane Stephens (ESP/USA) CR 1512 (84+1428) 6-4 2-6 [11-9]

 

SF: Emina Betkas (USA) & Tara Moore CR 229 (114+115) vs Xinyu Wang & Lin Zhu (CHN/CHN) CR 619 (141+478)

PaulM wrote:

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Emma's failure to close out the match when she served for it has had longer term consequences, the injury she picked up has now forced her out of next week too

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 I suppose there's no surprise there at all. Her and her team made the decision to play in Mexico and avoid the more difficult ME tournaments and the plan has, I'm afraid, backfired.

She's desperate to get a run of matches and now probably won't play before IW or Miami. I think her ranking is crippling her a bit to be honest. Her level is nowhere near 12 in the world right now and neither is her experience level or indeed physical development. Her serve isn't that effective and I'm not sure how often she plays the back hand down the line which was effective at the US Open.

I think, we're also getting to the stage where there have to be some concerns in regards to her overall fitness. It isn't as if she has overplayed since New York, quite the opposite in fact. Obviously no need to panic but there's a lot more going wrong than right at the moment. I agree with those who say she needs to drop down a level but I guess her ranking prevents that.

One thing Emma could possibly do is to play doubles in addition to singles sometimes bit I believe she doesn't really wan to do this.

Being a nearly top 10 player does mean she doesn't have to go through quals, she needs to meet the tournament requirements and I think she cannot drop down to ITF level - even if she did or could, she would be strongly criticised for doing so.