Week 31 - WTA250 - Citi Open Washington, USA Hard

nicofrance · Strong Club Player

Week 31 - WTA250 - Citi Open Washington, USA Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

The seeds aren't doing very well, three fell in R1, one and one drop out in R2 with one still to play.

Strongbow · All-time great

Winning two in a row - importent for her biggrin biggrin biggrin

wales1994 · County player

nicofrance wrote:
That was painful to watch . Emma just needs to play her attacking tennis as thats when she had most success . She got the win somehow and winning two tie breaks which ended up close might help her confidence . A concern she got blisters again but I think she really doesnt like these match ups with more defensive players .

The Samsonova match will be very different and hopefully if her body holds up we might see a better performance.

Exactly! From the 1st set tiebreak to 4-2 40-0* she was being aggressive and taking the ball on. Then she reverted to puff balls in the middle of the court or moonballs. You would think in the heat that you'd want to just play aggressive and get short / cheap points. But a win is a win - and 2 wins in a row haven't been the norm. Hope she can go deep here!

dodrade · Futures qualifying

This forum seems pretty hard on Emma since the US Open, its frustrating that she hasn't been able to show more than brief flashes of that form since then but she's still been our best player over the past year despite her inexperience and injury troubles. If the Fairytale of New York had never happened we'd presumably have been pretty pleased at her progress so far.

-- Edited by dodrade on Friday 5th of August 2022 12:44:49 AM

emmsie69 · Top national player

dodrade wrote:
This forum seems pretty hard on Emma since the US Open, its frustrating that she hasn't been able to show more than brief flashes of that form since then but she's still been our best player over the past year despite her inexperience and injury troubles. If the Fairytale of New York had never happened we'd presumably have been pretty pleased at her progress so far.

-- Edited by dodrade on Friday 5th of August 2022 12:44:49 AM

I don't think it's the results so much, more the type of tennis she is playing. If she was being aggressive and it wasn't happening, people would be fine with that. Personally I just think the weight of that win is dragging her down and as switched on as she is, it must be so hard for a woman of her age to deal with the expectations and consequent negativity. She'll come good again, she just needs to get through the US Open and then reset from there.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

nicofrance wrote:
That was painful to watch . Emma just needs to play her attacking tennis as thats when she had most success . She got the win somehow and winning two tie breaks which ended up close might help her confidence . A concern she got blisters again but I think she really doesnt like these match ups with more defensive players .

The Samsonova match will be very different and hopefully if her body holds up we might see a better performance.

Comment by a Times On-line reader in response to a report on the match (N.B. It's badly punctuated & I've inserted a couple of paragraph breaks to make it easier to read):

I watched the first set which was remarkable. Radacanu won the set after 107 points. Although you have to admire Radacanu for winning the match Id be furious if I was coaching Osorio. Three double faults when serving for the first set ? Two set points lost without making Radacanu return a ball ? 5-3 up in the tiebreaker only to concede four points in a row and the set with it ? Osorio hit half of the sixty errors compiled by both players in the opening set.

It was a very hard watch for 82 minutes. At 1-1 and 30-40 in the second set Osorio had already made 11 unforced errors in set 2! Osorio came from behind in both sets and looked a likely winner, only to succumb with numerous errors at the crunch time. Very bizarre which is a phrase that sums up most of Radacanus matches in 2022.

Samsonova is next up for Radacanu. That is a significant step up on Osorio and therefore very difficult to see a positive result. But then as Ive said anything is possible in this very bizarre year.

indiana · Tennis legend

Interesting views. I remain one who is pretty ambivalent about Emma this year and have been from the off.

It was such a remarkable US Open that I was prepared for almost anything this year and I cut her a huge amount of slack on just about anything. Though I kind of wish she'd find a stable coaching set-up.

I expect her to really come strong again in the next year or two with a return of the real strengths in her game. Hey maybe she won't but still what a highlight and she's made for life but I really would like to see her make the best of herself again in tennis.

I will no doubt fully invest in Emma again when she does herself. And that's no real criticism of her. She's been to a place that was so unexpected and so mega changed her life.

For now I'll put up with this still just 19 yo player who last spring had barely played on tour, barely played competitively full stop for over a year, being the leading GB player in the 2022 WTA race, getting an ugly win against a top 70 player and into the QF of a WTA 250. ( Unreal / unfair? ) expectation brings such heavy scrutiny.

Peter too · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Interesting views. I remain one who is pretty ambivalent about Emma this year and have been from the off.

It was such a remarkable US Open that I was prepared for almost anything this year and I cut her a huge amount of slack on just about anything. Though I kind of wish she'd find a stable coaching set-up.

I expect her to really come strong again in the next year or two with a return of the real strengths in her game. Hey maybe she won't but still what a highlight and she's made for life but I really would like to see her make the best of herself again in tennis.

I will no doubt fully invest in Emma again when she does herself. And that's no real criticism of her. She's been to a place that was so unexpected and so mega changed her life.

For now I'll put up with this still just 19 yo player who last spring had barely played on tour, barely played competitively full stop for over a year, being the leading GB player in the 2022 WTA race, getting an ugly win against a top 70 player and into the QF of a WTA 250. ( Unreal / unfair? ) expectation brings such heavy scrutiny.

I agree. Emma went straight from a player showing great promise to top flight in 2 months missing out on the normal development on the way up. I saw the points from the US open as a millstone round her neck this year, preventing her from playing any easy matches. Last year she played several qualifying tournaments and a WTA125 before the US Open. All those matches, most of them wins, gave her match fitness and confidence. This year she has entered every tournament as a seed, playing tough matches from R1 and never getting a run going. Most players, when they are trying to recover form, drop down and play an occasional easy event, but that is hard to justify when you are world number 10. The US open should sort things out. She will either repeat last year's run and actually start to believe that she is that good or her ranking will drop and she can work her way up again at a more usual pace without quite as much media attention.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:
indiana wrote:
Interesting views. I remain one who is pretty ambivalent about Emma this year and have been from the off.

It was such a remarkable US Open that I was prepared for almost anything this year and I cut her a huge amount of slack on just about anything. Though I kind of wish she'd find a stable coaching set-up.

I expect her to really come strong again in the next year or two with a return of the real strengths in her game. Hey maybe she won't but still what a highlight and she's made for life but I really would like to see her make the best of herself again in tennis.

I will no doubt fully invest in Emma again when she does herself. And that's no real criticism of her. She's been to a place that was so unexpected and so mega changed her life.

For now I'll put up with this still just 19 yo player who last spring had barely played on tour, barely played competitively full stop for over a year, being the leading GB player in the 2022 WTA race, getting an ugly win against a top 70 player and into the QF of a WTA 250. ( Unreal / unfair? ) expectation brings such heavy scrutiny.
I agree. Emma went straight from a player showing great promise to top flight in 2 months missing out on the normal development on the way up. I saw the points from the US open as a millstone round her neck this year, preventing her from playing any easy matches. Last year she played several qualifying tournaments and a WTA125 before the US Open. All those matches, most of them wins, gave her match fitness and confidence. This year she has entered every tournament as a seed, playing tough matches from R1 and never getting a run going. Most players, when they are trying to recover form, drop down and play an occasional easy event, but that is hard to justify when you are world number 10. The US open should sort things out. She will either repeat last year's run and actually start to believe that she is that good or her ranking will drop and she can work her way up again at a more usual pace without quite as much media attention.

Peter: your comments to some extent echo those made by Tim Henman in the course of an interview with Alyson Rudd in The Times towards the end of June.

Rich2310 · County player

Maybe the best thing will be when Emma's US Open points drop off. Maybe not a bad thing if she then slides down the rankings and is only just inside the top 100. Some of the pressure will maybe then be lifted off her. She can begin to slowly work her way back up. It was never going to be easy going from just playing challenger level to suddenly Grand Slam Champion with none of the levels inbetween to build herself up. Get through this year and then hopefully we will see better results for Emma more consistently.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

These are good points - realistically, she is a top 100, maybe top 80 player base
On the race who had a marvellous week a year back but really should be playing the level of events a top 80 player would play. If shed won this weeks matches ranked 80, we would be delighted.

Being honest, I tend to look at her results with a passing glance generally so dont know the detail, but this logic espoused by Timmy H and Peter Too make a lot of sense.

Shhh · Challenger level

I agree about the US Open win being a millstone. Take that away, for a 19 year old Brit, first year on tour, we would all be happy. Of course you cannot take the US Open away, it happened. And there have been things of concern since then but she is such a nice kid and a breath of fresh air I am surprised how hard some have been on her.

Like others I think her career all begins once we are past the US Open. My concern though is that she'll be playing main draw events without a seeding, should could get a run of tough draws and still not get a run together. There should be more 250 level stuff though, it will all work itself out. She is the real deal I am sure and she will get back to the highest level as and when she does, not "if".

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Rich2310 wrote:
Maybe the best thing will be when Emma's US Open points drop off. Maybe not a bad thing if she then slides down the rankings and is only just inside the top 100. Some of the pressure will maybe then be lifted off her. She can begin to slowly work her way back up. It was never going to be easy going from just playing challenger level to suddenly Grand Slam Champion with none of the levels inbetween to build herself up. Get through this year and then hopefully we will see better results for Emma more consistently.

Rich, is she just inside the top 100 if you take off all the US Open points and assume she loses in R1?

For the predictions, I'd tried to base it on if she'd made the quarters, or the last 16, which I reckoned had her at about 60 or so, and was sort of 'reasonable'.

Agree with everyone that, post the US Open, life will so much easier - after all, she won't be the defending US Open champion any more (or will she???? biggrin )

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 5th of August 2022 03:57:21 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

Live-tennis.eu have Emma on 2772 points, and taking off ALL the USO points would put her around WR75, which bears out CD's prediction in the 60's based on a couple of wins. She's also 66 in the live race.