Week 43- ITF W25 - Loughborough, Great Britain, Hard

scottie1 · Futures level

Week 43- ITF W25 - Loughborough, Great Britain, Hard

jb288 · Satellite level

And Emily takes it 6-1 in the third. It was pretty much on her racket - when she was aggressive, she was on top; when she wasn't, she wasn't. Serve not quite so dominant today, with 'only' 6 aces. But what an achievement - from 2 wins at this level in her career to 4 in one week. The final will obviously be a gigantic step up, but if I'm reading live rankings correctly, she should be around 600ish when final points are added on in any case.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Great Emily. It's always tempting to point to one thing or another, but I don't think its a total coincidence that having had a real rotten time on the singles court, spending a bit of time focusing on doubles - winning lots of matches, playing higher events - hasn't then helped her out in giving her confidence and belief in her game. Had she not shifted that focus would she have just spent the past 18 months struggling in $15k singles? I rather fear she would have.

She was absolutely beaming back in Monastir when she won her first WTA match, and played so well, and has really carried that forward. I know CD we've talked on here before about the merits of 'playing up' and just giving it a go at times. And it strikes me that even just a month on the WTA Tour: the better events, better facilities, better players to train with, practice with, play with. Soaking up some of the things those girls are doing on and off court, having a few conversations with other players and coaches at Tour level. You can learn and take away so much from that experience (even if it is 'just' doubles) in all kinds of ways, even if you don't necessarily get the results at the time.

And it's really not very difficult to launch yourself from 900 to 600 in the rankings if you get a small run going. So the fact her singles ranking took such a hit while she was focussed on doubles is neither here nor there. If she was able to put it together, as she has done the past fortnight, it would never be an issue getting back up towards the top 500.

-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 28th of October 2022 11:52:09 AM

Peter too · Tennis legend

SF: APPLETON, Emily (GBR) Q 791 def MALONEY, Eliz (GBR) WC 504 3-6 6-3 6-1

F: APPLETON, Emily (GBR) Q 791 (CH=501 2018) v ABDURAIMOVA, Nigina (UZB) (1) 167 (CH=144 2014)

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

What a week for Emily. Had been stagnating and even falling back but here she comes.

Maybe the doubles has helped her ?

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Emily looked very impressive in the Pro League last year but couldn't seem to bring that form to the regular tour, hopefully this is the start of good things for her.

Bagel · Lower Club Player

Mervatron2 wrote:
What a week for Emily. Had been stagnating and even falling back but here she comes.

Maybe the doubles has helped her ?

Yes I'm sure it has...a lot! Much of tennis is a is played in the mind. Victories in both branches of the sport give players extra confidence for both singles and doubles. It is a great shame that the vociferous minority on this board who denigrate doubles cannot seem to understand this.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bagel wrote:
Mervatron2 wrote:
What a week for Emily. Had been stagnating and even falling back but here she comes.

Maybe the doubles has helped her ?
Yes I'm sure it has...a lot! Much of tennis is a is played in the mind. Victories in both branches of the sport give players extra confidence for both singles and doubles. It is a great shame that the vociferous minority on this board who denigrate doubles cannot seem to understand this.

Sorry, Bagel, I don't think I'm hugely vociferous on the subject but I don't necessarily agree.

Yes, doubles can help the confidence. But what if you lose all your doubles? then you're just reinforcing the negative for the singles.

As said before, Emily's sudden improvement may be because she's started university very recently and has had a different focus thanks to that. Hence all her tennis has improved.

Her recent success may be that she's split with Ali Collins and the coach that they had, that there was something wrong with the vibe in that relationship.

Basically, some successful players enjoy doubles, and like the extra court time. Some successful ones steer very well clear.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Two aces to finish and she's taken the first set

PaulM · Tennis legend

Good set of tennis!

-- Edited by PaulM on Saturday 29th of October 2022 10:25:10 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bless her cotton socks, what a week

Well done Emily

An excellent match

scottie1 · Futures level

Emily wins 6-4 6-4

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Well, that was very good, some great tennis and well done Emily

I wish I'd gone over there now, could have done.

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Saturday 29th of October 2022 11:06:12 AM

SuperT · Futures level

What a week. Really pleased for Emily and I'm sure Laura must be chuffed to have a British winner. So what sort of WC do we think she'll get for Shrewsbury? Will this win change that?

DF · Tennis legend

smile Well done Emily