Week 7 - ITF W25 - Glasgow, UK (indoor hard)

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 7 - ITF W25 - Glasgow, UK (indoor hard)

mbturner · Lower Club Player

A poor match from Heather. Defensive and error strewn. She did not look out of place.

jb288 · Satellite level

I have a lot of respect for Heather doing this week. It takes a LOT more bravery to play 'down' than it does to play up - you have a huge target on your back, and winning 5 matches in a row is not a common thing for any tennis player. Benoit played great, good practice had, end of story.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Yeah Benoit deserved that. Really didn't put a foot wrong, dictated the play and just kept it simple - working the ball into the corners. Courts are a little slow here and low bouncing, seemed to suit her.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Heather was dominating play in the first set sending Benoit scurrying from corner to corner but Benoit gradually took charge from then on. Benoit beat Mai, Sonay and Heather on the way to the title. In several of her matches she lost the first and then won the next two.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

jb288 wrote:
I have a lot of respect for Heather doing this week. It takes a LOT more bravery to play 'down' than it does to play up - you have a huge target on your back, and winning 5 matches in a row is not a common thing for any tennis player. Benoit played great, good practice had, end of story.

I agree

SuperT · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
SuperT wrote:
I just tuned in to watch Heather's match. Are there really no juniors in Glasgow who could be drafted in as ball kids for the final on a Saturday morning?
It's a fair point but, having had experience of this, it's not always that easy - the kids do need to be trained (it's not obvious, it takes a while and ballkids who are lost and don't know what they're doing are worse than none at all).
And then you get the welfare issues - older ballkids are a better idea but 10 year-olds, say, need adults, need feeding, making sure they don't wander off, making sure they only get picked up by the right person.... you can't expect their parents to stay during the training sessions - it's sometimes easier just to not go down that route...

Thanks CD. I hadn't thought about all these points. I have just noticed in the past that at Shrewsbury, for example, they often provide ball kids for the weekend finals even though the players have had to field their own balls during the week.

telstar · Strong Club Player

SuperT wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
SuperT wrote:
I just tuned in to watch Heather's match. Are there really no juniors in Glasgow who could be drafted in as ball kids for the final on a Saturday morning?
It's a fair point but, having had experience of this, it's not always that easy - the kids do need to be trained (it's not obvious, it takes a while and ballkids who are lost and don't know what they're doing are worse than none at all).
And then you get the welfare issues - older ballkids are a better idea but 10 year-olds, say, need adults, need feeding, making sure they don't wander off, making sure they only get picked up by the right person.... you can't expect their parents to stay during the training sessions - it's sometimes easier just to not go down that route...
Thanks CD. I hadn't thought about all these points. I have just noticed in the past that at Shrewsbury, for example, they often provide ball kids for the weekend finals even though the players have had to field their own balls during the week.

Shrewsbury is, imho, by far the best British venue for the ITF events. The club seems to love having the tournaments and treats players and spectators excellently. Most of the others give the impression of wishing that they weren't staging them.

dodrade · Futures qualifying

PaulM wrote:
Good first set. Lost the break in the second. Rather weak service game to lose it. She's losing her temper with her mum, which isn't a great sign. A little flat but the atmosphere is a morgue like to be honest.

Does Heather have a coach at the moment or is it just her Mum?

Rich2310 · County player

On a positive note at least Heather got to play a run of matches.

PaulM · Tennis legend

I think the issue for Glasgow is (a) the event started during half term, and (b) it's not a club. It's held in the tennis hall of a large, and rather nice, council leisure facility, so while that has good aspects in terms of the facilities - good gym, pool, cafe and so on, if doesn't have that sort of 'community' aspect you get when good strong clubs host a tournament and you have the members and locals more invested, and can get junior members signed up to ball kid, have a couple.of side events and so on. I'm sure for the bigger events when held in Glasgow like last October they pull some kids from local schools but with the holidays probably couldn't do that (or felt the event wasn't big enough to merit it).