Not certain if they are not very comfortable on clay, or it might just be the altitude affecting the ball flight. (All four players seem to be hitting their first serves long). San Luis Potosi is at an altutude of around 6,000 feet (according to wiki)
L:16:- Alicia Barnett (GBR) / Olivia Nicholls (GBR) CR136 (67+69) [1] LOST TO Ingrid Martins (BRA) / Fang-Hsien Wu (TPE) CR183 (94+89) 7-5 4-6 0-10 OUCH !
That's their third WTA tournament in Mexico this year - each time they have been seeded 1 or 2 and lost in the first round.
Disappointing to see them fail to take advantage of their seeding, they seemed so confident at the start of the year as well, what on earth happened in the MTB?
I fear a whitewash against France in Coventry is looking likely given the woeful form of (almost) all our girls at present.
L:16:- Alicia Barnett (GBR) / Olivia Nicholls (GBR) CR136 (67+69) [1] LOST TO Ingrid Martins (BRA) / Fang-Hsien Wu (TPE) CR183 (94+89) 7-5 4-6 0-10 OUCH !
That's their third WTA tournament in Mexico this year - each time they have been seeded 1 or 2 and lost in the first round.
Disappointing to see them fail to take advantage of their seeding, they seemed so confident at the start of the year as well, what on earth happened in the MTB?
I fear a whitewash against France in Coventry is looking likely given the woeful form of (almost) all our girls at present.
Let's be hoping that the different dynamics that can occur and surprise in team tennis come to the surface in Coventry.
Maybe everyone's losing form because they know they have to go to Coventry. Would certainly put me in a bad mood, makes hull look exotic.
I remember when my father used to favour Coventry as the best shopping centre around, it was the UK's first attempt at a modern shopping centre after WW2. One of my earliest memories was seeing the flares from a pathfinder mission lighting Coventry as the bombers' target, on 14th Nov 1940. It has some amazing art at the cathedral.
These are matches they would have won last year. Fear their ranking is gonna start plummetting soon.
I'm not so sure. Only you're best 11 results count in doubles, so once you are in a position where you are playing big events, it doesn't take all that many wins a year or 'good' tournaments to stay up there. The difficult bit is breaking through in the first place.
As PaulM says, stayimg there is not so hard once you have the ranking to get you in. This week a first round win was worth 29 points, which would have been non-counters for both Lissey and Liv. They would need to reach the final to improve. They both have points dropping in April - Lissey has an 80 and a 110, but has a 60 and two 50's in reserve. It'll only take a couple of decent wins to cover that. Liv is in a worse position though, with no decent counters in reserve. The big drop may happen in August, but they should be able to maintain their rankings until then.
Unfortunately they have missed out three times in Mexico.
As a born and raised Coventrian, I feel it's my obligation to point out we have three beautiful cathedrals, a rich medieval history, mythical figures (Lady Godiva, Peeping Tom), and plenty of lovely greenery from you can always find a tennis court.
Oh, and it wasn't our fault we were bombed so heavily in WW2 :)