Week 19 - ITF W60 Fukuoka, Japan Carpet

DF · Tennis legend

Week 19 - ITF W60 Fukuoka, Japan Carpet

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

What a shame. And what a 'hear we go again'.

Two matches on the trot of three sets and a third-set tiebreak were obviously just too much.

Hopefully this is more of a caution thing......

It's been said before but there's a strong argument that players like Katie need to thinkg about changing their style of play.

Even if it means that they will play 'worse'

It was one of my gripes against Jeremy Bates - he was SO insistent on 'not making an error', so defensive minded, his whole messaging to Katie during any match (and I've stood next to him during a good many) was to avoid UEs.

He might not have been to know that she would develop ME but it's not the point. It was wrong then and it's been proved even more wrong now.

Let's hope that today was something completely different though - a sore hand, a tweaked big toe, anything that has nothing to do with her bigger issues and that goes away with a week's rest...

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

The link below suggests she was not in any distress at least

twitter.com/thetennistalker/status/1657612489058549760

Lambda · Challenger level

I have been expecting her to withdraw from next week all week if she went deep this week so not at all surprised by that. Disappointing she couldn't complete this week though. She did look tired in the bit of the QF I watched. I don't agree with the tweet in saying she didn't look too downbeat. She looked and sounded very down and looked like someone who was doing the ceremony out of respect for the organisers and spectators but would rather not have been there otherwise.

-- Edited by Lambda on Sunday 14th of May 2023 07:57:28 AM

Nix · Futures level

How disappointing for her.

As long as it's not something chronic I hope like CD that it's not the ME surfacing again.

Some good points about Jeremy Bates as well. I've always thought that about Andy as well. His defence was always a really important part of his game but he won GS's when Lendl encouraged him to be a bit more aggressive and positive in his play. I also wonder whether the constant running for that extra ball when he could have finished the point a bit earlier exacerbated his chronic injury.

This is also why I thought Dan's comments about our women players were silly. We've got Katie who clearly can't play multiple tournaments and has to pick and choose, Emma having a triple operation, Jodie having already had two injury spells this year alone (and it's only May!), Katy Dunne barely able to patch her body together for one tournament, Katie Swan with her shoulder issues, Fran with obvious care she has to take. I'm sure all of them would love to play week in/week out. But it's not about laziness or wanting to swan around or not taking their career seriously.

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Nix wrote:
How disappointing for her.

As long as it's not something chronic I hope like CD that it's not the ME surfacing again.

Some good points about Jeremy Bates as well. I've always thought that about Andy as well. His defence was always a really important part of his game but he won GS's when Lendl encouraged him to be a bit more aggressive and positive in his play. I also wonder whether the constant running for that extra ball when he could have finished the point a bit earlier exacerbated his chronic injury.

This is also why I thought Dan's comments about our women players were silly. We've got Katie who clearly can't play multiple tournaments and has to pick and choose, Emma having a triple operation, Jodie having already had two injury spells this year alone (and it's only May!), Katy Dunne barely able to patch her body together for one tournament, Katie Swan with her shoulder issues, Fran with obvious care she has to take. I'm sure all of them would love to play week in/week out. But it's not about laziness or wanting to swan around or not taking their career seriously.

Given how many of our female players have injury problems it begs the question if the LTA's training/fitness methods are making things worse instead of better.

Barefoot · Lower Club Player

I completely missed Dans comments, does anyone have a link to what hes said?

This is a shame, but it is more useful points on the board. If its nothing serious Id expect her to go and pay lip service to clay in Paris then focus on getting some of the many points shes defending on grass!

Lambda · Challenger level

Barefoot wrote:

I completely missed Dans comments, does anyone have a link to what hes said?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/dan-evans-slams-brits-who-do-not-play-enough-tournaments/ar-AA1awZb7

Nix · Futures level

dodrade wrote:
Nix wrote:
How disappointing for her.

As long as it's not something chronic I hope like CD that it's not the ME surfacing again.

Some good points about Jeremy Bates as well. I've always thought that about Andy as well. His defence was always a really important part of his game but he won GS's when Lendl encouraged him to be a bit more aggressive and positive in his play. I also wonder whether the constant running for that extra ball when he could have finished the point a bit earlier exacerbated his chronic injury.

This is also why I thought Dan's comments about our women players were silly. We've got Katie who clearly can't play multiple tournaments and has to pick and choose, Emma having a triple operation, Jodie having already had two injury spells this year alone (and it's only May!), Katy Dunne barely able to patch her body together for one tournament, Katie Swan with her shoulder issues, Fran with obvious care she has to take. I'm sure all of them would love to play week in/week out. But it's not about laziness or wanting to swan around or not taking their career seriously.
Given how many of our female players have injury problems it begs the question if the LTA's training/fitness methods are making things worse instead of better.

It's a good point. Anyone with more knowledge about other countries have a view on this? Are we considerably more cursed with injuries? I think I did read something about this somewhere that our training methods are a bit too generic and more applicable to sports other than tennis.

RJH1962 · Intermediate Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
What a shame. And what a 'hear we go again'.

Two matches on the trot of three sets and a third-set tiebreak were obviously just too much.

Hopefully this is more of a caution thing......

It's been said before but there's a strong argument that players like Katie need to thinkg about changing their style of play.

Even if it means that they will play 'worse'

It was one of my gripes against Jeremy Bates - he was SO insistent on 'not making an error', so defensive minded, his whole messaging to Katie during any match (and I've stood next to him during a good many) was to avoid UEs.

He might not have been to know that she would develop ME but it's not the point. It was wrong then and it's been proved even more wrong now.

Let's hope that today was something completely different though - a sore hand, a tweaked big toe, anything that has nothing to do with her bigger issues and that goes away with a week's rest...

Totally agree, if your body can't deal with constant 3 set matches then you need to change you're style of play accordingly. Hope this is not too serious as it was turning out to be a great move to play here

-- Edited by RJH1962 on Monday 15th of May 2023 08:54:26 AM

Barefoot · Lower Club Player

Lambda wrote:
Barefoot wrote:

I completely missed Dans comments, does anyone have a link to what hes said?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/dan-evans-slams-brits-who-do-not-play-enough-tournaments/ar-AA1awZb7

Oh thank you. Good idea, fails in execution - of course playing regular tournaments is better than constant practice but Dan is perhaps out of the loop in understanding why regular tournaments dont come easily to everyone.

wales1994 · County player

There's injuries but also, the WTA schedule is pretty shocking too! The women don't have as many options as the men do.