Week 27/28 - Wimbledon Ladies, Great Britain Grass

wales1994 · County player

Week 27/28 - Wimbledon Ladies, Great Britain Grass

nicofrance · Strong Club Player

It must be a huge relief to Wimbledon that Sabalenka didnt make the final so they avoid any uncomfortable moments when the prizes are handed out .

I really hope Jabeur can win as it would be a massive moment for women in Africa .

PaulM · Tennis legend

Would love Ons to win but hoping Marketa can make it a close and fun match. She got destroyed by Barty in the final of the French after beating Jo heartbreakingly

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 13th of July 2023 05:20:13 PM

Crispy · Strong Club Player

Would be wonderful for ons. I have a horrible novotna feeling about her career though, needs to break through in this final.

On another note, its all getting a bit squeaky whether Burrage will make top 100 and US Open with results around her. I have a feeling she is either going to be the last one to make the cut, or the first one out

-- Edited by Crispy on Thursday 13th of July 2023 05:23:52 PM

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Ons reaching the final takes us back to the Wimbledon record started in 1963 when at least one finalist from the previous year played in the following years final. Starting from 1963 when Court met King in their first finals only 1977, 2021 and 2022 did not feature a finalist from the year before. History is in favour of an Ons win because if a player loses their first Wimbledon final they generally win their second. In recent times Bartoli , Muguruza and Kerber have all lost their first final and won their second, Novotna lost her first two finals and won the third. In her 4 previous Wimbledons Vondrousova only won 1 match. Emma beat her in the 2nd round in 2021. Svitolina has lost 3 Grand Slam semi finals. As with Johanna Konta in her 3rd Grand Slam semi final she was beaten by Vondrousova. When Vondrousova was top seed at junior Wimbledon 2015 Anna Brogan beat her in the 1st round. Sabalenka has lost 5 out of 6 Grand Slam singles semi finals.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Crispy wrote:
Would be wonderful for ons. I have a horrible novotna feeling about her career though, needs to break through in this final.

On another note, its all getting a bit squeaky whether Burrage will make top 100 and US Open with results around her. I have a feeling she is either going to be the last one to make the cut, or the first one out

-- Edited by Crispy on Thursday 13th of July 2023 05:23:52 PM

Does this depend on how many players are using protected rankings to play in the Grand Slams? One player who had not won a match since March 2021 and was on a 13 match losing run played in the ladies singles at Wimbledon. Predictably she lost.

Lambda · Challenger level

Crispy wrote:

Would be wonderful for ons. I have a horrible novotna feeling about her career though, needs to break through in this final.

On another note, its all getting a bit squeaky whether Burrage will make top 100 and US Open with results around her. I have a feeling she is either going to be the last one to make the cut, or the first one out

-- Edited by Crispy on Thursday 13th of July 2023 05:23:52 PM

The lowest Jodie can be on Monday is WR99. Only Kanepi and 1 of 3 players in Contrexeville can move ahead of her.

markymc1983 · Club Coach

Lambda wrote:
Crispy wrote:

Would be wonderful for ons. I have a horrible novotna feeling about her career though, needs to break through in this final.

On another note, its all getting a bit squeaky whether Burrage will make top 100 and US Open with results around her. I have a feeling she is either going to be the last one to make the cut, or the first one out

-- Edited by Crispy on Thursday 13th of July 2023 05:23:52 PM

The lowest Jodie can be on Monday is WR99. Only Kanepi and 1 of 3 players in Contrexeville can move ahead of her.

Thanks for this Ive been trying to follow the ITFs this week to see where Jodie will be placed.

Hopefully Jodie will have a more successful top 100 run than Melanie South!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

chavkev wrote:
I have a funny feeling that she will switch nationalily if this carries on for a couple more years. There are far more opportunities available to her commercially with GBR, FRA or USA after her name.

Looked into this a little more and she does a fair bit of her training in France. So she may tick the residency requirement.

Gracheva has obviously just switched.

Young Ksenia Efremova has been stated to have applied

I don't know if the Russians have any sway over the Andreevas- my guess is the authorities wouldn't be at all happy - but if she were to switch it looks like france would the natural and legitimate choice

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Vondrousova is the 7th Czech born player to play in the ladies singles final at Wimbledon. That is more different players than any other country has managed since 1946 apart from the USA.

Var · Pro player

GAMEOVER wrote:
Vondrousova is the 7th Czech born player to play in the ladies singles final at Wimbledon. That is more different players than any other country has managed since 1946 apart from the USA.

Ons would be the first Tunisian player to win a grand slam - come on Ons!

Andy Parker · Club Coach

Ons story is pretty remarkable I think.

She was brought up in and ordinary family in the backwater beach resort towns of El Kantoui/Sousse area, which is a long long way from Tunis, which is very much where everything significant in Tunisia tends to happen.

She decided she wanted to try her hand at tennis and for a long while, her only chance to do so was to go to one of the hotels on the beachfront of Sousse that had a tennis court for guests and ask to use it when there were no guests wanting to play - so no facilities, no brilliant coaching and no state support. The fact that she is quite old to be making a success of tennis now is down to the effect that this has meant she was very much a late developer, with the odds stacked against her to even make it to professional level.

Her story reminds me a bit of Margaret Court - loathed by many people because of her homophobia and politically incorrect views, but those who know her story realise that what she achieved was similarly against the odds - brought up in a tiny house in a small town in the outback, in a poverty stricken household with an alcoholic father, and Margaret was only allowed to play at her local club after she repeatedly got caught when she kept climbing under the fence of the club to sneakily play for free at her local tennis club, when no-one else was about - and even then, she was only allowed to play at the club on the agreement that she acted as a ball fetcher for other matches when the paying members were there.

I love the fact that Ons has got this far from such a background, in a country with pretty much no tennis tradition and not much tradition of women playing sport - a few European tourists make it to El Kantoui to enjoy the beaches and have fun, but walk away from the seafront and it is a different world - hardly a woman in sight in the public areas of this dusty old mediaeval town, and those that are, covered in headscarves and long robes, not expected to do anything outside the home, let alone play sport. How she managed to defy that and make it is incredible to me.

Nothing against Vondrousova, but I'll be really rooting for Ons.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I absolutely agree, I'll be rooting for Ons, too. Love her tennis. Love her story. All.

But I do think you have to be careful about making it sound like she was just a girl with a homemade racket playing a few balls when no one was looking.

From what I've read, she started at age 3, because her mother played recreationally. She had a coach from age 4 to 12 or so called Nabil Milka at the big Hammam Sousse club. He took her under his wing and she was coached as a group and individually. He says the group ones were tricky because she kept improving so quickly he was always caught between preparing lessons for her and waiting for the others to catch up, or for the others, as they'd paid too and needed longer.

And I saw her play in France at age 9 or 10. She was touring and playing international competition even at that age. (She beat the local girl from my département that I was with, as you can imagine, but at least that gives the French girl something to talk about now

)

And then she moved to Tunis at 12 because, being a French system, they had specialist prestige schools that focused on top-level sport (the schools are free). I believe she then moved to France for some period.

As to the her achievements given the position of most women in Tunisia, you have to remember that the Tunisian Arab Spring Uprising only took place when Ons was 16. Which is, basically, when she left. Before that it was far more liberal, girls and boys did sport together, it was far more 'western'.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Ons was a Junior Grand Slam champion winning the French juniors in 2011 beating Monica Puig in the final. In 2010 Ons was runner up to Elina Svitolina and it could so easily have been the 2023 Wimbledon final but Marketa Vondrousova spoilt that,

indiana · Tennis legend

Very good women's singles this year with the consistency from top players and the narrative that I have found so lacking in recent years in the women's game.

All 4 top seeds reaching the QFs plus Ons at #6 was much better in the top and already most consistent players of the year turning up well. And then narrative in how the QFs on then played out with these players plus Ons seeking revenge vs Rybakina and the Svitolina story. And not least some very good matches.

I do hope Ons wins and it may be good for her that the extra emotions of a Svitolina match will not be there. Vondrousova though will very probably make it a stiff challenge.