Vera played a very good match, but even so. These as the sort of results that you can't really afford if you want to be top 50 rather than top 80. Frustrating.
Pretty disappointing from Katie, perhaps should have played last week after all to get back into the swing of things. Zvonareva good in her day but at almost 40 shouldn't be troubling Katie.
Brief spells of really good play from Jodie, especially when breaking serve for *5-4 and *6-5 in the 2nd set but her bad spells lasted too long. Twice served for the 2nd set, got to 30-15 first time around only for Tamara to get a lucky net-cord backhand winner followed by two Burrage errors, one of which just missed. Then 30-0 the 2nd time, a super point from Tamara, then 3 Jodie errors including a df, which turned into a run of 10 points for Korpatsch.
At times Jodie looked lost in the slow conditions. Her footwork became awful, especially returning Korpatsch's slow 2nd serve. Tamara demonstrated plenty of skill and understanding of how to construct points in these conditions. Too often Jodie wasted a decent serve by hitting her next shot straight to Tamara as she did to get broken in her opening service game, allowing Korpatsch to come up with a super lob. Added to that were an alarming number of initial groundstrokes that failed to land in the court.
First set Jodie with two volley winners and an aggressive backhand return to break straight away. Then awful play from her from 30-15 to gift Tamara the break back. Jodie saved 2 bps in her next service game, helped by rare Korpatsch errors. She started the next game in impressive form but was unable to take advantage of 5 Korpatsch 2nd serves in a row from 15-30. Then the key game of the set, Jodie saved 4 break points, missed 3 game points, only to get broken after a df. Tamara with a spell of 11 out of 12 points until the end of the opening set, including 7 Burrage errors.
Tamara started the 2nd set with an awful game, 2 dfs to get broken. Jodie then saved bp with a good wide serve. Tamara held to love - Jodie could have won 3 of the 4 points. Jodie held to love thanks to good serves and one super forehand winner after her serve. Another bad spell for Jodie saw her broken to love, Korpatsch contributing one decent point, the rest Burrage errors, df and two rubbish shots immediately after a 2nd. Super game from Jodie to break for *5-4, 4 Burrage winners and just the one error from Tamara. Responded well to failing to serve out the set, by breaking to love, two winners and two aggressive shots.
7 Burrage dfs despite Tamara rarely making any attempt to be aggressive against the 2nd serve. 9 unreturned Korpatsch 2nd serves, compared to just 1 unreturned Burrage 2nd serve. Jodie's approach to returning 2nd serves looked great when it worked but too often it didn't; it's the right strategy as currently she doesn't know how to construct a rally but the execution needs to be better.
-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 26th of September 2023 05:32:56 PM