Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Var · Pro player

Coup Droit wrote:
Mervatron2 wrote:
Hmm. Was expecting more from Hannah. Will need to go back and watch that one.
I went down to Roehampton with a French friend today
Hannah's match was dreadful.
I'm a huge fan and it's the worst match I've seen her play by far.
She looked very flat; Waltert was playing 50% tennis at best, and still winning pretty easily.
The noise off the racket, the zip off the court was absolutely nothing compared with the other matches
But as Spireman says, these things happen
In my mind, there was one of three reasons: (a) she was coughing a bit and wiping her nose a bit so may have had a bit of a cold; (b) I heard her team saying she was very nervous, very uptight, and that she'd been putting a lot of pressure on herself (that needs to be addressed, if it's true); (c) it was just one of those things

However, on the flip side, she was completely eclipsed by Mika who wowed the stands today
Amazing penetration, an amazing sound, and balls that just beat Katy for power and speed
On one of Mika's backhand service return clean winners, Katy shouted out: "but that's my best second serve, what else can I do?"
Mika was hitting the ball very flat, but moving well, and her serve was just lethal
Katy messed it up a little in the second set which had the desired effect. I think Katy won 4 games in a row.
But Mika served it out amazingly well.
It's clear that Mika's new coach/set-up/whatever have done wonders for some aspects of her game
(I don't know if the tall, athletic, dark guy who I think is not British, from the way he shouted Bravo, is part of her coaching team now but I haven't seen him before)
Just a couple of other points: I saw Hannah warming up before her match - it was perfunctory at best. Also, she spent the 30 mins before her 5 mins warm-up watching Mika's match. I don't think that did her any favours.
Heather was in good form too - way too solid for Talia
Lots of other GB players, and old players, and well-known coaches, etc in the stands and at lunch

Lastly, the match I really wanted to see too was Nikola Bartunkova's - and it didnt disappoint ! Thrilling sort of tennis from the 17 year-old who has such an atypical game (and playing the ex JWR#2, the 18 year-old Belgian girl). A real crowd-pleaser of a match and I'll watch her tennis whenever, wherever

Thanks CD

the addict · Tennis legend

Doubles

All four seeded pairs made it into the semifinals - although Freya and Sam had to work hard for their win. Mika and Mimi put up a good fight but narrowly missed out.

QF:- Talia Gibson (AUS) / Justina Mikulskyte (LTU) CR372 (189+183) [1] def Mika Stojsavljevic (GBR) / Mingge Xu (GBR) (UNR+UNR) 7-5 7-5

QF:- Ali Collins (GBR) / Elena Malygina (EST) CR446 (176+270) [3] def Bronte Murgett (GBR) / Emma Wilson (GBR) CR2079 (1501+578) 6-2 6-0

QF:- Madeleine Brooks (GBR) / Eudice Chong (HKG) CR445 (274+171) [4] def Anouk Koevermans (NED) / Suzan Lamens (NED) CR962 (884+178) 6-1 6-2

QF:- Freya Christie (GBR) / Samantha Murray Sharan (GBR) CR400 (133+267) [2] def Sofia Costoulas (BEL) / Lara Salden (BEL) CR514 (260+254) (3)6-7 6-4 10-6

****

SF:- Talia Gibson (AUS) / Justina Mikulskyte (LTU) CR372 (189+183) [1] v Ali Collins (GBR) / Elena Malygina (EST) CR446 (176+270) [3]

SF:- Freya Christie (GBR) / Samantha Murray Sharan (GBR) CR400 (133+267) [2] v Madeleine Brooks (GBR) / Eudice Chong (HKG) CR445 (274+171) [4]

dodrade · Futures qualifying

JonH comes home wrote:
indiana wrote:
Absolutely CD re it needs discussed with her team if Hannah was over- nervous and putting pressure on herself. There really should be relatively little pressure on a 14 yo, however good. competing against this level of player in a W50. It's surely each time, prepare ( properly ), just give of her best and learn from each match. I didn't see her match today ( may have a wee look.later ) but I like her general feisty competiveness. However, it's so just putting in the building blocks just now.
Great to read about Mika, thanks for all the info

Could watching Mika, doing well, and an obvious rival to her in terms of age and level, have ended up putting pressure on her? Maybe that wasn't a wise decision?

Do they get on?

Var · Pro player

dodrade wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
indiana wrote:
Absolutely CD re it needs discussed with her team if Hannah was over- nervous and putting pressure on herself. There really should be relatively little pressure on a 14 yo, however good. competing against this level of player in a W50. It's surely each time, prepare ( properly ), just give of her best and learn from each match. I didn't see her match today ( may have a wee look.later ) but I like her general feisty competiveness. However, it's so just putting in the building blocks just now.
Great to read about Mika, thanks for all the info

Could watching Mika, doing well, and an obvious rival to her in terms of age and level, have ended up putting pressure on her? Maybe that wasn't a wise decision?
Do they get on?

Difficult for anyone to say. Mika does seem to have been out of the LTA clique until last year. There will be more knowledg others on here who have more info on this. I wonder if teaming up with Mimi rather than the usual doubles of Mimi and Hannah tried to address that in Roehampton? Although Mimi seems to be the glue that will stick them altogether.

newby · Junior player

From what has been said it sounds like Hannah was probably below par on the day, or just not everything working. Could be theres a virus going round and who knows how these players feel day to day. I imagine the coaches are well aware of how to help manage expectations of these young ones. So many things can go wrong or right

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

newby wrote:
From what has been said it sounds like Hannah was probably below par on the day, or just not everything working. Could be theres a virus going round and who knows how these players feel day to day. I imagine the coaches are well aware of how to help manage expectations of these young ones. So many things can go wrong or right

Yes, that was option 1 and option 3

But could well be option 2 as well

And, after all, it was her own team who were putting forward option 2

newby · Junior player

But why would they tell people that!

TW18 · Lower Club Player

Hannah and Mika have known each other since the ages of 6 or 7, if I remember correctly, via the LTA (national training). However, who's to say if they get on....how can anyone truly get on if they're in competition with each other and I suspect that awareness grows as they age. There was a lot of competition at the ages of 6 and 7 onwards, so I can only imagine that growing.

I can't see Hannah as nervous. That's a new phenomena, to me. She was always the happy-go-lucky-I-got-this-in-the-bag type of player as a younger child and even now, a real natural, whereas the other girls were fighting to compete against each other (not my grandchildren, of course! ). Not Hannah. May it is a new phenomena.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

newby wrote:
But why would they tell people that!

Why indeed? But they did smile

Anyway, firstly, they didn't 'tell' people, they were talking and you can't help but hear if you're nearby

And, secondly, it's hardly a state secret or anything particularly controversial

PaulM · Tennis legend

Good first set from Heather, which she took 6-3.

She's just recovered the break in the second, so 3-3*.

Two players with a lot of Main Tour experience here.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

17 year-old Nikola Bartunkova playing some beautiful tennis, yet again

Wins easily

Heather playing well, but this second set is very evenly balanced

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

dodrade wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
indiana wrote:
Absolutely CD re it needs discussed with her team if Hannah was over- nervous and putting pressure on herself. There really should be relatively little pressure on a 14 yo, however good. competing against this level of player in a W50. It's surely each time, prepare ( properly ), just give of her best and learn from each match. I didn't see her match today ( may have a wee look.later ) but I like her general feisty competiveness. However, it's so just putting in the building blocks just now.
Great to read about Mika, thanks for all the info

Could watching Mika, doing well, and an obvious rival to her in terms of age and level, have ended up putting pressure on her? Maybe that wasn't a wise decision?
Do they get on?

Sometimes people doing well who you do get on with puts more pressure on- that little pang of jealousy is only human and mentally you get torn between wanting them to do well as a friend but not that well!

thats how I always used to feel, in life, but maybe that says more about me!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Ooh bad miss from Hruncakova on her second set point. Hev barely got the return in play, all the Slovak had to do was slot the short ball away and she nets the cross court backhand.

And follows it with a double fault, so it's match point Heather at *7-6.

And she takes it. That's a good win, 6-3 7-6(6).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Excellent quality tie-break from both players

Lots of winners

The DF at the end was a really aggressive second serve and only missed by a whisker - perfectly reasonable shot selection

The one 'bad' miss just before that was because it took her completely by suprise that the ball came back, sort of dribbling over the net - it was a far harder shot to adjust to than it looked

Very good win, Hev