Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Blue_Belle · Club Coach

RE: Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Nix · Futures level

Var wrote:
Peter too wrote:
Rich2310 wrote:
Emma Raducanu would indeed do well to take notice of this and drop down a level in order to get a lot of matches in. If you take away Emma's US Open victory what else does she really have on her tennis cv if you compare her to Watson, Dart and Boulter.
She did win a few more titles leading up to the US Open.
Titles Age
US Open 18
W25 Pune 17
W15 Antalya 15
W15 Tiberias 15
JNR Grade 2 Siauliai 15
JNR Grade 2 Biotehnos 15
JNR Grade 2 Delhi 15
JNR Grade 3 Chandigarh 15
JNR Grade 4 Oslo 14
JNR Grade 4 Hamburg 14
JNR Grade 5 Liverpool 13

She also got to R4 at Wimbledon and reached the final of a WTA125
However because of Covid she did pass rather rapidly from winning a W25 to winning the US Open, bypassing most of the higher ITF events and lower WTA events.
Personally not a lot of points for Heather, her level is better than a W50 in 2024 IMO. As for Emma, I couldnt see her dropping down to a W50. Maybe a W100 and a well judged W250, but this isnt a perfect science. Just because a tournament has less points doesnt mean to say it might not be stacked with top playersdepends where it is in the calendar relative to slams and W1000s. But yes she could be a bit smarter and strategic in tournament selection. How much she is influenced byIMG who knows. .

Its not her lowest counter by some way. Id say its smart to mix up occasional lower tournaments to get a winning mentality and pick up useful points to get her towards the top 100.. Also, Im sure its nice to play at home sometimes instead of always travelling. Well done Hev, lovely to see her winning!

emmsie69 · Top national player

I'm almost certain that if Heather had been offered a WC to the types of tournaments that Emma is then she too would be taking advantage of them, not playing a 50k in the UK.
This was the level of tournament available to her based on her ranking at the time of entry. Fortunately her current form is such that she can actually gain from it although she did have a lucky escape in her 1st round.

ETA She could have entered the 75k but the benefits points wise clearly didn't outweigh the negatives in terms of travel/hotel costs and general aggro.

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Sunday 18th of February 2024 07:25:36 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I don't see the story

A lot of players play their home club event - it doesn't matter what level it is, it's their club, their place, they want to play their event, show solidarity, support, and it's nice when you know all the café staff, the receptionists, the physios, everyone, it's homely

Now, NTC isn't a proper club, but it's still Heather's base, she's nearly always been there when I've gone to see ITF 25ks etc

I don't think it's got anything to do with 'playing down', getting confidence or any of that - there are zillions of events she could do that in if she wanted

I think she just wanted to play her home tournament

TW18 · Lower Club Player

Lambda wrote:
I notice there is a Kaya Stojsavljevic at the top of the 11U LTA rankings. I assume she is Mika's sister? Is she as good a prospect as Mika and as her results suggest?

Kaya is Mika's sister, yes. She trains at Reed's and with Andrew Lewandowski (family friend), home club is Ealing LTC and plays in club comps with adults - which seems to be the strategy of 'play with older players'. She's far better than Mika was at her age and more of a natural, so not sure what that means. She doesn't compete much, nor did Mika, as parents and Andrew seem to like to keep them under wraps for a while (I think that's probably so they don't get beaten too often and self-belief goes down) and it's all about training rather than comps. Trains a lot, as did Mika at that age, and to my mind hot-housed. Been playing since 4/5 but around courts since birth watching Mika practice. Very good player, moves much better than Mika did at that age.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Really interesting, thanks TW18

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
I don't see the story

A lot of players play their home club event - it doesn't matter what level it is, it's their club, their place, they want to play their event, show solidarity, support, and it's nice when you know all the café staff, the receptionists, the physios, everyone, it's homely

Now, NTC isn't a proper club, but it's still Heather's base, she's nearly always been there when I've gone to see ITF 25ks etc

I don't think it's got anything to do with 'playing down', getting confidence or any of that - there are zillions of events she could do that in if she wanted

I think she just wanted to play her home tournament

Indeed - and getting to the final and hopefully winning is great for confidence !

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
I don't see the story

A lot of players play their home club event - it doesn't matter what level it is, it's their club, their place, they want to play their event, show solidarity, support, and it's nice when you know all the café staff, the receptionists, the physios, everyone, it's homely

Now, NTC isn't a proper club, but it's still Heather's base, she's nearly always been there when I've gone to see ITF 25ks etc

I don't think it's got anything to do with 'playing down', getting confidence or any of that - there are zillions of events she could do that in if she wanted

I think she just wanted to play her home tournament
Indeed - and getting to the final and hopefully winning is great for confidence !

So would getting to the final and winning at any other event

Lambda · Challenger level

Thanks TW18.

Regarding Heather, I think we should bear in mind Heather's schedule would have been chosen with the fact she had a lot of points dropping during February which if not replaced would have seen her drop out of the Top 200. The WTA Tour is largely focussed around the string of 500s and 1000s which, while Heather did sneak into Abu Dhabi, she wouldn't expect to get in to being ranked in the mid 100s. There are few 250s and 125s after Australia and those that there are most were announced quite late. So there is little choice but ITFs. Let's also not forget she hasn't had an off-season and apart from 6 weeks after the USO when she was rehabbing a minor injury she hasn't had a break since late 2022 so she probably wants some time at home.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
I don't see the story

A lot of players play their home club event - it doesn't matter what level it is, it's their club, their place, they want to play their event, show solidarity, support, and it's nice when you know all the café staff, the receptionists, the physios, everyone, it's homely

Now, NTC isn't a proper club, but it's still Heather's base, she's nearly always been there when I've gone to see ITF 25ks etc

I don't think it's got anything to do with 'playing down', getting confidence or any of that - there are zillions of events she could do that in if she wanted

I think she just wanted to play her home tournament
Indeed - and getting to the final and hopefully winning is great for confidence !
So would getting to the final and winning at any other event

For sure. but doing it with family and friends around and knowing the environment must be so much better? But I dont know anything !

jb288 · Satellite level

In any case, it would be great to see Heather claim her first singles title in four years today. Amazingly, the last time she won a 50k was 14 years ago! How time flies...

PaulM · Tennis legend

Broken early and just missed 40-0*

*1-3

DF · Tennis legend

Heather lost 5-7 5-7

-- Edited by DF on Sunday 18th of February 2024 12:28:40 PM

jb288 · Satellite level

I thought Sun looked excellent, and deserved the win - lots of fun lefty stuff. A better scoreline than when they played in Australia anyway. Hoping Heather now does some high level ITFs while others are at the sunshine double; it really feels like she could break 100 again this year with good tournament selection.

indiana · Tennis legend

jb288 wrote:
In any case, it would be great to see Heather claim her first singles title in four years today. Amazingly, the last time she won a 50k was 14 years ago! How time flies...

Pity Heather couldn't get the win. Though Mr Pernickety says that nowadays a W50 is actually a $40K event as the naming is in line with the title points ( 50 points to the winner here ).