Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Spireman · Club Coach

Week 7 - ITF W50 Roehampton - Indoor Hard

Spireman · Club Coach

Which she did to love!

wales1994 · County player

Such an exciting bunch of junior girls with Hannah, Mimi, Mika and behind them Hep too. All of them seem to be stepping up at quite young ages!

Var · Pro player

wales1994 wrote:
Such an exciting bunch of junior girls with Hannah, Mimi, Mika and behind them Hep too. All of them seem to be stepping up at quite young ages!

Also there is strength in depth with the under 12 girls winning the WinterCup (Europe). It will be interesting to see who transitions best overall.

seagull · Hall of fame

Hannah lost 2 and 2

the addict · Tennis legend

L16:- Mika Stojsavljevic (GBR) WR1033 [Q] def Katy Dunne (GBR) WR343 [WC] 6-1 6-4

L16:- Simona Waltert (SUI) WR192 [3] def Hannah Klugman (GBR) WR662 [WC] 6-2 6-2

L16:- Heather Watson (GBR) WR132 [2] def Talia Gibson (AUS) WR219 6-3 6-3

PaulM · Tennis legend

Better from Heather today.

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Hmm. Was expecting more from Hannah. Will need to go back and watch that one.

Spireman · Club Coach

Mervatron2 wrote:
Hmm. Was expecting more from Hannah. Will need to go back and watch that one.

Waltert has ch of 107 which is from June last year so presumably a very good player, not the 300 to 700 range who has never been higher. And, apologies for getting philosophical again, but anyone can lose a tennis match, however good they are, or will be. All sorts of reasons, but gaining experience will certainly help. Theres no concern unless the losses come much more regularly.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Amazing from Mika to reach the last 8 of this level of event.

Var · Pro player

Spireman wrote:
Mervatron2 wrote:
Hmm. Was expecting more from Hannah. Will need to go back and watch that one.
Waltert has ch of 107 which is from June last year so presumably a very good player, not the 300 to 700 range who has never been higher. And, apologies for getting philosophical again, but anyone can lose a tennis match, however good they are, or will be. All sorts of reasons, but gaining experience will certainly help. Theres no concern unless the losses come much more regularly.

for a 14 year old I think Hannah has done well. It takes time to transition. Mika has hit a purple patch this tournament, a bit like Hannah did last year at the ITF Uk event. You only learn by losing.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

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

indiana · Tennis legend

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

the addict · Tennis legend

Big test for Mika in the next round

QF:- Mika Stojsavljevic (GBR) WR1033 [Q] v Lulu Sun (SUI) WR202 [7]

QF:- Heather Watson (GBR) WR132 [2] v Viktoria Hruncakova (SVK) WR176 [5]

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

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?