Tennpar wrote:

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BJC in temporary court in car park, whilst Rafa in the permanent arena.
I was watching dubs, but switched to Rafa - full house understandably

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 And Rafa loses the first set 6-4. Dutch said it might be over quicker than anyone thought!

Walked across the car park

For the record

Heather Watson WR57 / Olivia Nicholls WR39 lost to Victoria Hruncakova WR159 / Tereza Mihalicova Doubles WR41 2-6 2-6

Var wrote:

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Not unexpected. We dont really have a top womens doubles team in the womens game at this point in time. Not disrespecting Liv and Hev, but looks like we may need one to lift this trophy in the future. Sitting on the bench supporting is one young lady amongst a bunch of very promising youngsters, who is already starting to show her metal in the doubles game. Mimi. Feel for Katie though.she must be gutted. However brilliant performance by Emma. Some positives and semi finalists, whatever the outcome. Good work.

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 I don't really see why our problem was that we didn't have a top doubles women's team when the Slovaks most certainly didn't have a top doubles women's team 

Hruncakova is ranked 159

Goodness, she (and partner) lost to Millie Bissett & Vic Allen earlier this year, I seem to remember 

But it was fun while it lasted

And always good to see the players having a good time

And producing some interesting singles 

 

GAMEOVER wrote:

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It's probably forgotten now that GB  played Slovakia at Bratislava  in Feb 2020(just prior to Covid). Heather played Sramkova and won 6-0 7-5  our only win in a 3-1 defeat. We didn't have the crystal ball that when Sonay beat Sramkova  to win  Tunisia Sramkova  woukl come back to haunt us so quickly.  Even though we lost the tie we seem to have a lot of   promising  young players  waiting in the  wings to support Emma in the future.

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Been quite a three month's for Sramkova, recently turned 28 yo, since exiting in Q in the US Open on the back of a mediocre previous few months.

The Thailand 250 title she won the week after being RU to Sonay in the Tunisia 250 propelled her into the top 100 for the very first time. 

She has since reached the last 32 from qualifying in the China Open 1000 and been RU in a China 250, continuing to surge up the rankings to her current WR 43.

And been carrying on that form here with her wins over Danielle Collins, Ajla Tomljanovic and Katie, with Katie the only player to take a set off her this week so far.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 19th of November 2024 10:50:44 PM

Coup Droit wrote:

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Var wrote:

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Not unexpected. We dont really have a top womens doubles team in the womens game at this point in time. Not disrespecting Liv and Hev, but looks like we may need one to lift this trophy in the future. Sitting on the bench supporting is one young lady amongst a bunch of very promising youngsters, who is already starting to show her metal in the doubles game. Mimi. Feel for Katie though.she must be gutted. However brilliant performance by Emma. Some positives and semi finalists, whatever the outcome. Good work.

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 I don't really see why our problem was that we didn't have a top doubles women's team when the Slovaks most certainly didn't have a top doubles women's team 

Hruncakova is ranked 159

Goodness, she (and partner) lost to Millie Bissett & Vic Allen earlier this year, I seem to remember 

But it was fun while it lasted

And always good to see the players having a good time

And producing some interesting singles 

 

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 Yeah, for me it always seemed like we needed to win both singles, so when Katie lost I had already mentally given up.

Not a bad result though, and hopefully Emma has gotten some positives out of it especially about looking after her body!

We do have six doubles players ranked in the top 100. One problem is that the best ones rarely ever play together and that can make a huge difference. That was part of the problem - Liv and Heather hadn't had the matches together to form the understanding. Mind you, Slovakia manged OK, didn't they, with Tereza (Liv's current regular partner) doing well with Victoria.