Week 7 - WTA Premier ($2,050,000) - Dubai, UAE

SMC1809 · All-time great

RE: Week 7 - WTA Premier ($2,050,000) - Dubai, UAE

wolf · Tennis legend

Bally breaks again *4-3 up second set.

But 0-30 down on serve.

indiana · Tennis legend

Dulgheru broke back and then recovered from 0 - 40 ( ? maybe 15 - 40 ) so Bally serving at 4 - 5 * to stay in the match.

wolf · Tennis legend

Inevitable collapse coming now.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Oh dear. That ended a bit quickly, Bally being broken to love. cry

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, pity at the end though don't see why it was so "inevitable" ! That strikes me as rather unfair to the Bally we have watched over the last year or so.

7 - 6 (3) 6 - 4

Pretty close through most of the match and the main pity was the missed game / break / set points at 5 - 4 and 6 - 5 in the first set, which clearly at the very least deprived us of a third set, and then again the missed break points at 4 - 4 in the second set before she was broken in the next game to love for the match.

These BPs contributed to Bally having a 3 / 13 BP conversion rate as against Dulgheru's 4 / 8 rate. Overall though Dulgheru did seem to win more games a bit easier and was 81 - 68 up on points overall at the end.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 14th of February 2011 02:30:54 PM

British_is_Best · County player

Shame for Bally, that looked a 50/50 match on paper, given the pretty poor start to the year for Dulgheru. In the end, as Indiana points out, it was the BP conversion that cost her most. Any ideas where she will be off to next? Is she playing anywhere before Indian Wells/Miami?

SMC1809 · All-time great

She is due to play Doha next week. Her schedule can be found on her website - http://www.elena-baltacha.com/main.html

steven · Tennis legend

That's actually the first time that Elena has lost her first match in a tournament (i.e. R1 or qr1) since before the US Open, ending an 8-tournament streak. Unfortunately, she's got an even longer streak of not winning back to back matches in tournaments, so hopefully that will be the next streak to bite the dust!

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

That's actually the first time that Elena has lost her first match in a tournament (i.e. R1 or qr1) since before the US Open, ending an 8-tournament streak. Unfortunately, she's got an even longer streak of not winning back to back matches in tournaments, so hopefully that will be the next streak to bite the dust!

It had been my impression, and really confirmed when I now look at Bally's activity, that she had had a really pretty good run of 1st round draws, certainly avoiding seeds and anyone ranked higher than her. Dulgheru was the first ranked higher since she met and beat Li Na in Eastbourne in June.

She has met quite a few seeds in 2nd rounds since the US Open although has also lost out in 3 set matches to some players one would have hoped she would have beaten.

It is actually quite a time ( Shiavone in Istanbul in July ) since she beat a top 50 player, as undoubtably the second half of 2010 wasn't really as good as the first half.

Over half her remaining ranking points after this week are still from just up to that Eastbourne tournament of last June ( 455 out of 870 ) so she could certainly do with refinding more like her first half of 2010 form to maintain her ranking position.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 14th of February 2011 08:55:29 PM