Week 18 - ITF ($50K) - Indian Harbour Beach, USA Clay

Julia Carrot · All-time great

RE: Week 18 - ITF ($50K) - Indian Harbour Beach, USA Clay

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Cmmon Laura break back now 4-5*

SP Riske

Laura saves it

6 deuces in this game so far and much risking of vocal chords

Sp, again

And Riske takes 2nd set 6 -4

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

One set all probably a fiar reflection of the match so far, but Robson will do well to win this now as the injury is starting to trouble her

Julia Carrot · All-time great

1 - 1 with a break each in the third

And she gets broken again

1-2*

-- Edited by Julia Carrot on Saturday 7th of May 2011 07:13:46 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Laura is struggling to get any pace behind the serve in this set - don't know if it's injury related.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Yay! Laura broken in the opening game of the third set, but obeys the golden rule of tennis & breaks back straightaway! Laura then concedes a second service break. 1-2* cry Riske's grunts are REALLY annoying...! furious

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

I doubt the injury is affecting her serve - it held up well when she was having real trouble moving yesterday.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Also, what's that machine hum loudly in the back ground?

Julia Carrot · All-time great

1 -4* oh dear

Julia Carrot · All-time great

and she loses the third set 1 - 6

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Overall, it was a good effort by Laura in this tournament, and it was great that we could watch a live stream of three of her matches.

Today's game was very even for the first two sets, which I think gives a fair reflection of where Laura's game is at the moment- that she can compete fairly evenly with players ranked around the 100 mark.

The reason she lost today is because she was very tired towards the end which meant she lost a lot of power in the serve and got sloppy with footwork. Probably though playing through injury for the whole week hasn't helped her stamina (her fitness in general might also be down due to she injuries she has had resticting training). If you were to compare where Laura is against Heather right now, it would be Heather's fitness and consistency which make her a better player rather than playing ability.

From when I last saw Laura play (at Wibledon) she has improved her slice and over the week played some good drop shots which I haven't seen her do before.

Ratty · County player

tony_orient wrote:
If you were to compare where Laura is against Heather right now, it would be Heather's fitness and consistency which make her a better player rather than playing ability.

Here's the thing - what do you mean by "playing ability"? I guess, pardon my presumption, that you mean that Laura is a better ball-striker, and is somehow more "talented".

Along with this goes the perhaps common belief that it's just a "matter of time" before Laura gets into the top 100, top 50, whatever.

Cobblers! There's an awful lot more to winning tennis matches week-in week-out than smacking winners. I would suggest that most matches are won by the player who makes the fewest errors. And while it is surely unfair to criticise a player who was clearly struggling physically, Laura surely does make an awful lot of errors. As she has done every time I've seen her play.

She may be immensely successful in the future, she may not. But her future success certainly isn't inevitable.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I haven't seen so much this week but saw a fair amount of todays' match and I found it quite encouraging.

She was looking pretty solid with good weight of shot and a bit more variety than in the past. And her movement, comparative to what I have seen before, looked pretty good until the latter stages.

Hopefully she can get this nagging injury sorted. If anything just not to have strapping which as mentioned earlier seemed to distract her a bit at an important part of the match near the end of the 2nd set.

But the main thing would just be to have a really clear run of matches and training during the rest of the year to see where her game is really at. I too suspect it would be fundamentally up there with Heather's.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 7th of May 2011 08:57:01 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
tony_orient wrote:
If you were to compare where Laura is against Heather right now, it would be Heather's fitness and consistency which make her a better player rather than playing ability.

Here's the thing - what do you mean by "playing ability"? I guess, pardon my presumption, that you mean that Laura is a better ball-striker, and is somehow more "talented".
Along with this goes the perhaps common belief that it's just a "matter of time" before Laura gets into the top 100, top 50, whatever.
Cobblers! There's an awful lot more to winning tennis matches week-in week-out than smacking winners. I would suggest that most matches are won by the player who makes the fewest errors. And while it is surely unfair to criticise a player who was clearly struggling physically, Laura surely does make an awful lot of errors. As she has done every time I've seen her play.
She may be immensely successful in the future, she may not. But her future success certainly isn't inevitable.

I was writing my last post while you posted yours, Ratty.

But as you may see, I tend to agree with Tony here. And I write and make comments on what I see, I don't just make presumptions.

For much of today's match, rather than just supposedly smacking winners and making an awful lot of errors, I actually thought she was hitting the ball solidly, consistently and did not look as liable to errors as in the past, partly because for 2 sets anyway her movement to the ball was better than I have seen in the past.

As I mentioned, it would be great to see where she can get to with a clear run without injuries.

I do think she has the ability to be up there with Heather. For what it matters, I' certainly think she will be a top 100 player and would be very surprised if she wasn't top 50. Her ultimate possibilities I wouldn't like to predict for now. I more just for now look forward to her hopefully being able to make injury free progress over the rest of this year and next. With that, I think really good progress will come.

Just my thoughts anyway....

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 7th of May 2011 09:22:35 PM

Maza1987 · Challenger level

mel and babos should be on later