Week 25 - Wimbledon Singles Round 2

S&V · Club Coach

RE: Week 25 - Wimbledon Singles Round 2

rebel_rebel · Lower Club Player

Meanwhile, Laura breaks back!

Alexei · Lower Club Player

Laura hits back *1-2

seagull · Hall of fame

So gutted - could not even watch final set too nervous

rebel_rebel · Lower Club Player

Laura is showing some great mental strength.

indiana · Tennis legend

Great stuff from Laura, 1 - 5 * back to 3 - 5 *

Oo that was rather good too 15 - 0 *

rebel_rebel · Lower Club Player

Disappointing for Laura, but a great performance.

gjr · Club Coach

Good stuff from Laura.

Have to be pleased at that. A shame she couldn't get that first set.

Alexei · Lower Club Player

Lots of positives for Laura in that performance. She really relaxed at the end and went for it. If she can improve her mobility, which is still her major weakness, then she could be a top player. But a great week, and it should get her ranking on the move again. WELL DONE LAURA!!!

indiana · Tennis legend

Laura loses 7 - 6 (4) 6 - 3, but what an encouraging performance.

Particularly imprssive were the last few ganmes when she just wouldn't go away and was really holding her own against a Sharapova who had found her range and consistency better.

To me, it just confirms my opinion that she is already simply the best strker of a tennis ball in British women's tennis.

Stay fit and keep on improving in all the areas that she needs to improve and the future could be very exciting.

Alexei · Lower Club Player

Hopefully she can kick on like Heather has and can get top 100 by this time next year.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Laura was good in patches but needed to be right at the top of her level throughout if she was to win. A couple of very poor games cost her in the first set. The game at 4-1 when Sharapova failed to get a single first serve in play yet still held to 30, immediately followed by a terrible service game from Laura.

2nd serve looked very weak. Movement exposed as expected. Thought she backed off a few too many forehands after her serve as that was her best chance to win points, go for the kill straight away. Seemed to be late on the backhand rather a lot. First serve out wide worked well but down the middle never got going. Liked the drop shots and drive volleys.

Slightly disappointing because Laura's not that far away from being able to compete at this level.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 24th of June 2011 02:21:44 PM

Peter too · Tennis legend

I thought Laura's mobility showed a significant improvement in that match. It enabled her to stay in the rallies and wait her chance. In the past she has tended to go for short rallies. Without that improved mobility Sharapova would have been able to keep pushing Laura out of position and it would have been over very quickly. Laura may never have Heather's mobility but I thought there was clear progress.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Well played Laura, who looked really at home playing a top player on a show court. Now she needs to apply herself so that her ranking allows this sort of match on a big court more often.

Bally will regret not being more positive at 4-3 40-15 when she had the edge but played conservatively, which was never likely to get the job done against someone as solid as Peng, and duly lost the next 4 points. As with her match against Kerber 3 years ago her technique was unreliable at the death. Fighting spirit was enough to get her through against Kerber, but not against a stronger opponent.

indiana · Tennis legend

Well can't say I'm even slightly disappointed with Laura's overall performance. Although, of course it would have been tremendous to win.

I think most folk know that her year has been very interrupted, I found it very encouraging, and overall pretty consistent other than a couple of poor games kundalini refers to. Maybe I'm more forgiving, but I still expect occasional lapses like that during such a match, but I suggest they are becoming less and she's staying more continually in the proper zone and that should just get better. Some of the rest of kundalini's piece seemed to be setting against expectations that to me are quite unrealistic at this stage, and if true in some elements, did leave a quite unbalanced picture of such a good performance.

As I said given a clear run of fitness, and hopefully the growing issues will be past too, get some consistent games under her belt and I am fully confident she will really consistently compete better with much higher ranked girls.

That was, in all circumstances, a very good performance. Quality and weight of shot was often very good and she generally reacted and dealt well with the well known weight of shot of Sharapova when in position. Yes, movement still needs to get quite a bit better. If yes indeed a bit better than before, it does need to come on still quite a bit, but improved fitness to train more should help there.

I must say I feel very positive about that performance.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 24th of June 2011 03:33:27 PM