Week 41 - WTA ($220K) Linz, Austria - Hard

DavidC · Tennis legend

RE: Week 41 - WTA ($220K) Linz, Austria - Hard

Maza1987 · Challenger level

If Naomi shows up and shows she's going to put up a fight. I think Martic will just hit for winners and not bother to get bogged down in anything too tiring. This is great news for Naomi.

albino · Intermediate Club Player

Naomi holds first up, with 2 aces. 1-0*

albino · Intermediate Club Player

*3-3, still on serve Naomi just had the first BP of the match but failed to convert

3-4* Naomi broken, having saved 2 BPs

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

First set to Martic, 6-4

Unfortunately Naomi lost the only two close games from 3-2, as the other 8 games were all won easily on serve. Both players won 8 return points in the set, so it was fairly even.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Naomi loses 6-4 6-2.

indiana · Tennis legend

More decisive 2nd set and Martic wins 6 - 4 6 - 2

Some very good performances here by Naomi, which should really encourage her. Just a pity that she wasn't rewarded by reaching the main draw.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 10th of October 2011 11:21:07 AM

SMC1809 · All-time great

With Naomi's defeat, AK will be in the main draw whatever happens in her match. The extra 6 points would be useful though.

albino · Intermediate Club Player

its *4-5 in Anne's game, with 2 breaks each.

albino · Intermediate Club Player

Anne is 4-6 0-4 down now - I know her place was guaranteed but this is still disappointing.

albino · Intermediate Club Player

Anne loses 4-6 2-6. It's a shame that the LL aren't drawn randomly to avoid matches like this where the result only really matters to one player.

indiana · Tennis legend

albino wrote:
Anne loses 4-6 2-6. It's a shame that the LL aren't drawn randomly to avoid matches like this where the result only really matters to one player.

I agree. Although in this case, probably lucky for Anne. I have my doubts about whether the result would have been any different even if she still needed to win to be sure of making the main draw.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 10th of October 2011 01:57:23 PM

steven · Tennis legend

L32: (LL) Anne Keothavong WR 96 v Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) WR 53 (CH 29 in June)

indiana · Tennis legend

Re earlier comments on the strength of opponent Naomi had had to play for relatively few ranking points, just looking overall at the Linz field, it is extremely strong for a WTA international, with the 8th seed being Hantuchova, ranked 25.

In contast the Osaka WTA international field has 8th seed as McHale, ranked 49, so Petra Martic the no 1 qualifying seed from Linz ( ranked 51 ) , who Naomi lost to, would almost have been seeded in the main draw in Osaka. And Naomi's two wins were against players, Rus certainly and probably Wozniak, who would have made the main draw in Osaka..

I would still say what I suggested before that the actual qualifying points, 6, 10 & 16 for the three qualifying rounds are really pretty fair for a draw with the first two rounds in the main draw giving 30 and 70 points respectively. Just that opponents who would have been main draw players in Osaka ( and probably other WTA international tournaments ) were just qualifying opponents in Linz.

What Naomi has come across this week is an almost ridiculously strong main draw and qualifying field in Linz and tough opponents within that.

So, one can say relatively poor reward for Naomi, but as I see it unless you are going to have rankings based on the rankings of the players you win and lose to rather than standard round by round rewards, it's sort of c'est la vie.

And when it was put out there before by Steven, I was very much against having rankings determined by the ranking of the opponents you win and lose to, much as it is interesting to look at such as the Akhenaten rankings.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 10th of October 2011 03:09:16 PM

DavidC · Tennis legend

albino wrote:
Anne loses 4-6 2-6. It's a shame that the LL aren't drawn randomly to avoid matches like this where the result only really matters to one player.

I totally agree with the main point about random draws but quibble about the reference to Anne. If Anne beats Makarova (she certainly has a chance - the Russian hasn't won many matches recently, though most of her losses have been against strong players) she now gets 30 points rather than 46 as a qualifier, and that could make the difference between Australian Open direct acceptance or not, if she doesn't do well in her remaining tornaments this year.

Bally and Anne are the first matches on court (10am BST). Eurosport coverage starts tomorrow afternoon, so it's possible that Bally's match may be streamed