Week 10 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Indian Wells CA, USA - Hard

KyleM · Lower Club Player

RE: Week 10 - WTA Premier Mandatory - Indian Wells CA, USA - Hard

murrayman650 · ATP level

0 - 15

0 - 30

0 - 40

2 - 0 Radwanska

15 - 0

30 - 0

30 - 15

40 - 15

40 - 30

40 - 40

adv Radwanska

40 - 40

adv Radwanska

40 - 40

adv Watson

2 - 1 (Back on serve)

KyleM · Lower Club Player

Radwanska has limited her unforced errors but one on a Watson break point gives her the break back. *1-2

Jan · Hall of fame

Some nice play from Hev and she brings it back on serve

only to drop her own serve again

-- Edited by Jan on Friday 7th of March 2014 08:22:46 PM

murrayman650 · ATP level

0 - 15 ( df #2)

0 - 30 ( df # 3)

15 - 30

15 - 40

30 - 40

3 - 1

0 - 15

15 - 15

15 - 30

15 - 40

3 - 2

murrayman650 · ATP level

0 - 15

0 - 30

0 - 40

15 - 40

30 - 40

4 - 2

0 - 15

0 - 30

0 - 40

4 - 3 (do i even need to say it)

KyleM · Lower Club Player

Two consecutive breaks to make is remain on serve *3-4

murrayman650 · ATP level

0 - 15

0 - 30

0 - 40

5 - 3

15 - 0

15 - 15

15 - 30

30 - 30

40 - 30

40 - 40

adv Radwanska

GSM Radwanska 6-4 6-3

Jan · Hall of fame

Some nice play from Hev at times, but she didn't serve well really.
Well done to Aggie - she's tough even when she's not at her best.

murrayman650 · ATP level

it was a good performance from Heather

but i'm sorry but you can not win a tennis match with only 16 points won on serve especially against the number 3 in the world

indiana · Tennis legend

I didn't see the match, but another great week from Hev and that seems encouragingly competitive with Aga.

And I'd suggest only winning 16 points on service is very largely BECAUSE Aga is no 3 in the world. Be great of course to have a really powerful serve, but generally Hev's is comparatively not bad, and still like in most women's matches serve is much more merely a point starter and games go much more with form and momentum than with serve.

All basically still looking good for Miami. In her current form, almost anyone Hev could meet in R1 should provide a very winnable match, and hopefully the seed lined up in R2 is rather lower in the pecking order than Aga.

The new WTA points spreads are in general IMO much better than before, but still she will need to win both R1 and R2 in Miami to win as many ranking points as she won in IW for qualifying and winning R1.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Just got home and watched the match, without knowing the score first.

The disappointing / encouraging thing about this match (depending on how you look at it) is that Hev wasn't at her best yet was very competitive against Radwanska.

Hev played pretty well for large parts of the match but too many service games disappeared far too quickly to make it really close.

Heather has a WC for Miami and hopefully she will get a nice draw there because she is playing well enough to worry some good players, just maybe not the world No 3

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

I thought Heather was very good. I also thought Heather was very bad.
It was a bit of a schizophrenic performance.

In Radawanska's service games Heather often looked fantastic moving Aga about the court and trading with her on more than equal terms. She crafted good points and often finished them with aplomb. Some of her tennis was sublime. She really had Aga on the back foot for much of her service games.

On her own services though, she was completely different, seeming to rush towards trying to end points when the shot wasn't on, and making many unforced errors and struggling all match to get any scrap from her own service.

The good thing is that she can serve leagues better than this. The post match media show how windy it was, and this may have been a factor, but you have to deal with it.
However, if she serves like she did in Midland - with reliable and accurate first serves, and adds to that her general level of play from today and of late, then, to my mind, she is now looking more likely than ever to win these sorts of matches.

I fell that you can definitely see the improvements in Heather's game over the pre-glandular fever Hev, and see what is still to be refined & polished; but at least it's all being worked on.

Plenty of upside, bring on Miami!

I'd also echo Steven's comments about Coach Veronelli, he seems like a very good appointment.

Oh, and finally (as if all that weren't enough!) I'd just like to say that for many and various reasons, I really, really hate the Indian Wells tournament, with a vengeance.
Ah! that feels better!

indiana · Tennis legend

Interesting, ISF.

It does sound as if, as well as Aga having rather a lot to do with Heather's relative lack of success in her service games, Heather did actually generally play better on return, maybe feeling less pressure that she really needed to be winning these points and thus playing them better on their merits.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

insomniacfolder wrote:

In Radawanska's service games Heather often looked fantastic moving Aga about the court and trading with her on more than equal terms. She crafted good points and often finished them with aplomb. Some of her tennis was sublime. She really had Aga on the back foot for much of her service games.

On her own services though, she was completely different, seeming to rush towards trying to end points when the shot wasn't on, and making many unforced errors and struggling all match to get any scrap from her own service.

This really sums up what I thought of the match. Heather really looked like she was trying to play more aggressively than before her illness. This really paid off in the returning games. On serve though it was all just a bit frantic, so aggressive it was a bit wild. She's clearly made a decision on her comeback to be a more attacking player, so I guess what we are seeing is a work in progress. Once she settles down and feels comfortable with her new style, IMO it will serve her very well.