Week 1 - WTA International ($227K) - Auckland, New Zealand Hard

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

RE: Week 1 - WTA International ($227K) - Auckland, New Zealand Hard

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Stupendous DTL BH winner earns 2 BP's for Naomi...
40-15*
40-30*
Both gone easily
Sloane error gifts a third, but is saved by a good first serve.
Naomi BH wild brings MP, and Sloane closes

GSM Stephens 6-7(6) 6-3

But, of course, still a great start to the year, an excellent tournament, right from Q through to today; looks as though she should be able to live at this level all year, a new CH
There's plenty to love about this week from Naomi, and still so many things that can get better.

-- Edited by insomniacfolder on Thursday 7th of January 2016 06:50:39 AM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Overall I'd say a good performance in what was a tight contest against an opponent who made very few errors. But having created opportunities through impressive play, Naomi rather wasted her chances. Her 2nd serve return on set point in the opening set didn't do any damage, allowing Sloane to hit a forehand winner. Then she missed her first serve on set point in the tiebreak (after the unfortunate out call then over-rule by the umpire) and immediately dumped a poor forehand into the net after her 2nd serve. Right at the end, 2 poor backhands cost her when she had 2 bps.

First serve percentage just 50% not many aces, though Sloane is very fast receiving serve. At this level 50% just leaves her far too vulnerable. Nowhere near enough unreturned serves in the 2nd set. Tons of almost aces just missing the centre line.

2nd serve was impressive, lots of deep 2nd serves that went unreturned in the opening set but only one in the 2nd set once Sloane had adapted. Never quite sure how much credit for good 2nd serves, or blame for poor returning.

Forehand patchy, some huge shots but tons of errors especially in the first set, crucially at set point in the tiebreak.

Backhand very impressive apart from those last few points, several absolutely stunning down the line winners

Volleys brilliant - I counted 10 volley winners (no errors) from Naomi - great to see her attacking the net after a heavy ground-stroke had forced Sloane onto the defensive

Return seemed ok for her. Still room for improvement.

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 7th of January 2016 09:22:13 AM

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Gave it a good go; a terrific week which hopefully Naomi can build on for the rest of 2016 :)

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

insomniacfolder wrote:
looks as though she should be able to live at this level all year

Agree but only in reasonably favourable conditions. Will need to pick her tournaments carefully. No stats to back this up, but got the sense in the matches I watched this week, that Naomi desperately needs to land the first blow, otherwise her poor movement tends to get exposed, that or her elaborate back-swing sees her lose control of a groundstroke during a rally.

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 7th of January 2016 08:00:19 AM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

kundalini wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
looks as though she should be able to live at this level all year
Agree but only in reasonably favourable conditions. Will need to pick her tournaments carefully.

Yes, that's an astutely observed caveat.
A good rough starting point might be as simple as: "Now, where's the fastest court available this week?"
And go on from there.

Jan · Hall of fame

Thanks for the commentary.
A good tournament for Naomi. Hope she can keep this up!

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Excellent start for Naomi, so good to see her playing to her strengths, there are obvious areas of weakness as astutely observed, her mobility restrictions are in part a product of her height, particularly limb length and so she is always going to suffer in comparison to Hev for example. Undoubtedly there is room for improvement but to a certain extent it was what it is ... That being a given so pleased to see her playing to her strengths, now to refine it and mitigate the weaknesses. She should Worry less about the performance of her opponent and focus on being a nightmare draw for anyone on grass (with plenty of home support) The top 50 should be her target this year!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Saturday 9th of January 2016 06:33:51 AM

brendan · Strong Club Player

I always compare her to Sharapova and so whatever she can do there seems no reason to me why Naomi can't play at that level too

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, I agree.

I've always had plenty of minor criticisms of Naomi's technique.

But not really her movement.

Sure, it's not great (though it does look a tad better). And she should carry on working on it.

But it's a question of mechanics - it's never going to be really good.

As you say, Maria can't run. Bigger, tall girls such as Davenport and Safina were really pretty flat-footed.

Even Venus (closest in build to Naomi?) - who has the best movement of the four above - took/takes a while to get going when going for a ball.

indiana · Tennis legend

Sloane Stephens went on to win the title.

She beat Wozniacki 6-2 7-6(3) in the SF and Goerges 7-5 6-2 in the final.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 9th of January 2016 03:16:08 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

That puts Naomi's performance in perspective. It also underlines her potential to go much further. She is obviously playing catch up on the technical side. Again I think that is what it is to a certain extent and the difference between her, Venus and Maria may reflect how they coped with the pressures of adolescence, family life and becoming a professional tennis player. If one were to consider development of technical skill as the only outcome the environments they had to nights that one specific outcome were all very different.

Personally I applaud her approach to the youthful racket chucking of one of her opponents although as stated by others there is a challenge in terms of how you utilise that emotion and avoid impacting your own performance.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Whatever one might say about other little technical issues, this is just a LOVELY service action, right out the textbook:

www.instagram.com/p/BAWsUf-P7pb/