Week 26 - WTA Premier ($998,712) Eastbourne, Great Britain (Grass)

Michael D · All-time great

RE: Week 26 - WTA Premier ($998,712) Eastbourne, Great Britain (Grass)

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Not sure what to make of Eastbourne form at times. The first match I saw at Eastbourne was Danielle Collins retiring at 0-5 to Yulia Putintseva having had the trainer out twice. Yet Collins has now reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon beating the seeded Sevastova in the process. Putintseva beats Osaka then loses to Golubic.

indiana · Tennis legend

kaseldop wrote:
I am enjoying these conversations about the state of the British players, except hard to keep up as I know them by second names as the rankings and results focus on that. So never sure who you are on about and have to keep checking down the ranking list to check who it is. These comments are not meaning to be negative and find this site 2nd sports web site I always go to, but as you get older memory of names go. lol

Glad we are being of service

Interesting Ace's last post about how we are coming from different standpoints and that is probably right in that I have been a forum member for many years and with that I have got so much more into ITFs and players well beyond the top 100 ( previously I was just interested in the top ranked and top tournaments ).

But I would still emphasise that for me much of my ITF interest is not long term following say WTA 200 to 600 ranked players per se but looking out for and taking interest in these who might be top 100 players in the future. So our ultimate interest is the same in looking towards that top ranking bracket.

My relative positivity comes mostly from the number of still relatively young players we have in the 150 to 300 range ( and Harriet has just once again gone beyond that ). And here my historical forum membership is influencing my feelings because it is as big a youngish group of that level as we have had in my time here and I think for some time before that.

Yes, they can be pointed to individually and the question asked with where they are now how realistic are their chances of top 100 and beyond, even top 150, and are they not already a fair bit behind the 8 ball with so many coming through a fair bit younger. But we have numbers - and that more excites me that at least one or two will push through, that there may be Kontas in there.

Yes, particularly with the younger crop that so pushed on beyond expectations last year, things have generally not gone too well this year but half a year doesn't take them out of the equation and their number has been added to with Jodie, Maia and Fran entering the top 300.

Now, come the end of next year and say not much advancement I might just concede that my relative optimism is not looking like being fulfilled. But for now, no. I think we have a very interesting year or two ahead.

And I too will try and make clear which players I am talking about

ROSAMUND · Futures level

indiana wrote:
kaseldop wrote:
I am enjoying these conversations about the state of the British players, except hard to keep up as I know them by second names as the rankings and results focus on that. So never sure who you are on about and have to keep checking down the ranking list to check who it is. These comments are not meaning to be negative and find this site 2nd sports web site I always go to, but as you get older memory of names go. lol
Glad we are being of service
Interesting Ace's last post about how we are coming from different standpoints and that is probably right in that I have been a forum member for many years and with that I have got so much more into ITFs and players well beyond the top 100 ( previously I was just interested in the top ranked and top tournaments ).
But I would still emphasise that for me much of my ITF interest is not long term following say WTA 200 to 600 ranked players per se but looking out for and taking interest in these who might be top 100 players in the future. So our ultimate interest is the same in looking towards that top ranking bracket.
My relative positivity comes mostly from the number of still relatively young players we have in the 150 to 300 range ( and Harriet has just once again gone beyond that ). And here my historical forum membership is influencing my feelings because it is as big a youngish group of that level as we have had in my time here and I think for some time before that.
Yes, they can be pointed to individually and the question asked with where they are now how realistic are their chances of top 100 and beyond, even top 150, and are they not already a fair bit behind the 8 ball with so many coming through a fair bit younger. But we have numbers - and that more excites me that at least one or two will push through, that there may be Kontas in there.
Yes, particularly with the younger crop that so pushed on beyond expectations last year, things have generally not gone too well this year but half a year doesn't take them out of the equation and their number has been added to with Jodie, Maia and Fran entering the top 300.
Now, come the end of next year and say not much advancement I might just concede that my relative optimism is not looking like being fulfilled. But for now, no. I think we have a very interesting year or two ahead.
And I too will try and make clear which players I am talking about

"There may be Konta's in there " Something tells me never again for Britain. It is rare in women's tennis for a player to get to the age of 24 achieving little of note and mostly failing to qualify for WTA tour events to suddenly rise in the rankings and reach 3 Grand Slam semi finals. As mentioned before the only other players who come to mind and who've had a rise in rankings at a mature age are Siegmund and Buzarnescu. Most players would probably have lost heart and given up and that goes for Jo when you see how many tournaments she failed to qualify for prior to the French of 2015. The other thing about Jo is the success she achieved on clay this year. Where did it come from? Don't ever see any other British player struggling on clay and then achieving their best results on the surface at the age of 27-28.

Michael D · All-time great

I think Indy is simply referring to younger players coming through Rosamund, not necessarily +24, which I agree is much less likely. But our current crop of younger potentials are all well under that age still. It's hard to tell at the moment how many of Katie B, Katie S, Harriet, Emma R, Jodie, Fran, Naiktha and others may have the potential of being at least top 150 and higher on a more regular basis, but I would certainly hope that in another year, we would have at least 5 within that group, including 3 in or near the top 100. A lot depends on injuries and the ability to have injury free runs over several months, as we have seen well this year, with people like Katie B, Harriet, Katie S, Gabi, and now Jodie, all having their upwards progress stalled by injury.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Well at least Harriet has joined that exclusive club in the 21st century of being a Briton reaching the 3rd round of a Grand Slam singles. The others are predictable in being Jo, Heather, Laura, Elena and Anne K.

Michael D · All-time great

ROSAMUND wrote:
Well at least Harriet has joined that exclusive club in the 21st century of being a Briton reaching the 3rd round of a Grand Slam singles. The others are predictable in being Jo, Heather, Laura, Elena and Anne K.

Yes, that's interesting, just 6 in 19 years. And Katie B has yet to join the club.

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

Wasn't Kerber 24 when she reached her first GS SF and then much have been 26/27 when she won her first GS?

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Mervatron2 wrote:
Wasn't Kerber 24 when she reached her first GS SF and then much have been 26/27 when she won her first GS?

Kerber was 23 when she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2011 US Open.At that years Wimbledon she hsd lost in the 1st round to Laura Robson. In 2012 she reached the semi finals of Wimbledon. At that stage Sabine Lisicki seemed to be on a par with Kerber. It was reckoned that Kerber was more successful in the long run because she worked harder on her game. Jo is also reckoned to have worked really to improve her game over the years.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

ROSAMUND wrote:
Not sure what to make of Eastbourne form at times. The first match I saw at Eastbourne was Danielle Collins retiring at 0-5 to Yulia Putintseva having had the trainer out twice. Yet Collins has now reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon beating the seeded Sevastova in the process. Putintseva beats Osaka then loses to Golubic.

Much the same can be said for Ka. Pliskova. She plays 5 matches at Eastbourne and only drops 19 games beating the likes of Mertens, Bertens and Kerber. Yet apart from the Puig match none of her scorelines bore any resemblance to her Eastbourne performances. Even serving for the match she doesn't win. You can't say Eastbourne tired her out.