Week 17 - WTA1000 - Madrid, Spain Clay

DF · Tennis legend

RE: Week 17 - WTA1000 - Madrid, Spain Clay

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

dodrade was joking

I think our young women would be looking wistfully at Megan, playing on hard courts

Clay is not their surface, even if they are trying to make a good fist of it

HarryGem · Club Coach

DF wrote:
dodrade wrote:
Peter too wrote:
R2: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 lost to Marta Kostyuk (UKR) [24] WR52 4-6 6-2 2-6
R2: Sonay Kartal (GBR) WR60 lost to Elina Svitolina (UKR) [17] WR17 3-6 1-6
R2: Katie Boulter (GBR) WR40 lost to Jasmine Paolini (ITA) [6] WR6 1-6 2-6

Marta was very dangerous whenever she got anywhere close to the net.

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 25th of April 2025 04:49:17 PM
Not a great day for the British girls. Is it too soon to put all our hopes on Megan Knight instead?
Grow up. Our girls lost to seeds as they were expected to do. Young Megan is a schoolgirl who has great potential for the future,perhaps. It is not the end of the world as you seem to think.
There is always the next match and the next tournament.

A bit uncalled for I think.

Yesterday was a very sobering day for the top GB women. I was fortunate, if that is the right word, to watch all the matches except the lasts set of Emma's match beyond its first game.

Whilst the results were as you say perhaps expected, there can be little disguising that with the exception of Emma, who was at least competitive, the other two matches were not losses but thrashings. I think Katie's performance was the most disappointing given her huge improvements in her overall game in the last couple of years. She really didn't look like she wanted to be on court and her movement or lack of it was badly exposed time after time. She was really quite fortunate to win as many games as she did due mainly to Paolini losing focus at 5-0 up in the second set.

Sonay has had a great 12 months but yesterday was utterly outclassed and at time just didn't know how to play. Svitolina was excellent but the gulf in class looked enormous.

Emma could have won but Kostyuk looks to have turned the momentum back in her favour in the third set which I missed.. There wasn't much to choose between them in the two sets I saw. I think if Emma was playing more regularly and was therefore more match fit in terms of winning more matches then she might have won yesterday.

There are a lot of points to be picked up in the clay season and it is about time our top women learnt how to play on it otherwise it is hard to get higher up the rankings whilst depending quite often on points picked up in the short grass court season.

LordBrownof · Futures level

The LTA needs to hire a clay specialist coach. Hire a consultant for 6 months even. Hard to be consistently at the top or move into the top 32 when 4 months of the year you barely win a tour level match.

BTW - I think Emma and Sonay both have potential to be very good on clay and Fran already is. LTA needs to support that potential.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
The LTA needs to hire a clay specialist coach. Hire a consultant for 6 months even. Hard to be consistently at the top or move into the top 32 when 4 months of the year you barely win a tour level match.

BTW - I think Emma and Sonay both have potential to be very good on clay and Fran already is. LTA needs to support that potential.

Tbh, it would be even simpler just to send those girls to Spain for training sessions

Hannah Klugman had a few weeks at the Rafa Nadal place, with the clay court specialists there, and immediately won a J300 singles title and made the semis in a W35 on clay

The LTA would get more bang for their buck sending the girls over there, with full facilitities, better weather, clay training partners, clay court specialist coaches, than just hiring one for over here

DF · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
LordBrownof wrote:
The LTA needs to hire a clay specialist coach. Hire a consultant for 6 months even. Hard to be consistently at the top or move into the top 32 when 4 months of the year you barely win a tour level match.

BTW - I think Emma and Sonay both have potential to be very good on clay and Fran already is. LTA needs to support that potential.
Tbh, it would be even simpler just to send those girls to Spain for training sessions
Hannah Klugman had a few weeks at the Rafa Nadal place, with the clay court specialists there, and immediately won a J300 singles title and made the semis in a W35 on clay
The LTA would get more bang for their buck sending the girls over there, with full facilitities, better weather, clay training partners, clay court specialist coaches, than just hiring one for over here

That makes sense.

B00thy · Intermediate Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
LordBrownof wrote:
The LTA needs to hire a clay specialist coach. Hire a consultant for 6 months even. Hard to be consistently at the top or move into the top 32 when 4 months of the year you barely win a tour level match.

BTW - I think Emma and Sonay both have potential to be very good on clay and Fran already is. LTA needs to support that potential.
Tbh, it would be even simpler just to send those girls to Spain for training sessions
Hannah Klugman had a few weeks at the Rafa Nadal place, with the clay court specialists there, and immediately won a J300 singles title and made the semis in a W35 on clay
The LTA would get more bang for their buck sending the girls over there, with full facilitities, better weather, clay training partners, clay court specialist coaches, than just hiring one for over here

Surely Katie and Emma have the funds to support a training block in Spain. Maybe not Sonay yet. I understand why Emma would not have prioritised this as her approach has been gradual building of match stamina, but Katie? seems odd to me to not get clay coaching from the best .. And yes, LTA have lots of funds available to support up and coming players .. seems a 'no brainer'

foobarbaz · Strong Club Player

Anyone watch the WTA Madrid final? From the bits I saw, it didn't look like either player actually enjoyed the match. Goff seemed terrified of serving double faults, and Sabalenka was very inconsistent and quick to gesture at her coaching team. It left me thinking that power and inconsistency is not a patch on the control and artistry of the past.

Sheddie · administrator

Yeah I saw it! Agree with you, Sabalenka always looks like an emotional wreck on the verge of completely imploding, while Gauff very much reminds me of Zverev in the men's game, mixes in brilliance with some absolute dross