Week 19 - WTA1000 - Rome, Italy Clay

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 19 - WTA1000 - Rome, Italy Clay

Peter too · Tennis legend

Harriet is 4th on court 6 on 5th May after two ATP and one WTA matches. Play starts at 8am UK time.

-- Edited by Peter too on Monday 5th of May 2025 09:50:59 AM

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: Katie Boulter(GBR) WR40 v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (***) WR52
They met in Linz in 2024 with Anastasia winning 6(2) & 4

Winner to play S.Kenin [31] in R2

R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 v Maya Joint (AUS) Q WR78

Winner to play E.Alexandrova [21] in R2

R1: Sonay Kartal (GBR) WR56 v Kimberly Birrell (AUS) WR60
They met in Nottingham in 2022 with Sonay winning 1 & 1 and in Ilkley in 2024 with Kimberley winning 6(4) & 5

Winner to play L.Noskova [30] in R2

Edited to include Emma's opponent.

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 9th of May 2025 01:41:02 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

About as good a draw as Sonay could ask for at this level. With Emma depends slightly on who the qualifier is but I'd hope even with the break she can do enough.

Can't see a Katie win but Pavs is not exactly the best clay court mover either so who knows.

pauliscot · Junior player

But Pavy was a FO finalist 4 years ago

PaulM · Tennis legend

pauliscot wrote:
But Pavy was a FO finalist 4 years ago

She was which is why I can't see Katie winning, but I can see her making a decent fist of it. I don't think we should be looking at a Paolini style blow out (I am setting the bar pretty low!).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Surprised to see the odds quite so negative on Harriet, given Todoni has had major injury problems recently, it's clay, she's got tons of tape on

PaulM · Tennis legend

Harriet broke, had *40-15 but was broken. Then missed 6 break points, and got broken again.

1-3*

As CD says, the Romanians right leg is so heavily taped I'm surprised she can bend it.

wales1994 · County player

PaulM wrote:
pauliscot wrote:
But Pavy was a FO finalist 4 years ago
She was which is why I can't see Katie winning, but I can see her making a decent fist of it. I don't think we should be looking at a Paolini style blow out (I am setting the bar pretty low!).

She also made the QFs only 2 years ago, and has a 64% win rate at the French Open. Not a great draw for Katie. Will she play any other clay events before the French?

Peter too · Tennis legend

wales1994 wrote:
PaulM wrote:
pauliscot wrote:
But Pavy was a FO finalist 4 years ago
She was which is why I can't see Katie winning, but I can see her making a decent fist of it. I don't think we should be looking at a Paolini style blow out (I am setting the bar pretty low!).
She also made the QFs only 2 years ago, and has a 64% win rate at the French Open. Not a great draw for Katie. Will she play any other clay events before the French?

Katie has her name down for the WTA125 in Paris starting on May 12th.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Emma and Ekaterina must be sick of each other already.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Q1: Harriet Dart (GBR) WR112 lost to Anca Todoni (ROU) [13] WR89 2-6 2-6

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The bookies' odds were about right :( :( :(

Sheddie · administrator

Yeah clay really isn't the surface for Harriet, especially slow Rome clay. I get that she wants to challenge herself at the highest level ahead of RG qualies, but on her weakest surface by far, might have been wiser scheduling to play some of the 75-125ks instead of WTA qualies over the last 6 weeks?

As it is, she's now on a 6 match losing streak, plus the fallout from "smellygate."

HarryGem · Club Coach

Peter too wrote:
R1: Katie Boulter(GBR) WR40 v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ( ) WR52
They met in Linz in 2024 with Anastasia winning 6(2) & 4
Winner to play S.Kenin [31] in R2

R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 v Q
Winner to play E.Alexandrova [21] in R2

R1: Sonay Kartal (GBR) WR56 v Kimberly Birrell (AUS) WR60
They met in Nottingham in 2022 with Sonay winning 1 & 1 and in Ilkley in 2024 with Kimberley winning 6(4) & 5
Winner to play L.Noskova [30] in R2

-- Edited by Peter too on Monday 5th of May 2025 11:30:08 AM

Depending upon who Emma gets I'd say right now Sonay has the best chance of progressing. Pavlyuchenkova has been injured quite a bit and looked pretty off form recently so I would say Katie does have a chance though she needs to be quite bit better than her last time out on clay. Even if she wins progress deep into the tournament would look difficult with Kenin awaiting the winner and then Sabalenka a likely 3rd round opponent.

Sonay should win her match and Noskova is not unbeatable by any stretch of the imaginationbut difficult.

Emma could in theory get Sakkari and there other more than decent players in qualification. I don't think she would have much chance against Alexandrova on clay,who has looked really pretty decent on clay lately, should she get to round 2 though so I think our participation in this event probably won't go beyond round 2.

Another disappointing effort from Harriet.