Week 19 - WTA1000 - Rome, Italy Clay

seagull · Hall of fame

Week 19 - WTA1000 - Rome, Italy Clay

paulisi · Tennis legend

Interesting setting for a tennis court, the stadium is built in the middle of an athletics track.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yep, that rather spoiled Emma's mega TB record. Hard won 11 out of her previous 12.

B00thy · Intermediate Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
christ wrote:
How come we can all see that she is much better off attacking, but Ms Raducanu (and her "team") appear unable to see the same thing?
It seems like we've been there, got the t-shirt, so many times.....

putting my new T-shirt on .. defensive Emma returns in the nick of time, to give the second set to Maya when it seemed easier to win it .. not one overhead helpfully back to Maya, but a second one to allow her a second chance .. then for the rest of the set, 95% defensive .. still a new set, so hopefully positive Emma will come back and snatch back the T-shirt

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: Katie Boulter (GBR) WR40 lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (***) WR52 3-6 3-6
R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 def Maya Joint (AUS) WR78 7-5 6-7(1) 6-3
R1: Sonay Kartal (GBR) WR56 def Kimberly Birrell(AUS) WR60 4-6 6-3 6-4

R2: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 v Ekaterina Alexandrova (***) [21] WR20
They met in the Australian Open in 2025 with Emma winning 6(4) & 6(2). They met in Doha in 2025 with Ekaterina winning 3 & 5
R2: Sonay Kartal (GBR) WR56 v Linda Noskova (CZE) [30] WR30

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 9th of May 2025 01:44:15 PM

B00thy · Intermediate Club Player

phew! she went 5-0 up again in the third before going back into her shell, finally winning 6-3. To be fair to her team, she and they want to attack. What happened here is plain to see .. self-doubt appears as the winning post comes into view .. she doesn't play defensively then, she plays with too much margin and lets her opponent back in. But she's through ..

-- Edited by B00thy on Wednesday 7th of May 2025 08:51:12 PM

Peter too · Tennis legend

That was a very tough high quality match. Emma kept putting Maya under pressure but she just wouldn't give up, she kept coming back over and over again.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Overall, I thought a more encouraging performance than many the season as she was prepared to attack. The execution varied between impressive and absolutely horrible. Her defensive play is so poor that it is pointless letting her opponent dominate. 2nd set tiebreak was a shocker, barely did anything right. Start to the 3rd set was much better. Closing it out was a struggle.

Lovely to see her actually hit her backhand aggressively for once. Several good b cc and one or two down the line. Overheads are 14 year old standard, not professional player.

Tons to work on but at least if she is attacking then she's worth watching.

Jajon · Club Coach

Thought Emma played really well for 90% of that match tbf. Got messy at end of second and third but meh, not that uncommon in womens tennis.

Alexandrova is surprisingly high in the race rankings right? So not ideal but take a win here

B00thy · Intermediate Club Player

Peter too wrote:
That was a very tough high quality match. Emma kept putting Maya under pressure but she just wouldn't give up, she kept coming back over and over again.

she did, she chased everything .. but it should have been over in two sets, she was beaten and it was Emma who let her back in, not Maya wh grabbed it back

MrTSymonds · Junior player

Alexandrova has never gotten past the third round at the French, so it feels like a winnable match. Fingers crossed.

the addict · Tennis legend

Well would you believe it, they've been drawn together again for the third time this year. Can they get a set this time ?

R1:- Tereza Mihalikova (SVK) / Olivia Nicholls (GBR) CR66 (34+32) v Su-Weu Hsieh (TPE) / Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) CR15 (11+4) [4]

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

MrTSymonds wrote:
Alexandrova has never gotten past the third round at the French, so it feels like a winnable match. Fingers crossed.

Semis this year at Charleston and Stuttgart, on clay

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 7th of May 2025 08:59:33 PM

Jajon · Club Coach

MrTSymonds wrote:
Alexandrova has never gotten past the third round at the French, so it feels like a winnable match. Fingers crossed.

Alexandrovas record at slams is genuinely atrocious (for a player of her quality), whatever the surface tbf

B00thy · Intermediate Club Player

kundalini wrote:
Overheads are 14 year old standard, not professional player.

Not sure about 14 year-old standard but certainly not top 100. She plays every overhead or drive volley towards her opponent, regardless of court position. And when in self-doubt mode, she plays everything down the centre of the court (and has done for years). It's such a shame. I wonder if she likes to keep people she trusts around her because her confidence is fragile (and of course she plays under tremendous pressure from the public eye).

I really hope she eradicates these instincts in the clutch moments