British Tennis Forum

HarryGem · Club Coach

RE: Week 21 - WTA500 - Strasbourg, France Clay

B00thy · Strong Club Player

I hope Emma is able to relax, knowing she's not expected to win this one, and play the more open attacking game she's brought to the court recently, without reverting to the self-concious, passive moments that puncture her game.

Then, who knows?

-- Edited by B00thy on Sunday 18th of May 2025 10:57:16 AM

Shhh · Challenger level

HarryGem wrote:
Peter too wrote:
R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 v Daria Kasatkina (AUS) [6] WR15

Winner to play the winner of Danielle Collins and Sofia Kenin
Not the draw Emma would want. She hasn't got the force to hit through Kasatkina on clay. Taking a set would be an improvement.

Kasatkina hasn't been in any great form. Emma must have a chance here, clay or not?

wimbledont · Lower Club Player

Emma off to a good start, breaking for 1*-0

wimbledont · Lower Club Player

Emma takes the first set 6-1.

Kasatkina has been pretty awful - stats showing 4DFs and 18UEs.

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) 43 def Daria Kasatkina (AUS) [6] WR17 6-1 6-3

R2: Emma Raducanu (GBR) 43 Danielle Collins (USA) 46

Winner to play the winner of Pegula WR3 and Kalinskaya WR30

B00thy · Strong Club Player

Only able to see the second half of the second set and Emma was playing well. She's still not closing out that well, resorting to some safe shots, particularly on her backhand, but she's now playing top 25 stuff I reckon

Shhh · Challenger level

Shhh wrote:
HarryGem wrote:
Peter too wrote:
R1: Emma Raducanu (GBR) WR49 v Daria Kasatkina (AUS) [6] WR15

Winner to play the winner of Danielle Collins and Sofia Kenin
Not the draw Emma would want. She hasn't got the force to hit through Kasatkina on clay. Taking a set would be an improvement.
Kasatkina hasn't been in any great form. Emma must have a chance here, clay or not?

I do not usually bet but I had a cheeky £1 on this. Well done Emma....off to paint the town

9vicman · Futures qualifying

Kasatkina did not hold serve all match. Which is....unusual.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Emma was fairly solid, Daria suprisingly wasn't

HarryGem · Club Coach

I don't think we should shy away from saying that was a terrific performance from Emma. Ok Kasatkina was not very good but she's very experienced and very decent on clay and tough to beat. Emma though, looked confident and from the passages I saw I thought she played a very intelligent match, excepting the one drop shot on match point! She's probably got the best natural on court movement of all the top GB women and she's clearly getting more confident on clay.

Collins can be a tough opponent but I'm not sure how much her heart is tennis now following her decision to reverse her retirement. She does have the power to hit Emma off court but fingers crossed for a decent result.

Peter too · Tennis legend

I watched the match and Emma went on the attack right from the start. She held, broke, lost her next service game and then cut out the errors and hit winner after winner, including some that Kasatkina got her racket on but couldn't control. Basically apart from the hiccup early on she overwhelmed Kasatkina in the first set. The second set was more competitive with Kasatkina breaking Emma's service three times but she couldn't hold her own service throughout the match, winning only about 40% of points on her 1st serve. Emma moved the ball around, varied her shots, covered the court well and made few errors, she out Kasatkina'd Kasatkina. She had too much for Kasatkina today.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Peter too wrote:
I watched the match and Emma went on the attack right from the start. She held, broke, lost her next service game and then cut out the errors and hit winner after winner, including some that Kasatkina got her racket on but couldn't control. Basically apart from the hiccup early on she overwhelmed Kasatkina in the first set. The second set was more competitive with Kasatkina breaking Emma's service three times but she couldn't hold her own service throughout the match, winning only about 40% of points on her 1st serve. Emma moved the ball around, varied her shots, covered the court well and made few errors, she out Kasatkina'd Kasatkina. She had too much for Kasatkina today.

Thanks.

Been out so missed it. Too busy at the moment to be able to watch a replay. Did watch highlights on WTA website but they can be totally misleading in terms of quality of the contest.

Won't be able to watch next round either as no free time on Wednesday.

korriban · Challenger level

I watched a few games in the second set yesterday. Kasatkina very much out of sorts for whatever reason, and Emma was by far the better player overall. What shocked me, though, was how painfully slow the court was - compared to Rome and Madrid - it looked like they were playing on mud. Every groundstroke seemed to leave a massive crater in the court with a huge puff of dirt rising up as the ball almost stopped after impact! Just extraordinary. Was it just me?!

B00thy · Strong Club Player

Yes, I saw that many, many groundstrokes kicked up dust, which was unusual to see. Not sure about the speed though .. Emma hit one or two blindingly fast crosscourt forehand winners biggrin