British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit wrote:

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Var wrote:

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Lambda wrote:

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sammmm wrote:

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Is the serve a weaker part of Ellas game or was she just having a really bad day with it because she played really well but couldnt land the first serves or get cheap points when she needed them

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I can only comment on what I've seen on college streams and serves are a particularly problematic. There was one match where an opposition fan was reportedly counting her DFs and on their count it was something like 16 or 18 DFs in that one match.

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 Assuming that could be fixed? Given the right coach?

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 The coach was saying it's all due to energy - as above 

At every serve they were talking about energy and pushing up

So that's partly technical, partly mental

But, IMO, it's also because she's not sure what serve style she's going for 

It's very unusual to have someone who has one sort of first serve which is a classic first serve and another which is a club player sort of rolled-in serve - now that club player serve does win a few 'shock' points - and maybe it conserves energy for the next serve? 

But it's certainly not standard and, to me, it caused her problems because she had no 'groove', no reliable 'this is what I do when I stand to do my first serve'

And, under pressure in particular, that's even more reason why it breaks down

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Wednesday 24th of June 2026 07:06:17 AM

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 I've seen Ella play on grass twice at Ilkley. I don't recall her serve being a problem, maybe not the greatest of weapons but an ok first and second serve. My first impression of her and again this year is that she hasn't got a grass court game. She plays hard and accurate like she is on a hard court. Her ground strokes have always been great but she does not craft her points or adapt her game to grass.

goldfish wrote:

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Ellas coach also told her to look as if she was enjoying being out there - she didnt at all nor did she change her demeanour. Also feel some credit should be given to Kalieva - excellent groundstrokes and very calm.

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 Yes, I heard that too and thought it was hllarious 

And absolutely, Kalieva was finding it tricky, not playing amazingly well, but she did really well at staying calm, covering the court, getting depth and pace, putting her bad misses behind her, and focusing on the next

Blue_Belle wrote:

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Like, its criticism which is never nice but it isn't (to me) out and out nasty. I'm part of another discussion thread, and one of their posters called all the women players c*ap because they didn't get through qr1. Now that is mean and isn't constructive, unlike what I've read in this thread or board in general.

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 Yes, that's plain nasty, and also wrong - a player who is well out-ranked isn't 'cr*p' just because they lose

Indeed, a player who is better ranked isn't 'cr*p' just because they lose - they're not even a more polite version - it all depends on the tennis

However, as you say, there is nothing interesting in simply reporting scores (which tons of sites do) or just being the political-version of reality and only saying the nice bits