British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

PaulM · Tennis legend

Weeks 26-27 - The Championships, Wimbledon - Singles - grass

paulisi · Tennis legend

No issue with Harriet's play, but experience told in the end.

paulisi · Tennis legend

ricardo89 wrote:
This is quite worrying for our brits male and female on day one. 0/5 so far

None of them were expected to win....

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
No issue with Harriet's play, but experience told in the end.

I don't think it was experience - Harriet had pretty much the same level of experience at this level, Penko a touch more but nothing really in it, not compared to a lot of the others

Ostapenko was just a tad better in her tennis, placing the balls in the corners, with a little more power, which she managed to control when she needed to, just a little bit more in her tennis bag

Var · Challenger qualifying

paulisi wrote:
ricardo89 wrote:
This is quite worrying for our brits male and female on day one. 0/5 so far
None of them were expected to win....

Not even Cam?

Sheddie · administrator

I do think there's a fairly decent chance that we'll get no one into round 2.

But there's some massively mitigating circumstances. Emma and Jack being forced out, and Sonay being injured are all body blows. And for the rest of our contingent, the draws could barely have been smellier

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
ricardo89 wrote:
This is quite worrying for our brits male and female on day one. 0/5 so far
None of them were expected to win....

Exactly

As said eslewhere, we don't have top-100 players

Indeed, those who win in R1 are, by definition, in the top-64

Even allowing for a bit of wriggle room, we don't have any players today who are currently top-64 level

(Of course, we all hope for a miracle, a lucky streak, whatever, but the rankings are the rankings)

PaulM · Tennis legend

I also really enjoyed Martina's commentary today, it was very insightful, robust yet fair, about both ladies. She was bang on with what Harriet did wrong on the break point at 4-4* in the third, it was really interesting to have someone clearly say why the deep slice (which she drifted long) from her position at the net wasn't right and what would have been the better choice against Penko, but I'm not convinced Harriet would have served it out anyway.

It does frustrate me Harriet has found herself stuck in the 150-180 rut, she's not a top 50 player but she is a top 100 one and just needs to find a way to string the performances together for a few months to shift the ranking.

Alicia I just hope she makes good decisions with how she invests the prize money back in herself. New York and Melbourne qualies are really realistic goals.

I'm not sure we've ever had a worse set of draws? I've never seen such a tough group of unseeded opponents from memory. It's just too big an ask.

-- Edited by PaulM on Monday 29th of June 2026 03:00:10 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Var wrote:
paulisi wrote:
ricardo89 wrote:
This is quite worrying for our brits male and female on day one. 0/5 so far
None of them were expected to win....
Not even Cam?

Cam is still playing...

the addict · Tennis legend

A lull in the proceedings, so here are the results so far

Harriet Dart (GBR) WR151 [WC] lost to Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) WR35 3-6 6-3 4-6
Alicia Dudeney (GBR) WR246 [WC] lost to Alycia Parks (USA) WR80 3-6 3-6
Mika Stojsavljevic (GBR) WR276 [WC] lost to Belinda Bencic (SUI) WR12 [11] 2-6 1-6

foobarbaz · Club Coach

Harriet lost, and maybe should have won, but it wasn't a bad experience for her, she got the crowd going, and cheering for her, and that will give Dart confidence. The first serve came good when she needed it, at least for the critical parts of the 2nd and 3rd sets. Harriet just became a little too passive in the rallies at the end. Almost got there, with some great points won at the net. Something to build on, going forward.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

Christ alive, Dart vs Ostapenko!

That must literally be a ballboy or ballgirls worst nightmare.

Probably the two biggest a***holes in the whole event. Burst out laughing when I saw that was an actual match.

foobarbaz · Club Coach

Jeff Stelling wrote:
Christ alive, Dart vs Ostapenko!

That must literally be a ballboy or ballgirls worst nightmare.

Probably the two biggest a***holes in the whole event. Burst out laughing when I saw that was an actual match.

cowardly use of asterisk.

DF · Tennis legend

Mimi on court. Already had her serve broken . 1-2

GAMEOVER · Futures qualifying

It was the same in ladies qualifying when Heather was the only player to win 2 matches and Esther won 1. Similarly we had no winners in the ladies main draw.at Eastbourne. Another long tem injury is Jodie Burrage.