British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH · Tennis legend

Weeks 35-36 - US Open, New York, USA Main Draw - Hard

sammmm · County player

A more than respectable scoreline for Fran, if we were picking players for BJK on form shed be the first name on the list

JonH · Tennis legend

Last 32 in the women's includes 26 seeds - we usually see seeding carnage these days, but that is remarkably upset free.

GAMEOVER · Futures qualifying

Apart from GB, France,Germany ,Italy and Spain do not have a woman in the 3rd round of the singles.

indiana · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
Apart from GB, France,Germany ,Italy and Spain do not have a woman in the 3rd round of the singles.

They've collectively not done great at all. But tbf there are a couple - Jasmine Paolini who yesterday lost to Sorana Cirstea ( still going strong at 36 yo ) in R3, and Cristina Bucsa who plays Coco Gauff today. So good luck for any in R4.

I make it that it was 2 wins and 11 losses in R2 ( one was Italy vs Italy ).

JonH · Tennis legend

The BBC discuss where we stand relative to other countries and past years. A mixed bag seems to be the message, but improving

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/cy4zvjk74ppo

telstar · Club Coach

At the last 32 stage, I normally look to see how many seeds remain. No less than 26 of the 32 seeds made it through. I don't recall ever having seen so many and thus so few surprises.

GAMEOVER · Futures qualifying

indiana wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
Apart from GB, France,Germany ,Italy and Spain do not have a woman in the 3rd round of the singles.
They've collectively not done great at all. But tbf there are a couple - Jasmine Paolini who yesterday lost to Sorana Cirstea ( still going strong at 36 yo ) in R3, and Cristina Bucsa who plays Coco Gauff today. So good luck for any in R4.
I make it that it was 2 wins and 11 losses in R2 ( one was Italy vs Italy ).

I had forgotten about Bucsa.She is actually a late edition to the Spanish BJ King cup team.

indiana · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
indiana wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
Apart from GB, France,Germany ,Italy and Spain do not have a woman in the 3rd round of the singles.
They've collectively not done great at all. But tbf there are a couple - Jasmine Paolini who yesterday lost to Sorana Cirstea ( still going strong at 36 yo ) in R3, and Cristina Bucsa who plays Coco Gauff today. So good luck for any in R4.
I make it that it was 2 wins and 11 losses in R2 ( one was Italy vs Italy ).
I had forgotten about Bucsa.She is actually a late edition to the Spanish BJ King cup team.

Picking a player in form, that's a dastardly clever idea

Andy Parker · County player

It is a very strong line up for the last 16 this year, I think. Of the top 16 ranked, 11 have come through to the last 16, and three more are ranked between 17 and 32 and just two unseeded players. It has not really been an Open of shocks so far, and prrhaps how well all the top players have collectively performed is the stand out take from this.

Another thing that I think is quite striking this year is that only one player is left in both the women's singles and doubles - Taylor Townsend, who will no doubt go out to Sabalenka in the singles in a few hours time. I think that with there being no mixed doubles running this week, that stat shows just how focussed the top players are on the singles here and don't want the doubles as distratction.

I'm still hopeful that with Hannah, Mimi, Mika and Alicia coming through that things may look better for GB in a couple of years. It's been a strange year really - some of our top players struggling with injuries, others perhaps unlikely to progress much further due to age and waiting for the next generation to really make their mark. I feel that in a couple of years, we may be in a much better place, but right now, it feels to me that we are in a transition period.

indiana · Tennis legend

If Rybakina beats Swiatek conquerer, Zheng Qinwen, today, she will clinch the WR 1 spot for the first time.

If not, then any of Sabalenka, Pegula or Gauff winning the title would give them that WR 1 spot. It would be the first time for Pegula or Gauff.

indiana · Tennis legend

Andy Parker wrote:
It is a very strong line up for the last 16 this year, I think. Of the top 16 ranked, 11 have come through to the last 16, and three more are ranked between 17 and 32 and just two unseeded players. It has not really been an Open of shocks so far, and prrhaps how well all the top players have collectively performed is the stand out take from this.

Another thing that I think is quite striking this year is that only one player is left in both the women's singles and doubles - Taylor Townsend, who will no doubt go out to Sabalenka in the singles in a few hours time. I think that with there being no mixed doubles running this week, that stat shows just how focussed the top players are on the singles here and don't want the doubles as distratction.

I'm still hopeful that with Hannah, Mimi, Mika and Alicia coming through that things may look better for GB in a couple of years. It's been a strange year really - some of our top players struggling with injuries, others perhaps unlikely to progress much further due to age and waiting for the next generation to really make their mark. I feel that in a couple of years, we may be in a much better place, but right now, it feels to me that we are in a transition period.

Apparently, Leon Smith's post Andy Murray strategy for the men was to flood the Slam qualifiers. That has been achieved of late and from these numbers we have players progressing further on with us going to have 5 in the top 100 next Monday ( even with Jack D missing just now ) for the first time since goodness knows when.

On the women's side it seems more to look towards a few very talented young players and cross fingers. Certainly no sign that the depth and numbers will be there for the foreseeable future Anyway, I certainly wish all the best going forward to Mika and Hannah in particular, and let us hope that we will have good people and strategies in place so that things will get much better in years down the line.

sammmm · County player

I think we can also hope that a few of our college ladies can transition well similar to Alicia and (hopefully) Sofia both of whom have played above where their current rankings reflect, also Emma and Sonay have got another 7 or 8 years of their career prime at least provided they can stay fit. It's sadly likely that Katie B has peaked and Katie S will always be physically hampered making a climb into the top hundred very difficult for her

-- Edited by sammmm on Wednesday 9th of September 2026 12:10:49 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
If Rybakina beats Swiatek conquerer, Zheng Qinwen, today, she will clinch the WR 1 spot for the first time.

If not, then any of Sabalenka, Pegula or Gauff winning the title would give them that WR 1 spot. It would be the first time for Pegula or Gauff.

So Rybakina does clinch the WR 1 spot, and the top 4 play for the title, though all 4 QFs went to 3 sets with Gauff in particular saving 2 MPs in the 2nd set TB vs (5) Andreeva and Sabalenka being taken to a 3rd set MTB by (6) Noskova.

SFs: (1) Sabalenka vs (3) Pegula, and (4) Gauff vs (2) Rybakina

Andy Parker · County player

It's remarkable to see all the top 4 seeds in the semi-finals and I can't wait to see what happens.

I agree Indiana with you that for Hannah and Mika to progress needs them to have top coaches and good people around them, but with Mimi still progressing and Alicia and Sofia having excellent seasons and threatening to really break through, I don't feel it is that shallow in terms of the depth of our younger players in women's tennis. Looking at the last 50 years or so, we seldom have that many top 100 players at the same time.

Tennis is much more competitive globally, with each year, players from a more diverse set of nations coming through. Lots of the old guard, including France, Spain, Italy and Australia are producing less top players than they used to I think (not that I have stats on this), but when I think back to the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, those countries always seemed to have a steady stream of top players coming through, and now it is much less in numbers and quality, I think.

It is though frustrating to see Emma, Sonay, Jodie and Katie S hampered by injuries, and were each of these to have had injury free careers, we might well be having easily the most successful era in GB modern tennis - as it is, with Katie B and Emma currently in the top 100, Fran and Harriet around that mark, and Sonay and Katie S in the top 200, I don't think even among our senior players, things are that bad. Chuck in our next batch of good youngsters all knocking on the door to the big time, and my glass is still half full at least.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Thursday 10th of September 2026 12:45:34 AM