British Ladies Watch (23 to 29 May 2011)

Ranking points gained this week:
not including points dropped
Heather Watson 160pts [60pts carried over from qualifier]
Elena Baltacha 100pts
Anne Keothavong 5pts
The rest either 1pt or no points.


Grand Slam: Roland Garros France (Clay)
Ranking Points: QF:500 R16:280 R32:160 R64:100 R128:5/0
Elena Baltacha(GBR) loses in 2nd Rnd (100pts):
R128 Elena Baltacha(82) beats Sloane Stephens(138) 7-5 6-2
R64 Elena Baltacha(82) loses to Vania King(115) 6-4 1-6 4-6

Anne Keothavong(GBR) loses in first round (5pts):
R128 Anne Keothavong(108) loses to Vesna Dolonts(101) 6-3 6(5)-7 4-6

Heather Watson (GBR) loses in 2nd Rnd (100+60pts)*:
R128 Heather Watson(117) beats S. Foretz Gacon(140) 7(8.)-6(6) 6-1
R64 Heather Watson(117) loses to Kaia Kanepi(16) 1-6 3-6
*Note: Has 60 pts for qualifying.
Tournament Link


ITF $25,000 Itaparica, Brazil (Hard)
Ranking Points: W:50 F:34 SF:24 QF:14 R16:8/1 R32:1
Amanda CARRERAS (GBR) first round (1pt):
R32 Amanda CARRERAS (570) loses to Paula Cristina GONCALVES(559) 0-6 4-6
Tournament Link


Britons in top 300 (23rd May):
Rank (move). Players Name (age)
83 (unc).... Elena Baltacha (27)
108 (unc).. Anne Keothavong (27)
108: ==============Direct Entry to Slams threshold
117 (up2).. Heather Watson (19)
221 (up1).. Katie O'Brien (25)
237 (dn2).. Laura Robson (17)
241 (unc).. Emily Webley-Smith (26)
250: ==============WildCard Slams eligibility
253 (up4).. Naomi Broady (21)
289 (up5).. Lisa Whybourn (20) [Carrying an injury]
290 (dn17). Naomi Cavaday (22) [retired from sport]
296 (up3).. Melanie South (25)
LAST WEEKS TOURNAMENTS


Quick Glance at the Men's Game
Britons in top 300 excl. Murray (23rd May):
Rank (move). Players Name (age)
215 (up1).. James Ward (24)
276 (up3).. Daniel Cox (20)

Unfortunately Anne doesn't become the first British woman to reach the second round of the singles tournament at Roland Garros in 17 years.

Great win Hev!! 1st GS main draw win and hopefully top 100 now too. But she has a fair few points to defend from Eastbourne last year after reaching the 2nd round as a qualifier so let's hope she can keep up her winning streak even though Kanepi in the next round will be a major hurdle.

Congratulations to Heather! Another straight sets win, and first British woman through to the second round in 17 years. Hopefully Bally can also get to the second round tomorrow (which would be the first time for her too).

Checking Heathers last years points between RG and Wimbledon:
Birmingham June 7th (R64) - 1pt
Eastbourne June 14th (R16) - 80pts

Heather is due to play in next weeks ITF Nottingham tournament and the WTA event in Birmingham the week after. I don't think she will be playing in Eastbourne (unless she gets a wildcard - the qualifiers are presumably played in the week of the Birmingham tournament).

She will need a wildcard for Wimbledon because the rankings are apparently taken 6 weeks before the tournament to determine main draw entry lists (at least that is what I have been told).

Baltacha well on top of things here so far, battled back from 5-3 down to win the first set 7-5 and now a break up at 3-2 in the second. Like London buses?

Fabulous performance from Bally - this is the first time she has got passed the first round and she achieved it with consumate ease. She next faces Vania King who knocked out the No 22 seed Dominika Cibulkova.

Both Bally and Heather have been playing well recently - both claiming to adopt a calmer on court presence on clay. It seems to be working! It seems likely that Heather will be knocked out in round 2 by the 16th seed (but who knows...) while Bally 2nd round match seems "winnable".

Goodness, three Brits through the 1st round !

Actually Nore, I think it is Bally that might wilt and not Heather, but lets hope they both do well, and Murray too of course.

[quote=Actually Nore, I think it is Bally that might wilt and not Heather, but lets hope they both do well, and Murray too of course.[/quote]

Hi Bally did wilt, going a set up she had two break points to break Vania in the first game of the second set but was unable to carry it through. She then proceeded to lose the next 3 games to go 4-0 down. Anyway she lost that set 6-1 and then went a double break down in the third set. She managed to get one break back but eventually lost 6-4 in the final set.

Vania is the higher quality player but focuses mainly on the doubles circuit. She has won 12 WTA double titles and has two grand slam titles (Wimbledon 2010 and US Open 2010). She has also got to the final of the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2009. Bally is not a natural clay court player and she mentioned in an earlier interview that she only started to take clay seriously this year - reaching her first quarter-final and semi-final of an ITF tournament.

It's a bit of a missed opportunity for Bally but King seems as though she's on form, after all she knocked Cibulkova out in the previous round. I think Heather will have her work cut out against Kanepi but anything's possible....

That's it all the British ladies are now out of the singles tournament. Next week the top three should be playing on the grass of Nottingham in an ITF $75k+H tournament (all are in the entry list). Laura and Katie are entered in the qualifier beginning this Saturday.

Both Bally and Heather have had the best clay court season of their careers to date.

The next time the rankings are published Heather will be in the top 100 and will have overtaken Anne. However I'm not sure when the Grand Slam points are added and there is another tournament next week.

Elena pulled out of the Nottingham ITF event today. As of 26th May we have the following

Main Draw (starts next Monday)
16 KEOTHAVONG, Anne GBR 107
21 WATSON, Heather GBR 121
WCM O'BRIEN, Katie GBR 221
WCM ROBSON, Laura GBR 237
WCM WEBLEY-SMITH, Emily GBR 253
WCM BROADY, Naomi GBR 283

Qualifier Draw (Starts this Saturday)
25 SOUTH, Melanie GBR 282
WCQ WHYBOURN, Lisa GBR 292
WCQ MOORE, Tara GBR 339
WCQ WINDLEY, Jade GBR 674
WCQ MURRAY, Samantha GBR 805
WCQ BROWN, Lucy GBR 809

http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/Nottingham-Festival-of-Tennis/AEGON-Trophy/

I watched quite a bit of Heather's match, and all she lacks is a decent strong 1st serve (or at least stronger than it is now), more beef into her forehand and a little more direction on her backhand retrievals.

All this will come as she matures physically and mentally.

Another couple of years and I think she will be a strong top 50 player, at least. Its the first time I have seen her in a highly competitive match like a slam, and she impressed me with her ground strokes, very promising.

Jubbahey

Largely agree - there were times when Heather was very competetive, and I thought the scoreline in games was a bit harsh. Another area that may need work is the return of serve, but for a young and inexperienced player she handled herself quite well under the circumstances.

One thing that was impressive was her movement - looked very natural and well balanced. If you could take her movement and Laura Robson's weight of shot you'd have a real challenger for the top 10.

Miss Robson is taking it very slowly, gradually building herself up to contend in the Pro circuit, but I hope she doesn't leave it too late to try and make her mark.

Its happened before, kids trying to break into the top echelon of the game only to take too long and get passed by other, quicker talent.

But yes, a combination of both is something Heather should look at.

Laura has also struggled with injury for much of this year. Towards the end of 2010 she was showing encouraging signs, qualifying for main draws of main tour events and cracking the top 200, but since the Hopman Cup she's been derailed a bit. Hopefully she can pick it up again soon - and maybe seeing Heather's success will give her that bit more inspiration and motivation.

Laura has such a cracking good forehand and attitude, it would be a shame if injury were to plague her career early on.

Fingers X'ed, toes and all.

Qualifying Draw for Nottingham:
http://www.itftennis.com/womens/tournaments/drawsheetbyround.asp?event=1100137683&tournament=1100024092

Nore, Im following someone on the tennis twitter who is big on stats.
He has just tweeted this, not sure if the link is of any assistance:

GBtennis Steven
Next week's GB top 25 women's table is now available @ http://bit.ly/jrRax1 - lots of players @ Nottingham + @nikslater @ Hilton Head Island

Hi YI Man - that is quite amazing - thank you for the link!

I won't have the time in future to keep this British Ladies thread going (it was started more as an experiment), but I am now wondering whether in future it might be worth considering placing a "tennis resources" thread on a sticky - with this and other useful links (it could be called "the tennis resources centre"). The links will provide access to the latest information which members can use as inspiration to start chat threads on a particular aspect.

Useful links could include:
ITF Womens tournaments: http://www.itftennis.com/womens/
ITF Juniors tournaments: http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/
ITF Mens Future tournaments: http://www.itftennis.com/mens/
The ATP site: http://www.atpworldtour.com/

The key would be that since most of these sites update themselves daily or weekly on the same link - it wouldn't require much effort to keep it going.

Maybe I could have a go at developing a simple "template" later.

I have also found the following that can be added to the resources centre - is this a useful idea? Since individual members will tire or come and go the key is to link to sites which will be updated on a regular basis:

http://tennislive.free.fr/
http://tennislive.free.fr/race
http://tennislive.free.fr/playersSchedule

This seems to be a Womens version:
http://tenismaclari.com/Siralama/s1_50.html
and another version:
http://en.tennistemple.com/wta/joueuses/classement_live.html