Anne Keothavong

Just lost to an unranked 21 year old American who last won a professional singles match in 2008

Not her finest hour

she seems to take one step forward, and 2 steps back!

For Heather Watson in becoming for the first time the British No. 1 ladies player (when the rankings appear next monday).

^^ Indeed, will she break the top 70? Either way, her progression over the last 12 months has been impressive (across all facets of the game)

Currently she is predicted to go to 71 in the world. If she beats her second round opponent, the fifth seed Yanina Wickmayer, who has a ranking of 36, then she should break the top 70.

Thanks NS, I was wondering if Heather would take over

I like Anne - but neither she of Elena are going to get much higher

Here's hoping both Heather and Laura can be in the Top 50 this time next year

I feel both are Top 20 certs

Poor Anne. She'd struggle to win a match over wheelchair players right now.

seriously why doesnt keothavong retire, she must be embarrased when she's replies 'professional tennis player' when asked what job she does. It maybe harsh but she's appaling. Everyone with half a brain knows that this time next year she will winning her first round at wimbledon, swiftly followed by a quickfire 45 minute thrashing at the hands of a top seed. An endless cycle of continual disappointment and just getting by. Sometimes, you've just got to say enough is enough.

I feel for Keothavong. Was on a good run and even made the top 50 of the world before her serious knee injury. Not been the same player since.

John wrote:seriously why doesnt keothavong retire, she must be embarrased when she's replies 'professional tennis player' when asked what job she does. It maybe harsh but she's appaling. Everyone with half a brain knows that this time next year she will winning her first round at wimbledon, swiftly followed by a quickfire 45 minute thrashing at the hands of a top seed. An endless cycle of continual disappointment and just getting by. Sometimes, you've just got to say enough is enough.

Maybe she enjoys the tennis life-style and likes making a living out of something she enjoys doing. Perhaps she doesn't feel the disappointment quite as keenly as you think.

Obviously, I understand she loves her lifestyle, who wouldnt? She plays sport for a living and doesn't have to face up to the reality and problems faced by many people who are financially insecure on a day to day basis. The facts are though, even prior to any knee injury, she is an appaling tennis player. She has never won a WTA Title in her whole career and has never even reached the 4th round of any Grand Slam in her career, yet has picked up over 1.1m dollars in prizemoney.......astonishing. She has done incredibly well for herself with a clear and distinct lack of talent.

An appalling player is someone who made the top 50?

Gee I bet there are many 'appalling' players who would wish for such a ranking!

You take women's tennis rankings seriously? 0 WTA titles and only once ever reached the third round of a grand slam tells you all you need to know about Keothavong's ability. Look, all I'm saying is she's an extremely lucky individual to be given the opportunity to play tennis for a living because i'm sure there are many other people in the world who could of achieved significantly more in their career given the chance.

It's all relative of course. There are a few ladies at my club who I think are very good, but in fact could be termed 'worse than appalling'.
Maybe she is lucky - I don't begrudge a person a bit of luck.

Why not take rankings seriously? Many players play for rankings so they don't get difficult draws at events.

I don't think you have given the seriousness of her injury any consideration to reason she is struggling for form.

Players outside the top 32 shouldn't be on the tour.

Just have a relegation/promotion system where the bottom 4 of the top 32 are replaced by the top 4 outside the 32, problem solved.

First 2 rounds of Grandslams are always utterly poor in terms of match up.

Heather was beaten in three sets by the fifth seed and world no 36 Yanina Wickmayer, in the second round.

Nore Staat wrote:Heather was beaten in three sets by the fifth seed and world no 36 Yanina Wickmayer, in the second round.

Ouch! Pretty good showing taking the world 36 to three sets though.

And now Robson has beaten Vinci (#27 in the world) in straight sets, for what must be the best win of her pro career to date.

Looks like the two young guns are starting their move up the rankings at the right time as Keothavong and Baltacha are fading away.

Mallory Burdette is no ordinary unranked player, she's a multiple NCAA champion. That's why she hasn't been on the pro-circuit.

djlovesyou wrote:Mallory Burdette is no ordinary unranked player, she's a multiple NCAA champion. That's why she hasn't been on the pro-circuit.

... and it was a tight three setter.

In general one just need to ask the British men how difficult it is to maintain a top 100 ranking for so long as Keothavong has. She has been in the top 120 for about 6 years now reaching a high of 48 before getting injured. She has worked her way back into the top 80 after recovering from serious injury.

Anne has won 19 ITF level singles titles and 8 ITF level doubles titles. She has also been a key member of GB's Fed Cup team. There is absolutely no reason to get on her back, she has worked incredibly hard to get the most out of her talent.

Just because she and Bally have been cutting a lone furrow for GB womens tennis for some time (they have now been joined by Heather and Laura who have a greater potential) there is no reason to castigate them.

Being in the Womens top 100 is like bragging about being in the mens top 300, in short the mens game has much more depth and lot more certified professionals.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Being in the Womens top 100 is like bragging about being in the mens top 300, in short the mens game has much more depth and lot more certified professionals.

This may or may not be true, but it is a sexist argument nonetheless and cannot be upheld by the rules of logic.

Laura is through to the semi-final, having beaten Suárez Navarro (WTA ranked 41 whose best surface is clay) 6-4 2-6 6-3. Judging from the stats, she was very solid in the first set, became very nervous in the second set and was still a bit nervous / wobbly in the third set, but was able to hold on to her early break to take the set and the match. Of course Laura may have become more nervous in the second set if Navarro had upped her game and been more attacking, but it is difficult to tell from the stats.

Laura's win will take her back into the top 100 and to a predicted ranking of about 90, breaking her previous best ranking of 97. She will also overtake Elena Baltacha to become Britains third highest ranked ladies player.

She also does what was formerly known as the 'Katie Slam' but now has to be the 'Laura Slam' in that she qualifies for all four Grand Slam main draws but each one she did it in a different way.

Qualifier at the AO, Lucky Loser at the FO, WC at Wimbledon and now DA for US Open.

Katie did the first three (in the same way) but missed out by 2 ranking spots for the US Open.

Good result though. Chance of a title now too.

I watched bits of it, Laura looked the better player throughout. The match was in her racquet. She looks a real prospect when she gets her footwork right, but she sometimes does try and hammer it when her footwork ISN'T right.

I really think this is just the start for her. She'll be top 20 in my opinion.

Laura is up against the 8th seed next Barbora Zahlova Strycova, who is currently ranked 71 and has been as high as 39 two years ago. Strycova had a very good three set win over the third seed Julia Georges to reach the semi-final. However perhaps she may begin to feel the effects of two back to back three setters when she comes across Laura.

Good luck to Laura, trying to be the first British woman to reach a WTA singles final in 22 years!

Laura had opportunities but wasn't able to take them losing 6-2 5-7 2-6 in over two and a half hours and in the heat. A good effort to get to the semi-final and plenty to work on (her serve broke down on the pressure points (doubles faults and poor second serve stats), and she let 40-0 or 40-15 games slip).

Let's hope we shall be seeing her back in QFs and SFs of WTA tournaments. This was the first time she has made it to a WTA QF or SF.

Laura Robson is looking like a top-50 player and there's where I see her by maybe early 2013. I still think she could go higher than Watson, although there's not much between them.

Henman Bill wrote:Laura Robson is looking like a top-50 player and there's where I see her by maybe early 2013. I still think she could go higher than Watson, although there's not much between them.

As others have said Laura seems to have the big game within her that could see her progress further than Heather. Early days though - hopefully they will soon both be top-50 regulars. Elena B and Anne K flirted briefly within the top 50.

Nore Staat wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:Laura Robson is looking like a top-50 player and there's where I see her by maybe early 2013. I still think she could go higher than Watson, although there's not much between them.

As others have said Laura seems to have the big game within her that could see her progress further than Heather. Early days though - hopefully they will soon both be top-50 regulars. Elena B and Anne K flirted briefly within the top 50.

I made the argument before that Robson has the advantage over Watson in having the natural weight of shot and power on her serve that can trouble anyone - if she can sort out her consistency (especially of the first serve) and movement, she has the potential to be a very high ranked player, and the top 20 should be a realistic goal in the medium term. I suspect Watson will find her level somewhere between 25 and 50 in the world, based on being a good athlete and a consistent player, but that she will continue to struggle against the very best because of being unable to compensate for their greater power.

I don't think Watson's height 1.70 m (5' 7") (weight = 63kg) should preclude her from gaining the necessary strength and increasing her weight of shot. Justin Henin did well and she was 1.67 m (5' 5 1⁄2") (weight 57 kg) and competed against the likes of Davenport (1.89 m (6' 2 1⁄2"), weight = 79 kg).

Davenport - Henin H2H
0-4

01/27/2004 ............. 0 : 2 (5 : 7) (3 : 6)
01/24/2006 ............. 1 : 2 (6 : 2) (2 : 6) (3 : 6)
08/26/2006 ............. 0 : 1 (0 : 6) (0 : 1)
09/06/2006 ............. 0 : 2 (4 : 6) (4 : 6)

As yet however, Watson is being easily turned over by the top players (6-0 6-1 to 6-2 6-2) with a heavy weight of shot - whereas Robson isn't.

Nore

I think there's more to it than pure size - Henin was blessed with exceptional timing (especially on the backhand), and so was able to generate pace herself as well as handle the pace from her opponent.

Watson is an OK ball striker, but she struggles to control the ball at high pace coming back to her, and doesn't generate quite enough pace on her own shots to mean that a high quality opponent is off balance and having to defend. It may come with time, but so far I haven't seen the evidence that she will ever really compete against the top 10 players - good athleticism and consistency only take you so far without the shot-making ability.

The interesting thing about the loss to Radwanska at Wimby is that AR is really the same style of player as Heather (just better at it), and she's found a way of getting to the top of the rankings without powerful shots - she does though deal with pace from her opponent better than Heather does so far.

dummy: fair enough - although size helps it's not the determining factor. We agree she doesn't handle well the power hitters at the top level and she doesn't power hit herself.

Laura lost narrowly today to the No 35 in the world (has been ranked 16th) Medina Garrigues 6-4 7-6(4). (Bastad: clay).

Laura held her own but lost it on the pressure points:

Garrigues: 5 breaks from 11 breakpoint opportunities.
Laura: 4 breaks from 12 breakpoint opportunities.
Laura had 8 double faults to Garrigues 2.

I think her match was delayed by rain and I think Garrigues is a clay court specialist.
Her resume says the following:
- Has most WTA clay court titles among active players with 10 (Venus is next with 9).
- Junior highlights include winning 2000 Roland Garros doubles (w/Martínez Sánchez)].