Laura played quite well but in the 2nd and 3rd Broady had one of those games where her serve was firing, her forehand was accurate and her backhand was devestating.
It seems a bad draw for Laura, catching Broady on a GOAT servebotting day. Laura's serve was actually evry good until the third. Broady served 16 aces and 37 winners to Laura's 6 aces and 31 winners. Broady 82% off the first serve.
You can completely see Laura Robson's getting there. On a day like today Broady would have pumped most of the tour, her forehand was ridiculously accurate in the 3rd and it was a high ace and winner count.
Now wtach Broady's sevre break down and she throws out 40 UEs in round 2 :lol:
Well they were level-pegging for a long while. Pains me to say but Broady was ridiculously clutch on saving break points with massive serves. Consistently got her out of trouble. That's why Laura was only 1 for 9 on BPs.
Detect a bit of a frisson between the two. Naomi complained to the umpire about Laura's multi-ball tosses; Laura I think complained about Naomi timewasting between points.
Naomi was playing better tennis than Laura today (actually played better than I expected) and clutch on top of it. Serve totally deserted Robson unlike Cavaday.
it's official... Broady is the first British player I dislike... first, complaining about the ball toss at 4-3 second set. She made sure Laura hear it... so at 5-3 Laura rushed her serve and lost the set... Second, 4-4 3rd set... Broady held all the balls to buy time... she literally holding all the balls... then third, the drinking in between points... is she really like that?
it's official... Broady is the first British player I dislike...first, complaining about the ball toss at 4-3 second set. She made sure Laura hear it... so at 5-3 Laura rushed her serve and lost the set... Second, 4-4 3rd set... Broady held all the balls to buy time... she literally holding all the balls... then third, the drinking in between points... is she really like that?
A lot of fancy winners from both. I think what made the difference today was Naomi's ability to save break points with her serve, really putting Laura under pressure. The first set was beautiful tennis. But Laura lost intensity in the second set and it never really came back, despite attempting a hotdog haha. I think Laura just needs to get some more ITF matches under her belt and build the ranking up further.
I can't see Naomi beating Aga...But I think this is Naomi's first MD win in a slam outside of Wimbledon, so good for her.
Overall the level was higher from both than expected. Long story short, Laura did play well but a few errors on the bigger points when she DID get opportunities. Credit to Naomi for playing the best match she's played in months IMO, serving great and the groundies actually firing for once! Happy for Nams.
Sad for Laura though, she came close. But I'm so proud she made it this far, what a turnaround since scraping past Lykina in 25K round one :haha: I'm proud of her.
The biggest shame for me is that they don't seem to like each other
Sad that Naomi will get eviscerated by Aga next round.
A big shame for Laura as those 70 ranking points would have been a huge bonus - she will have to get back to the ITFs and qualies in the autumn if she wants to get a top 200 ranking and an AO qualies spot...
She'll need 40 points in three months, which should be a pretty easy target if she stays at the level of her last couple of tournaments.
Bit of a waste of one of the easiest draws for Robson, but given how much of the year she's spent losing to players even worse than Broady, probably best to just take the tournament as a positive.
How exactly does this result prove otherwise? Ostapenko lost to Naomi in a similar manner.
Anyway I was talking about their mechanics. Both Laura and Jelena are prone to Wild UEs and stacking up the DFs. But when on, Laura's ball striking ability is superior to Ostapenko's and you don't need to be a tennis genius to see this.
This isn't such a bad result for Laura. For a long time she's been trying to get back to form following wrist surgery and she seems finally to have turned the corner having won an ITF a couple of weeks ago and now qualifying here. Taking Naomi (who is 150 spots higher than her in the rankings) to 3 fairly close sets when Naomi's serve was working well, is no mean feat. There were plenty of other players that she would have beaten yesterday with that level of play. If Laura can maintain this level then she will soon be back in the top 150 and from there who knows.
Congrats to Naomi - nice to win a MD match at a slam but I fear that Aga will be a step too far.