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ITF Suzhou: Riko Sawayanagi d Laura Robson 3-6 6-4 7-5

4K views 42 replies 26 participants last post by  Pierre. 
#1 ·
Hard to believe that Robson had a CHR of 27 in July 2013 as a 19 year old and is now at this level.
 
#6 ·
Robson was most definitely overrated, but she should have been a consistent factor in the 20-40 range the way she played at 18/19. Could have improved and become a better player, who knows what she could have achieved... Her form in recent years has been shocking. I don't feel sorry for her. She's almost 24 now, she'll probably retire next year if things continue like this.
 
#7 ·
I don't feel sorry for her. She's almost 24 now, she'll probably retire next year if things continue like this.
How can you not feel sorry for her, she had a debilitating wrist injury that took two years out of her career when she was just starting to deliver?

It's not like she slumped because of a lack of effort, I think it's obvious that she hasn't been able to replicate her past success because of factors relating to her long lay off, a wrist injury is a killer of tennis careers.
 
#15 ·
Yeah, i generally agree, and would be nice if the other slams lowered theirs, but as the others all do it with no signs of stopping - there has been 6 French women wildcards in every main draw since 2011, plus the reciprocal ones, Wimbledon may as well join in and help progress the careers of their own and help them make a better living from the game.

In an ideal world they would be saved for the promising players coming back from injury or those who have made a massive impact in previous events like Bencic and Lisicki respectively but I don't see why Wimbledon should be the only one not to take advantage of the situation.
Because Wimbledon recognises that propping up careers of those who don't deserve it doesn't benefit a) Wimbledon or b) British tennis.

Wimbledon stopped doing this after fiascos like Bogdanovic's 948345495 R1 losses in a row on a MD WC, and the way the press rightly dragged them/him for it. And the idea that these big rewards will help British tennis in general was always a fallacy.

The WC recipients might be able to prolong their careers with the financial boost but it's fundamentally unearned (they wouldn't have received it if they'd been from a non-Slam country) and in the long run, much as some players attempt it, you can't WC your way into a proper career if you're not good enough (look at Rogowska as the prime example here).

Wimbledon actually incentivising stronger GBR performances by holding WC recipients to a certain standard is much better for British players than the old way, where bad ITF players could just coast along for 12 months and be assured of free money every year.
 
#18 ·
You speak common sense as usual about the WCs.

For Laura, this is a bad loss.
Sawayanagi has had a terrible year - she has not managed to string wins together all season, and she handily lost her second round match to another Asian ITF regular in the next round.

I wonder if Laura will ever find her singles game again, the times I have seen her, she has sprayed the ball everywhere, and the movement has been terrible. Not even close to top 100 standard. A main draw Wimbledon WC in 2018 would surely be ludicrous if she continues to perform at the level of a 250-300 ranked player.
 
#19 ·
I really think it's all in her head. Whenever she believes she can win again, she will start moving better and hitting the ball with more precision, and ultimately playing better and winning matches. You don't go from great to atrocious in 2.5 years.

Here is the problem: she has below zero confidence. She has lost the ability to think that she can be a great player again. With zero confidence (sometimes I feel like she might be a bit depressed) you don't move your feet, you tend to be slow, you can't fight and your game becomes a mess.

I am optimistic that this situation will change one day. When she somehow can win 2 or 3 matches, you will see how much lighter her feet feel and how many more winners she can hit.
 
#26 ·
Some of the earlier matches when using her PR were competitive to a degree, such as the infamous choke to Vesnina USO 2015, first set vs Rybarikova at IW, parts of match against Vika in Madrid.

The problem being that it's no good unless she can walk away having converted the flashes of talent that she still shows into a win, heck she even showed it in the last few mins at Wimbledon this year. That's what makes it more frustrating, that she can't perform long enough to win two sets.

Don't know now. Decent coach, sports shrink, right team around her etc, will this be enough as too many comebacks have happened quicker than hers. The optimists, me included, would still hope for a top 100 return and a Konta like run, but I guess it's a game full of errors and lack of belief that she should be cleaning up on the ITF circuit.
 
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#27 ·
I mean, players worse than Robson have plugged away on the ITF circuit for longer than she has before finally making it to the WTA Tour. She has years left to do this. But it'll be a slow, incremental grind, not coasting along waiting for a magic bullet in a big event.

Maybe she knows this better than her fans, but this idea that she "should" be playing WTA events and Slams because that's where she'll be most motivated has to be killed off completely. Her level is that of a mid-200s player and has been for two years of full schedules, give or take some minor highs above that and some lows beneath that. She's just got to do what every other player ranked around there has to do if she wants to play WTA events again.
 
#29 ·
Maybe she knows this better than her fans, but this idea that she "should" be playing WTA events and Slams because that's where she'll be most motivated has to be killed off completely. Her level is that of a mid-200s player and has been for two years of full schedules, give or take some minor highs above that and some lows beneath that. She's just got to do what every other player ranked around there has to do if she wants to play WTA events again.
Many other players that have broken through from around Laura's ranking or from no ranking this year have done via getting wins at big events. Sure, for some it is more gradual than others. For example, Rybarikova won a bunch of big ITF titles. But what really helped her breakthrough was the 100k titles, the run in a WTA event and then the run in a Grand Slam. But these days, it's so difficult to break into the top 100. A lot of players have to win 100ks or WTA title or go deep in a slam to do it. Laura has already won a 25k and 60k since her comeback and then flopped miserably. It would be great if she could gradually build on form, but it looks like that's not going to work.
 
#32 ·
Laura :tears:. Maybe cheating death in Vegas slightly is on her mind a little bit.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Talking about players plugging away on the ITF circuit for years before climbing the rankings and close to Laura Robson in nationality is Johanna Konta. Jo ranked 147 after the 2012 US Open and before Eastbourne 2015 i.e nearly 3 years later ranked 146. In the summer of 2015 she won Granby $50k., Vancouver $100k., qualified for US Open and reached the last 16, qualified for Wuhan reaching quarterfinals and qualified as a lucky loser at Linz winning 1 round. By this time her ranking had reached 47. So her ranking rose over 100 places in 5 tournaments in 2015 whilst basically treading water for 3 years. This proves that rising the rankings can be done in a few tournaments (without the use of wild cards) by British players and any other countries players for that matter. Of course having a long winning run builds confidence.
I hate to add this but looking back on 2015, Jo was decidedly more successful in the second part of 2015 when she was lowly ranked rather than in 2017 when she was highly ranked.
 
#39 ·
The point here being, Konta strung together several successful tournaments, with increasing ranking point levels on offer each time.

Laura's has, arguably, two occasions where her fan base could start to get excited about her catching fire. First was winning Landisville 25K and then qualifying for USO with relative ease. The Broady R1 match was a lost opportunity (she'd have got Aga in R2 who Broady had a good go against), following this, she managed (I think) one QF in 50K and then lost a load of matches, mainly first rounds, against opponents who you'd have thought she would make light work of after her recent runs.

After that, the 80K and 60K QFs in May this year followed by the Kurume 60K win it all looked positive. Her only win on grass then came against Blinkova in 100K, a match she looked to have been losing. If she was going to 'do a Konta', she should have made more progress in Ilkley 100K and done something else in the grass warm ups and then have come through her Wimbledon R1.

But we all know the opposite happened. Poor American hard court season, unlikely to do much in Asia before end of year. Two, maybe three minor tournaments won't cut it.

There's. now even a bit of added pressure as if she doesn't get her breakthrough run in the next few months, the points she'll lose from the May ITFs will send her plummeting. Maybe too far for her to want to keep on going. Especially if she doesn't get the Wimbledon and grass season WCs she used to.
 
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#38 ·
I just don't know what to think with Laura now. I thought by now she would be back as a solid Top 30 player.


Everytime she seems to have a few good results it seems to be nothing more than a fluke.


I hope she can turn it around because she is very talented but can't seem to find any thing long term right now.
 
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