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Return Winner: The Laura Robson support thread.

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465K views 5K replies 158 participants last post by  miffedmax 
#1 · (Edited)
Since the old thread has gone over the 5,000 post limit, I figure that it needs to be replaced by a shiny new one. So here it is.

Achievements Pre-injury:
  • Olympic mixed doubles silver medal (w/ Andy Murray)
  • Singles semi final - Palermo 2012
  • Grand Slam 4th round - US Open 2012, Wimbledon 2013
  • Defeated Kim Clijsters in her final singles match
  • Singles Final - Guangzhou 2012
  • WTA Newcomer of the year 2012

Achievements - Post Comeback:
  • Singles Championship: ITF 25,000 Landisville
  • Doubles Championship: ITF 25,000 Landisville (W/ Freya Christie)
  • Qualifier US Open 2016
 
#3,167 ·
Jo is how I envision what Laura would be right now and it's a very far contrast between their abilities right now.

Can Laura get as good as Jo anytime soon? I don't even know if she can.

I want Laura to know her current game is not good enough to reach the top.



EVerybody is just picking on her backhand because there's like 100+ videos of hers out there. It's either change or stay where she is forever.
 
#3,169 ·
Her backhand isn't that bad. Lefties usually have relatively strong backhands since righties are often going to hit to it. As always her two big weaknesses are her mentality and movement. All her actual shots can be solid, and when her serve, forehand and backhand are all working she can be dangerous to anyone.
 
#3,175 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've got plenty of work to do. I'm not wasting anymore time on this. It was fun while it lasted. :lol:
.
I am just going to weigh into this quickly, I think you are both right in a way.. 2013 was a mixed bag of excellent and extremely promising results (straight setting Aga, mentally outlasting Kvitova, , putting up a decent fight against goating Serena, making 4th round of Wimbledon) to disappointing/WTF just happened results (Putintseva, Her QF match in Guangzhou, Kimko Date Krumming).

I think you both just initially misunderstood what the other was trying to say. It might be best to..let it go? :bolt:

Edit: I see you already have. :lol:
I don't think i missunderstood when he called me a retard for pointing out the facts which disproved his statements and then highlight where he kept rewriting. As I said, if he had said she had mixed results, I'd agree, if he said stagnated was the wrong word, he just found the round one loses disapointing then I'd agree. But he didn't do that he revised what he kept saying and threw out insults for pointing out what he said couldn't be true. To say she stagnated the whole of 2013 or when every month she ahd some sort of breakthrough is ridiculous. Calling it a period of stagnation because of a couple of losses next to big wins or ground broken is ridiculous. That is clearly inconsistency, not stagnation. Just as it's silly to thrown insults for people to pointing that out. Though i suspect the insults were because he knew he had been caght out but like many of this board get to proud and embarrassed at being wrong. It's a frequent internet condition due to the digita disconnect with the real world. It's the same reaosn why players get death threats for losing or women are attacked for voicing almost any sort of opinion.
 
#3,173 ·
I am just going to weigh into this quickly, I think you are both right in a way.. 2013 was a mixed bag of excellent and extremely promising results (straight setting Aga, mentally outlasting Kvitova, , putting up a decent fight against goating Serena, making 4th round of Wimbledon) to disappointing/WTF just happened results (Putintseva, Her QF match in Guangzhou, Kimko Date Krumming).

I think you both just initially misunderstood what the other was trying to say. It might be best to..let it go? :bolt:

Edit: I see you already have. :lol:
 
#3,174 ·
I am just going to weigh into this quickly, I think you are both right in a way.. 2013 was a mixed bag of excellent and extremely promising results (straight setting Aga, mentally outlasting Kvitova, , putting up a decent fight against goating Serena, making 4th round of Wimbledon) to disappointing/WTF just happened results (Putintseva, Her QF match in Guangzhou, Kimko Date Krumming).

I think you both just initially misunderstood what the other was trying to say. It might be best to..let it go? :bolt:

Edit: I see you already have. :lol:
Yes and all this is normal for any player unless your name is Djokovic , Serena and perhaps 1 or 2 more...


We just need to have realistic expectation for our favorite player(s).
 
#3,178 ·
I don't think Laura would pass up on that MD money
 
#3,182 ·
Laura has Koukalova in Stuttgart Q R1

H2H 1-0 (2013 Beijing) 7-6 4-6 6-1 (typical 'back in the day' Laura scoreline)

As far as WTA first round qualies go, this is pretty good. Kookie is on a five match losing streak and last week lost 6-0 in the first set to the world number 260 odd.

Kookie is Kookie, she plays lights out and then bottom of the net. I'm not even looking ahead in the draw, I just really want her to get a win here.
 
#3,186 ·
Laura has Koukalova in Stuttgart Q R1

H2H 1-0 (2013 Beijing) 7-6 4-6 6-1 (typical 'back in the day' Laura scoreline).
God. I remember that match as if it was yesterday. Actually, I don't. It feels like it was a hundred years ago but I remember it well all the same. Kookie still went by her married name of Zakopalova at the time. She had yet to discover her husband moonlighted in porn. lol. It was that long ago. The Beijing match has historical significance because it remains Laura's last WTA main draw match win to date. Who could ever have anticipated that at the time?

The last time they played Laura had an awful cold and made something like 64 unforced errors and still won :lol:.
Yeah, it was a horror show. I was on holiday in Italy and watched it - or parts of it - on my phone. Laura had bombed out of Tokyo the previous week to her semi-nemesis Ayumi Morita in 'a couldn't give a f**k performance' and I think it suddenly dawned on her when she landed in China that she was in danger of being overtaken in the rankings by Keys and Bouchard. Even though she was ridiculously sick with bronchitis she was desperate to grab at least one win, and she turned up on the match court looking like she'd dragged herself out of her hospital bed. Kookie, on the other hand, just looked miserable (for a change :lol:). The result was one of the grimmest tennis matches ever. The unforced error count was off the charts.

Laura lived to fight another day against Kerber but she was still so sick and breathless that she tried to avoid rallies at all costs. She attempted to finish every point as quickly as possible one way or the other. In the second set she was probably hitting the ball harder than I've ever seen her - and that's saying something - but Kerber absorbed everything.

Strange days and a depressing end to Phase 1 of Laura's career. We're still awaiting the real start of Phase 2.
 
#3,184 ·
The last time they played Laura had an awful cold and made something like 64 unforced errors and still won :lol:.

Still, the pattern so far in Laura's comeback at the big tournaments has been for her to draw an underperforming player, come close to winning and then mentally bottle it, see Vesnina, McHale, Rybarikova, Flipkens.

On the other hand, Kookie is much more inconsistent than all those players mentioned, so I am slightly more hopefully she can win this.
 
#3,187 ·
The best person she could ask to play now.

She totally has a chance. Given Kookie is in the most awful form of her life, who can make UEs on a fly like Laura.

If Laura can't beat her, I don't think she can beat anybody else in WTA events this year
 
#3,206 ·
Her serve seems to be working better. She won 81% of points behind her 1st serve.
Actually, her serve was already much improved in her previous three tournaments. There's been a rapid progression in that department of her game since early March and that's crucial for her long-term future in the sport. If you can't serve you can't play tennis. It's as simple as that.

The truth of this is borne out by Laura's second comeback on the ITF circuit at the end of January: She couldn't hold serve.. and she couldn't play. Her serve had been very frail when she returned to the tour last summer on grass and at the Canadian ITFs. The handful of aces she was striking was more than outweighed by the high DF count. But what happened at Sunrise & Surprise etc this year was 10 x worse. She couldn't hit a single ace and she was averaging nearly 20 DFs per match. :eek: The Elena Ruse match was hideous to follow on live score. After winning the 1st set I don't think Laura held serve once. (And to think this was the same girl who once pounded aces past Jelena Jankovic and Daniela Hantuchova at will when she was 15/16 years old. It was heartbreaking to see the collapse of her greatest weapon. :sad:) I can only think the fact she'd just got over her latest bout of wrist pain - she'd still been suffering from it in January - meant she was incredibly hesitant to use any wrist snap on her serve, and consequently she had no rhythm, timing, or confidence at all.

She must have put her four week break from the circuit after 'Surprise' to good use and worked hard with Mauricio Hadad on her delivery because she served respectably well against Rybarikova in Indian Wells, better still against Flipkens in Miami, and even in an otherwise poor performance against Tig in Charleston her service stats were nothing to be ashamed of.

However, I'm sure the most important factor for the dramatic improvement in her serving, especially today's display, is not so much work on the practice court paying off, but a realisation that her wrist has finally healed. She feels psychologically able to 'go' for her serve without inhibition. Let's hope today she set a serving marker for the matches to come. :rocker2:
 
#3,200 ·
Dodin a much better opponent than Kookie right now.

Her real test , pls win.
 
#3,202 ·
I've ignored this forum largely because I've taken the out of sight, out of mind approach to her season so far.

But I'm so so thrilled she won this match, hopefully she can go far. Dodin will be tricky, but if she can get past Kookie so comfortably, then hopefully she'll be able to edge past Dodin. But even at her best, she always struggled on clay so it'll be a real test.

But we're all rooting for ya Laura :cheer::bounce:
 
#3,208 ·
Brief but interesting description of Laura's performance today courtesy of Ballbasher who watched the match live. I'm pleased to hear her concentration and composure were at a high level. (That's not always been the case during her career as we know too well. ;))

Such a feelgood win for Laura. :hearts: She looked really solid and focused, while Kookie looked typically depressed, but Laura didn't give too much away. :)
 
#3,209 ·
I will be out there today for some support again. :angel: Laura dealt with Kookie's flat strokes really well and I hope she can outsteady Oceane too.
Tonight I will be having my laptop so possibly I could give you a bit more of a detailed description.

Sorry for the bad quality. Only having my smartphone with me. :tape:
 

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