Nice win Jarka
Hopefully she can win a match or two in the main draw and boost that ranking further
She has second round points to defend at Wimbledon, so she needs to be in good form
Third tournament in a row that Jarmila has done well to qualify then blown the first match in straight sets when she should have won. Olivia Sanchez, Abigail Spears and Bethanie Mattek she should have beaten them all and would be about 50 ranking spots higher!
What Daniel said is absolutely right ...Jarka should be beating the likes of Olivia Sanchez, Abigail Spears and Bethanie Mattek and each of those loses represent big missed opportunities.
Right now Jarka is rarely beating any players ranked above herself ( Vinci the exception but Vinci also has been struggling in the last year ) and struggling too often with much lower ranked players.
I watched Jarka play in Birmingham against Mattek and she should for sure have won that 1st set and served it out at 5-4 30-0 up ...in the 2nd when she got broken at 2-2 she fell away badly in losing the next 4 games !!! Just in this one critical area in how she is competing and fighting and her emotional discipline throughout a match is still a long way away from where she has to be in my opinion.
Game wise with her the problems are very clear to me and if Jarka is to fullfill her huge potential and get back to where she should be, then these areas in my mind are the keys to that ! of course to address these correctly and make this happen she firstly needs a one on one very experienced womens coach with a proven track record who is 24/7 only focused on her and knows how to get the very best from her.
These areas are ...
1) A lack of consistent discipline with the way she structures and sets her points and also her execution on opportunity balls ...often she gets suckered into overplaying !
2) No clear apparent effective strategy in place against these kind of opponents she is losing to. There seems to be too much "panic" at times in key moments and this comes back to being sure of what she is doing.
3) Her shot selection needs to be cleaned up this is one of the most important areas ...too many cheap errors especially off the 2nd and 3rd strike of the point and too often going for the wrong shot from the wrong position. She also does not use the centre of the court the way enough in the way she should be in setting her points.
4) Her defensive skills need addressing ...when she is in trouble in a point she too often goes for the lowest percentage "million dollar" shot instead of playing smart higher percentage ball ...simply meaning better margins, more shape, bigger targets and using the centre of the court more effectively
5) Her forehand when pushed wide out in the right corner is too often vulnerable to breaking down ...she needs to get set better with the way she prepares and with her footwork. Often caught late ,she needs to also get much better shape on this shot and give herself bigger targets, more centre and cross
6) With her serve in how big a weapon that can be there is just no way Jarka should be getting broken like she does and especially on a grass court ...her choices are questionable on serve and she does,nt serve to the score as smart as she can ...also those key games at 5-4 serving out sets come back to her routines and being able to hit her "spot" when it matters ...this comes from quality of repetition in her practises what she is doing outside around her matches and if she is making that extra time EVERY DAY to keep polishing this ability on serve.
If these areas are correctly addressed and with the right mindset , Jarka can do great things no doubts but they need addressing asap !!!
I have seen Jarka play on TV a couple of times, once at Wimbledon last year (against Jankovic) and also this year at the Australian Open (against Serena Williams).
Whilst it is probably unfair to judge her against such quality opponents, there were still things that can definitely be looked at and improved upon.
I agree that her serve is (or should) be a weapon, but her second serve seems to be quite a confidence shot. She needs to develop more spin on the ball and get a bit more accurate with it. I also agree that her groundstrokes are solid and effective, but she really needs to put more topspin on the ball, especially when draw deep or wide...
But really the biggest thing that needs to be worked on is her fitness and her movement...she was quite solid at the Australian Open, but seems to have lost some weight since then, which is a good thing. She needs to make a Casey-like transition. Once she does, she should be top 100 again
And I definitely agree that she needs one coach to work with full time - Dellacqua is working with Nicole Pratt and Stosur and Molik both achieved thier best results with an individual coach. Jarka is no excepting. Working in a group like situation may be beneficial for some things, but not for many others...
Jarka is up to No.166 on TBE's projected rankings
But she has 60 points coming off at Wimbledon, she needs a good result to marginalise that otherwise she could slip from the top 200
Wow, that is good news
Judging by Rodionova's recent rants, I'd say both of them also requested to be listed as Australian at the French, but the tournament organisers refused.
Hopefully Jarka can do well here, she has a decent first up match