[marineblue]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

She had her moments in 2012. Her tantrum at the French Open last year is a modern classic.

Modern classic? Ever seen Serena UO 2009 or some of Azarenka's outbursts?

[goldenlox]

Is this an important match? Not as big as Sveta in AO a few weeks ago. But if Caroline is going to get back into the top 5 and be a hardcourt slam contender, she has to be able to play Aga tough, like she used to

[goldenlox]

Another loss where she was close to 1 set all and fell apart.
She's been doing this for a long time now.
Inconsistent, sloppy. Pretty much irrelevant in tournaments with YEC players.
The question is: Is this the rest of her career? Does she care enough to end this cycle and move forward?
This was a long term #1, but thats all in the distant past. Now we watch a player who folds and folds, against players who arent going to win the tournament
But I guess she's happy like this, with her dad and mom, and no coach to have to listen to

[backhandsmash]

Not many players get this many chances to win against Aga. And she still blew it. Oh my fucking god.

[DownInAHole]

I feel like, for the first time this season, she met my expectations so, overall, I consider Doha a success. She went as deep as we could reasonably have expected and lost to a higher ranked player, what more can you expect from Caroline 2.0?

Of course it is impossible not to be disappointed that she was unable to at least force a third set, she surely had her chances, but she is still rebuilding her career and this is a good result considering where she has been over the last year and a half.

[Protoss]

Caro has been broken 3 times serving for a set in the last two matches she's played: served for the 1st set at 4-4 against Barthel, served for the match at 5-1 2nd set against Barthel, and broken serving for the 2nd set at 5-3 against Aga despite leading 30-0 and 40-30.

Caro held for 6-1 1st set at 40-15 against Jugic-Salkic but was down 0-30 and 30-40 serving for the match at 5-2 2nd set. Caro held for 6-3 2nd set against Barthel from 15-40 down.

[DownInAHole]

Originally Posted by Protoss

Caro has been broken 3 times serving for a set in the last two matches she's played: served for the 1st set at 4-4 against Barthel, served for the match at 5-1 2nd set against Barthel, and broken serving for the 2nd set at 5-3 against Aga despite leading 30-0 and 40-30.

Caro held for 6-1 1st set at 40-15 against Jugic-Salkic but was down 0-30 and 30-40 serving for the match at 5-2 2nd set. Caro held for 6-3 2nd set against Barthel from 15-40 down.

So you are putting forth the theory that Caroline's serve is not as strong as it could be. Interesting.

[rucolo]

Caroline

Aga is simply mentally stronger than Caroline. And smarter.

2nd set: 3-0 -> 4-2 -> 5-3 -> SPs -> 5-7

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

I feel like, for the first time this season, she met my expectations so, overall, I consider Doha a success. She went as deep as we could reasonably have expected and lost to a higher ranked player, what more can you expect from Caroline 2.0?

Of course it is impossible not to be disappointed that she was unable to at least force a third set, she surely had her chances, but she is still rebuilding her career and this is a good result considering where she has been over the last year and a half.

Well, it was a good run. Last year she bombed out in the second round to Safarova,so ranking-wise this loss is not anything shocking.

But yes, it's disappointing that she let this chance go. She could win this match.

[Blu€]

Originally Posted by rucolo

Caroline

Aga is simply mentally stronger than Caroline. And smarter.

2nd set: 3-0 -> 4-2 -> 5-3 -> SPs -> 5-7

It happened almost the same against Mona in the first set. How she saved that tie-break it's still unknown . Against Aga you just can't blow so many chances.

[PMBH]

Originally Posted by goldenlox

Another loss where she was close to 1 set all and fell apart.
She's been doing this for a long time now.
Inconsistent, sloppy. Pretty much irrelevant in tournaments with YEC players.
The question is: Is this the rest of her career? Does she care enough to end this cycle and move forward?
This was a long term #1, but thats all in the distant past. Now we watch a player who folds and folds, against players who arent going to win the tournament
But I guess she's happy like this, with her dad and mom, and no coach to have to listen to

I think you're being way too hard on her. We can't continue to compare Caro with her own peak version from early 2011. She's clearly not the same player/person anymore. She went through a lot in the meantime; loads of negative publicity from being a slamless no.1, criticism about her defensive style, pressures to change just about every aspect of her game including her coach, entering into a high-profiled relationship with Rory.

This is Caro 2.0. She's trying hard to implement a new style of play and there are small signs that the process is on the right track. But it's going to take a long time to complete the process and she may never get back to achieving what she did before. But I respect her for trying, and if anyone has the discipline and mental strength to successfully overhaul her game it's Caro.

[bruce goose]

It's hard for me to accurately gauge this,but I don't recall Caro's getting lots of Top 5 wins even at her peak,and 2 players whom she USED to beat,Vika and Aga,have gotten significantly better.Can Caro truly force elite players into mistakes when they're on sort of a hot streak?If not,then she'll hit a rankings plateau until she learns how to finish good players off

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by bruce goose

It's hard for me to accurately gauge this,but I don't recall Caro's getting lots of Top 5 wins even at her peak,and 2 players whom she USED to beat,Vika and Aga,have gotten significantly better.Can Caro truly force elite players into mistakes when they're on sort of a hot streak?If not,then she'll hit a rankings plateau until she learns how to finish good players off

That was also a result of them losing earlier then they could meet with her most of the time. I think that at her best Caro can not only get the elite to make mistakes but also take the initiative and hit a winner. She can mix it up and find a good balance.

The problem now is for her to stop making errors herself when it matters most. She is sometimes mirroring the mistakes of her opponents, IMO.

[Protoss]

Here's an interesting stat comparison. The difference between Caro's winners and unforced errors has gotten a lot worse in the last three matches against Aga since Caro beat her in 3 sets at the YEC in 2011. Caro lost the 1st match in three sets having served for the match in the 2nd set (Caro's wrist injury really began to bother her as the 3rd set went on, they were tied at 2-2 3rd set at one point), lost the next match in two having been down 6-4 4-2 at one point, and lost yesterday's in two sets having served for the 2nd set.

Caro's winners and unforced errors against Aga:

2011 YEC: 32 winners and 27 unforced errors / +5 difference
2012 Sydney (sets 1 & 2 combined): 22 winners and 23 unforced errors / -1 difference (I don't have the match total)
2012 Tokyo: 19 winners and 33 unforced errors / -14 difference
2013 Doha: 24 winners and 30 unforced errors / -6 difference

It's pretty impressive that Caro was actually able to post a positive winners to unforced errors difference against Aga and -1 isn't bad at all. Caro needs to find a way to cut her unforced errors down and get her winners to unforced errors difference about even or better again.

[CWTennis]

Dubai draw
R1 Safarova
R2 Qualifier
QF Serena
http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-A...13/718/MDS.pdf