She really only has played one and half good tournaments this year. Brisbane she played great and in AO she really only played well at the later stages. Stuttgart was not nice to watch either, depite her winning it.
Saying this, Robson will probably go down in straights. I just hope she makes at least one of the sets competitive. A lot will come down to her second serve I think.
With Gabby v Cami then Laura v Angie, the press cameramen spoilt for choice where to point their lenses. The 2 best looking girls in the competition going home on day 1. Shame.
Let's say that ends the first year of her comeback.
A wasted year. All she has from it is a ranking that I'm a little afraid she doesn't appreciate is overinflated. Really (IMHO) she should do now what she should have done in the first place: play 10Ks. Trouble is, because it is overinflated, she can't really advance her ranking by playing 10Ks right now.
Knowing Laura, she will probably go back the the US to play tournaments in there and Canada. There are some US 10ks in July though. I think she should play them even if just for match play rather than ranking points.
Sky Germany is a good quality tennis channel in my opinion. Eurosport german is always in love for the German players.
The commentator of Sky was very good informed about Laura . He said a lot of things, which are right.
He praised her baseline shots, if she is standing right to the ball. He said, she is lacking confidende in a tremendous way. But this is normal, if you lose and lose.
And then he criticzed her ability to move at the baseline. He said, she is the total opposite of Angie. And that I wrote here, too. She is total opposite of a Kerber or Radwanska. And she has to improve that, if she want to get back in the top 100. No question.
And he said, that she has to go the hardest way now. Very small tournaments, even ITF qualifies are possible.
That will be the huge concern for me. I do not know, if Laura has the mental stability to go this way.
When you're used to being on the big stage and being the centre of attention it must be difficult to go back to having to pick up your the balls yourself.
Her PR is about to end and Wimbledon is only once a year. So she has no choice to be fair. She just didn't make use of her opportunities to get a deep run somewhere while using her PR earlier in the season.
Her first serve is not what it was but still pretty decent. Her fastest first serve was 108 mph which is up from last year, although she used to hit 110-113 mph first serves.
Hopefully she will get it back but what she really needs to do is sort out her second serve. Either hit two first serves or hit a slice serve or do something other than just take all the pace off and hit it in the middle of the service box.
Shame Laura's not exactly in the best form, that could be a really good paring.... Although Laura has done slightly better in doubles matches since her comeback, but still not great...
Well actually they didn't play too badly. There were some bad misses here and there from both Laura and Ash but there were some really good points. Laura even hit some return winners in the second set and looked pretty pleased. :lol:
The Chan's are just such a tough team though. They both can pick so many shots off at the net. There were times when either Laura or Ash were belting it back, but the Chan at the net still managed to volley it. Shame they couldn't have played a non-seeded team TBH.