[justine schnyder]

Thanks!
Have fun in the matches!

[améliemomo]

well alize lost a tough and hard match today against hantuchova,the score 7-6 3-6 4-6

the loss is disappointing of course but quite positive cause alize showed better face ,fighting spirit than what we saw in barcelona against cohen aloro.
She had this match in control with a set and a break but couldnt maintain this high level on a consistent way. She wa wrong tacticly cause she played way too much on the hantuchova forehand who was doing all the game winners and errors.
She was too far behind the baseline too, trying to get evry ball back but too short, ice cake for the big forehands of hantuchova.
I think if she had many matchs,win under her belt she should have won that match in 2 sets. Right now she's trying to get her confidence,game back after her shoulder injury. It is the first match such long and with muchintensity she played since the Paris quarter finale she played against jankovic in february!
she fought well and saw some better tennis sequences from her and thats positive.

She was so happy and relieved after amélie win over cibulkova.It was another tough and long match. I think she'll try her best tomorrow to play her best tennis and break that horrible "fed cup curse" and take her first win in that competition!

Allez good luck Alize!

[tea]

Thanks a lot for this post, Amira
I'm very happy Amelie won her match and saved the tie alive.
Yes, one thing I can't understand is why Alize loses matches that she should have won.
Escude will change the squad for tomorrow, for sure. Alize will not play.

[justine schnyder]

Originally Posted by améliemomo

well alize lost a tough and hard match today against hantuchova,the score 7-6 3-6 4-6

the loss is disappointing of course but quite positive cause alize showed better face ,fighting spirit than what we saw in barcelona against cohen aloro.
She had this match in control with a set and a break but couldnt maintain this high level on a consistent way. She wa wrong tacticly cause she played way too much on the hantuchova forehand who was doing all the game winners and errors.
She was too far behind the baseline too, trying to get evry ball back but too short, ice cake for the big forehands of hantuchova.
I think if she had many matchs,win under her belt she should have won that match in 2 sets. Right now she's trying to get her confidence,game back after her shoulder injury. It is the first match such long and with muchintensity she played since the Paris quarter finale she played against jankovic in february!
she fought well and saw some better tennis sequences from her and thats positive.

She was so happy and relieved after amélie win over cibulkova.It was another tough and long match. I think she'll try her best tomorrow to play her best tennis and break that horrible "fed cup curse" and take her first win in that competition!

Allez good luck Alize!

Good post Amira
Alize
I'm so glad Amelie has won.
If Hantuchova played well and Alize too, and fought until the end and made it tight, it's already better than her recent losses. I really hope she can see it that way too, especially after Amelie has won so the chances to win the tie did get slimmer.
Good luck tomorrow.. Play well!!

[améliemomo]

no no no tea!

alize is trying to get her tennis back and its hard to do so after a long break.
I think she ll play tomorrow and she should play no matter what.She 's very good on clay and seems to find some "pieces" of her game on that first match.
I think she can enter the court more "relax" tomorrow cause she know amelie is here if she couldnt (I hope not) win tomorrow. She has to play more on the baseline and dictate the game with her top spin forehand. Be more "offensive".
She wont win if she stay too far behind like she did yesterday. I think cibulkova will be very tired too tomorrow, they will have to fight hard both.
Alize will try her best I m sure

[tea]

No question she is trying her best. But it isnt an easy decision for the manager to let play a girl who is 0-5 in the competition.
The pressure is still on. It's not a 2-0 lead to be relaxed...

[améliemomo]

Dont be too pessimistic please. Alize has still big qualities in her,especially on that surface. She s improving match after match.
Dont worry, she can do it even if she will have to put such a damn fight tomorrow
she'll come back, I' can see it clearly

[SOA_MC]

Not sure if this is the right thread

There is a audio post match interview with Alize on the fed cup site

http://www.fedcup.com/news/audio.asp

[améliemomo]

omg I cant believe it, Alize did it again, she managed to lose a match she had in control

she was down a set and a break before fighting hard and won the second 7-5, then she lead 4-1 in the third playing great tennis,cibulkova was completely outplayed, then she served an absolute awful game at 4-1,then collapsed since then to lose 5 games in a row.
Cant explain that loss.I thought she would win that match with a double break in that last set but seems like alize is becoming a "choker" and that is just so sad.
so many matchs she lost in 3 sets this year, heartbreaking losses.Cant say anything.
I hope she will recover from that.Thats hard seing her lose that way.

[HowardH]

I was so sure this was Alize's first fed cup win. The double break, I thought that was the nail in the coffin for Domi. Alize had a couple of calls go her way, and Dominika was getting rattled mentally.

It was hard to watch. Alize was on the verge of tears in the last couple games, you could see she was beginning to believe she would lose. I think Alize is too hard on herself during the match, sometimes when she is still ahead if you look at her body language you would think she was losing. My french isn't good enough to understand much of what she and Nicolas were talking about in the changeovers but it seemed like Alize was being negative and Nicolas was trying to make her more positive. I think that negativity is affecting her play in these close fed cup matches. She wants to win so much that she keeps telling herself off for missing, but she needs to have a more positive mindset to actually play well.

I must say Domi returned amazingly near the end of the match, so it wasn't all Alize's doing. But serving at 4-1, the match was hers for the taking.

[tea]

Thanks for posting your impressions about this match!
As for now, I have no words, no thoughts, etc...

[justine schnyder]

I'm really happy France won eventually, but seriously, Alize, what the hell?
IN FO she managed play pretty well and win some matches, so why not in FC?
It's already her 3rd match in a row in FC which she should've win but lost.. I hope that atleast the fact that they've won at the end will make this loss a little less traumatic..
Guess who she drew in Stuttgart? Hantuchova!
Revange time.. But that's for another thread!

[améliemomo]

yes the french captain nicolas escude was telling her to think positive and forget about a point she just had lost.
You're right howard, alize is too negative and focus too much on details whereas she should forget and pass to another thing very quickly.
At least France is saved, Thank God the french girls especially amelie were amazing this week,nathalie was superbe on doubles.Great Great and tense last doubles match!
alize was sooo happy with the other girls at the end, all formed a circle and jumping together. Alize cried of all the emotions she had after all the week.
Perhaps this will give her some positive mind before playing in stuttgart and facing one more time "the tall girl" daniela hantuchova...

she knows what she has to do now.

[Pax]

Fed Cup World Group Play-off


France: Alizé, Rezai, Coin, Parmentier

Germany: Lisicki, Petkovic, Goerges, Malek

It will be a tough tie probably. It will be played in Frankfurt on clay outdoors. Let see the facts. Rezai isn't in a good form, she lost in the first round in Marbella and in Barcelona too. Coin and Parmentier didn't have any results in the past weeks. And Alizé is a mentally collapsed Alizé.

Lisicki is injured, she didn't go to defend her title in Charleston. Petkovic is a dangerous player, she hits always very hard. Goerges had good results on hard court this year. Malek played good in Marbella, but she isn't good mentally too.


The key for Alizé to have a good clay court season and maybe to come back is: a win over Lisicki.

Allez Alizé! Have a nice training!

[HowardH]

Pax, your analysis is probably pretty accurate.

Hard to tell which way this one goes. Neither France nor Germany are in their top shape. I have been thinking for a while that getting that first Fed Cup win will help Alize a lot. Maybe she will get it this time? Although possibly by retirement . (As another poster here noted, Sabine Lisicki seems to be made out of cookies, she's so fragile injury-wise). 50-50 probably.