[CillyUltra]

Originally Posted by Ian Aberdon

Actually, although the result & stats appear bad, I think I agree with CillyUltra this time! But Sabs still has work to do - but work she will! Only frustrating thing is her winning the first set, then dropping the next two again. Maybe it was too much to think she could break the Top 10 after her comeback year in 2011. I would be happy if she stayed around the Top 20, then kick on again thereafter. I'll not bother with GM. The Sabs haters will be having a ball.

If you ignore IW, as it was a no-go for Sabine in the past as well, Miami counts as the first tourney where she was physically 100% again. And, after a week of good practice at Bradenton, she showed signs of recovery.

Only stupid dreamers could have thought that there won't be setbacks, after just 3 months of good play last year. And she definitely had bad luck with having to replace Petko as FC lead and her illness. The thing I'm critical of is her constant over-the-top talk of becoming no.1, getting into top 10 this year, which isn't really helpful imo.

[Mike81]

Atleast she made the 4th Round of a Premier tournament. It's a shame that once again she wins the 1st set and loses in 3. I'm not posting in GM this time...

[boomerangkid]

Originally Posted by Lisickifan84

Before Fed Cup in February I had always the feeling Sabine can turn a match and win it. But today I knew she will lose that match after the 2nd set. And I was right

thats exactly how Ifelt after ending of set 2. so I dropped the third. She's so discontented with herself and lost all her fun on the court, ...I feel with her

Lets hope she can somehow return to her amazing high level tennis, she anyway has all the abilitys

Perhaps she looks too much to the rankings and that puts her under pressure. Anyhow atm she reaally can't fetch her best tennis when it counts, pure deficit of self confidence.

And, I don't really care what her blind "haters" say in anonym social networks, she stays a lovely, adorable person to me and that will never change.

btw she looked so sweet see you in Charleston

[jasonwright25]

Tough loss. But overall this tournament is a success based on her recent play. She took a top 10 player to three sets and now needs to build on this. Looks like Brooks is having some positive results with her. Looking forward to Charleston.

[Ziva]

Originally Posted by jasonwright25

Tough loss. But overall this tournament is a success based on her recent play. She took a top 10 player to three sets and now needs to build on this. Looks like Brooks is having some positive results with her. Looking forward to Charleston.

she got some points there and didn't lose any, that's the good thing, but Li Na was so beatable, only second serves, but Sabine stopped playing again in the second set.
i really liked the coaching Brooks did, though he didn't came through to her, you could see that after the first set, he knows her very well and i think he did choose the right words, like asking if she's having fun plus the encouragement and some good tipps.

when they talked again in the third and he said "don't give up, you promise me that" you could see she wasn't there at all anymore, she had shut of completely and that's the thing that worries me the most, she's not able to pull herself together after she loses the second set, that's a fact now and has become a curse to her in 2012.

i'm delighted to see that she and her team are trying to change something with the new coach on court, we'll see if it will help her in the future, or if it's impossible to get her back on track mentaly when she goes in "no confidence mode", even after winning a set, which was the biggest problem yesterday, since she completely lost all of it right in the first game of the 2nd set.

And WTF have they done to her serve, they changed her balltoss to be lower, why ? i don't know, but she has massive problems with the serving after the offseason, brooks reminded her yesterday to toss it lower, and right after that she had to break of her toss a few times !?
I'm not sure if it's just that, but the serve is a key in her game, what keeps her in the match and it's missing, i made the observation, that her serve get's slower tourney after tourney, placement is still there if she get's the first in, but less and less pace.
I think they are doing this on purpose to get less DF, but this will lead nowhere in my opinion.
They wanted to change a small thing about her serve and messed it up completely !!

Like i saud earlyer, the Top Ten are way outta reach and all the opportunitys are gone, now she has to limit the damage her ranking will get till the end of the season, i hope she can stay Top 25, that's all i ask for at the moment.

Still Bine is the Best of course, love her never the less

[Dorien.]

I was really thinking she could win it after the first set

[boomerangkid]

Originally Posted by Sabre

Like i saud earlyer, the Top Ten are way outta reach

Perhaps good for her mental balance. So she can go out with more fun and easiness on the court, not thinking too much about what happens if...and all that stuff

If light-heartedness returns she will find back her amazing abilities on court. I stay optimistic