And now Dianne has won against Sally Peers (491) 6-0 4-6 6-3. So she is into the quarters of the 25k in Sydney, and will face 7th seed Zhou Yi-Miao (301), who has won both her matches 6-1 6-0 (against both Sophie Letcher and Mirkovic).

 

No one wants to post in here?
Di has been showing some good form. Great effort in the Fed Cup and now some impressive wins in the 25k's. 5 wins last week!
Hopefully she presses on..... her counterparts like Barry, Jones, Vano etc.. haven't so far... why?? Money?? Distance from competition??

 

I think each of the players has different reasons. Sacha Jones has an extremely rich family, and they even own a home in California (or somewhere else in the US) so money is no issue. Her serve is a wee bit too weak, tends to doublefault a bit (not as much as Dianne), she doesn't hit that hard off the ground, although her groundies are solid (but I can tell she has been trying to improve her power) and she isn't as good at putting away easy balls as she could be. But I can still see her rising close to 100 after a while and maybe doing something if the right things happen.

Now Kairangi Vano has money issues, her family is poor, so Kai doesn't get many opportunities to travel and play overseas. She has serious power but is erratic. Recently she has been trying to be more consistent by tempering her power, but I don't think that will suit her, since her defense isn't very good- instead I think she needs to figure out how to make her attacks go in without taking any pace off. She might go places someday, but I wish Tennis NZ would fund her properly otherwise it probably won't happen.

Ellen Barry I don't know so well, but she is injured, so I think once she recovers she will press on and probably rise a fair amount.

Dianne I think is trying to fund herself by winning local money tournaments and then playing fairly close to home (Australia) for a while until other options open up. Being in NZ the distance is also a problem. You get used to playing locally and the competition is not tough enough so you develop bad habits. And everytime you travel it gets expensive. I think Dianne is beginning to figure out the plan though, at least here's hoping.

 

Wait, is Dianne married now? I only recently realised she was engaged or something (to her coach, Adam, the little fair headed short haired one, for those of you who haven't seen him. She's a wee bit taller than him I think). I have seen them before (after Caro bowl, Dianne sitting on his lap, and also when she was playing quallies in Auckland and she called him onto court for advice. And at the local money tournaments he warmed her up and he was just wearing flip-flops on court :lol. They do make a cute couple.

Dianne put up a good fight against Zhou (ranked 301) 6-2 7-5, and will face Wishink in the 10k futures in Albany on Wednesday probably. Regardless of how well she does here I'm now pretty sure that this will be a good year for her.

If she could only do something about that serve she could really go places.

 

What does she look like?

 

Hmm, I've never posted pics before, let's see how this works... hey it's actually quite easy

Dianne looks like this:

With a bonus of Kairangi Vano there, just to show Dianne in scale somewhat. She's maybe a bit more than 5ft 7 I think.

Dianne on the left, with Tanya Samodelok next to her. Far right is Adam Thompson, the tall one in red is Dan King-Turner, the man in the middle is the CEO of a sponsoring gym company.

From Fed Cup this year. Dianne in the brown top with silver detailing and white mini. Kairangi in the black top and the skirt with white/brown patterning (these aren't the best pics of Kai, I'm afraid), Shona Lee in the red and black dress. I have never seen Marina wear anything remotely frilly before, but she's there in the white (slightly frilly) top and jeans. I don't know the guys, but the one in blue is probably the fed cup captain.

And a couple more for good measure

A little one, but with Dianne holding a trophy from one of the NZ money tournies (since the other great pics of her with the residentials trophy is from a certain banned get...ty site. Grrr.)

Also from fed cup.

There are lots of good pics of Dianne on a certain banned site (get...ty).
Also, you will find pics online of Dianne in the middle of her serve... which is not the prettiest sight in the world, unfortunately. :lol:

But there you go Golovinjured. That's what she looks like.

 

Dianne's made great progress so far in 2009.

Any idea why she played so little last year, thus losing her ranking?

I wonder if she'll just play in AUS/NZL only or travel abroad this year...

 

Dianne's playing the $10K North Shore City, NZ as a WC this week. In the first round she drew Anna Wishink.


Thanks for the pics, too.

 

Dianne won her first round against Anna Wishink 6-4 6-1 after being down a break in the first set. It was very windy. Now she plays the 6th seed Zhang Ling from Hong Kong (369) who won her first round 2 and 0 over Yuka Kuroda (546). This will probably be quite a tough test, but Dianne has a chance.

 

She lost in the second round to Zhang in three sets, 6-1 3-6 6-1. I saw the last set, it was really her serve that let her down. Her grip seems to slip from continental to an australian grip (not quite a forehand grip) as she contacts the ball, so she can never really get spin on second serves. If she could just figure out how to improve it, she would do really well. Forehand looked great, lots of winners. Backhand was ok, even if a bit late. Zhang is a good player, has a strong serve and solid backhand. She is on the tall side. I think one of these Hong Kong girls might take the tournament, they seem technically quite good. I actually think if Dianne had managed to beat this girl she might have taken the tournament. Oh well, onto the next tournament.

 

Thanks for the update. Did you catch any other matches?

Di received another WC into next week's event. Good luck to her!

 

No problem, updates are what we do. Yes, I saw some other matches, some women's, some men's. I saw some of Dianne and Lucy Barlow losing to Renee Binnie and Allison Bai. Dianne and Lucy had good chances in the first set and were actually winning the first set before I left. In the end they lost 7-5 6-2. Quite a lot of attempted poaches that flew miles out for the NZ pair, but otherwise quite a good doubles team. Lucy is tiny but a pretty solid player. Binnie and Bai ended up in the doubles final so that wasn't too bad a loss.

I saw some of the other kiwis, some of Shona Lee and Chelsea Te Tai's match (Shona started poorly, and Chelsea hits hard, with a bit of an odd but powerful one handed backhand). Chelsea was too erratic though, and Shona was quite consistent. (Shona won 6-2 6-0). I saw top seed Sandy Gumulya struggle past Alenka Hubacek in three sets (third set tiebreak). Hubacek has a good serve. I saw some of Lertcheewakarn losing 6-4 6-1 to Yang from Hong Kong. Lertcheewakarn didn't look very impressive, neither powerful nor consistent. I expected more. I also saw some of locals Brittany Teei and Chelsea Te Tai's doubles match, where they lost 6-0 6-3 to Tangphong and Wannasuk. I felt that Brittany was a better doubles player than Chelsea (Chelsea's volleys were a bit suspect), but they were always going to find it tough anyway. But most of the other matches I watched were men's matches.

In the end, my suspicion that if Dianne had beaten Zhang she would have had a chance to win the tournament was well-founded. Zhang won the tournament, winning the final 6-1 6-0 over the second seed Hwang (her doubles partner). Many of the girls seemed at a similar level, Dianne seems to be capable of beating them all at this tournament level. Dianne probably had the biggest and most accurate forehand in the tournament, but her serve is . It puts a lot of pressure on her because every time she lands a serve she has to make it count. Sometimes after a point had started on her serve the umpire would call let, because a ball had rolled onto their court, and Dianne was always noticeably frustrated by this, because she had already managed to get a serve in and it meant she had to serve again.:lol: A good server would welcome the opportunity to hit another first serve. So she really needs to improve that if she wants to have any chance to rise to the next level.

I think Dianne can do very well in the upcoming futures. The field is very similar to last week, although I have no idea what the draw will be like. She can beat any one of them in my opinion, although a couple of them, like Zhang, probably have a slight edge on her, but only because of her serve.

 

From the futures in Albany.

 

Di will face Alenka Hubacek in the 1R of $10K Hamilton.

If she wins, she may face Zhang Ling again.

 

Thanks danker. This is a really tough draw. Not only is Zhang in great form, having won the futures in Auckland last week, but even Hubacek is a very tough first round. She was one of the players I watched last week, she's young with a strong serve, good volleys, and a fair amount of power. Her coach, a woman who for some reason reminds me of Lleyton's mum, watches her matches and was videoing the match with a camera on a tripod. She seems to call her "Lenky" and she encourages her a lot. She lost in the third set tiebreak to the top seed, Sandy Gumulya, in a long match that took about three hours, and really could have won, but for a few naive decisions at big points. She had a good chance to go up a minibreak at a crucial time with an easy short ball but chose to dropshot instead of going for a regular winner (which would have been easily successful).

Quite frankly, if Dianne can get through these first two rounds she can probably win the whole thing. But these rounds are quite hard, probably among the toughest matches in the draw.

 

Dianne beat Alenka 4-6 6-4 6-2

 

Thanks for putting the score up. That was a good win, Alenka was dangerous. Now she probably plays Zhang again, in another very tough match.

 

Great win :yeah:


My favourite kiwi after Liam Finn, Ladyhawke, and the cast of Outrageous Fortune.

 

You have good taste. I always forget that things from New Zealand are sometimes seen by the rest of the world. Or at least by people in Australia. :lol: I tend to think we're pretty much invisible here. I can never tell who is actually famous overseas as opposed to just famous in NZ.

Dianne lost her doubles match with Luci Barlow (the tiny one) after winning the first set 6-0. They lost the second 6-1 and then went down 10-8 in the match tiebreak. Oh well, I guess she can concentrate on her singles then.

 

Dianne lost today to Zhang Ling again, this time it was 7-6(3) 6-1. Zhang seems to be pretty tough, since she is solid on pretty much all shots, with a good serve, but Dianne was close in that first set. She probably needed the first set. I still think Dianne will rise quite a lot this year, when her forehand fires she can beat some pretty good players. I bet in the second set her serve started to falter again. I can just see it in my mind.

 

A pic of Dianne from the futures in Hamilton:

 

Zhang Ling is an absolute cow, go play in China.

Where next for Dianne?

 

Rather than telling Zhang to play in China, it'd be more beneficial for Di by encouraging her to keep improving against better opponents.

Bad luck Di, but at least she got points! Hopefully a more favourable draw next week at Wellington, as she received another MD WC! :yeah:

 

:lol: Yeah, we'd like Dianne to win these matches, but of course that's the whole point of the tour being international, you have to beat these players from other countries, and you have to go to other countries. But it was unlucky of Dianne to draw Zhang the last two times, since she is one of the best players in these tournaments. But I think Di is up to the challenge. This week she has drawn the 5th seed, Chae from Korea. I saw Chae in practice and in a match in Auckland, she is a lefty with a very big but flat forehand. In practice, Chae's forehand is absolutely massive, but in a match she gets more conservative with it so I think Dianne's forehand will be just as big if not bigger, since Di has more spin. Chae beat Kairangi in 3 sets in Auckland, K had good chances. Her weakness is that her serve is a bit soft, and she is a bit out of shape, so her movement is a problem. So Dianne can move her around in order to win, I think. It will be tough but in my opinion not impossible, Chae is probably not as tough as Zhang. Hopefully.

 

A pic of Dianne after losing to Jelena 4 and 4 in Fed cup after being up 3-0 in the first set and 2-0 in the second. Yes, Jelena can be very shakey, so I'm not sure we can count that as necessarily a great result, but it's a good one anyway. Di looks so much smaller than Jelena :lol:

Dianne's serve during fed cup this year . Notice how her grip slips in her hand . She hits it really low too and the follow-through is awkward sometimes. I wish she could fix this, it's the only really major weakness she has.

Also from fed cup

Here's a pic of Dianne after she won the NZ residential's a couple of years ago.

And a couple more pics from the residential's that year (2006)

 

Thanks for pics

One of the few shining lights for New Zealand in 2009, it seems.

Are Sacha and Ellen ever going to make it back on tour?

 

I'm sure Sacha and Ellen will be playing again sometime soon. I saw Sacha supporting her brother in the futures in Albany, she drove in in a little bright yellow beetle and walked off to watch him. She looked fit as always. So she must be close to playing again. She obviously has a training plan that is taking some time, and I think that could be a good thing, hopefully she might improve a few things. Ellen, well I don't know how her rehab is going but hopefully it's all good.

Dianne is no longer unranked, she now has a ranking of 802 in singles (940= in doubles). Her career high singles ranking is 699, I'm sure she'll easily beat that this year. She is playing doubles with Alenka Hubacek in Wellington, I guess they talked after Dianne beat her in the last futures and decided to team up. I think they could be a good team, Alenka serves well and volleys well too.

 

Dianne lost to the 5th seed, Chae from Korea. She had a good start, leading 3-0 at the start, but eventually lost 6-4 7-5. Dianne could have won I think, but Chae isn't easy, with her big lefty forehand. Wish I could have seen it, then I would know more what to say.

On the plus side, Dianne and Alenka Hubacek are in the semis of the doubles in Wellington after beating the 3rd seeds, Alison Bai and Renee Binnie 6-2 6-3. I thought that Dianne and Alenka could be a good team. They will face Chae's doubles team.

 

It's unfortunate that the draws didn't favour her the last few weeks, but she's getting good experience against higher ranked opponents.

Better luck in doubles.

 

From Dianne's 3 set win over Alenka in the Hamilton futures.

From the final of the money tournament in Hawera in January, on grass courts. Dianne was third seed but really was the favourite and won her seventh money tournament of the season, beating Kairangi Vano in the final (again) 7-6(2) 6-2.

 

I forgot about Cut Off You Hands and Rachel Hunter.

Dianne is #5 New Zealander.

 

Hehe, New Zealanders are quietly all over the place. 5 is pretty good though.

It's unfortunate that the draws didn't favour her the last few weeks, but she's getting good experience against higher ranked opponents.

Better luck in doubles.

Yeah, the singles draws have been pretty tough for her. She has to learn how to beat these players though if she has higher ambitions. She has a good chance for revenge in the doubles against Chae. Maybe they can win the doubles tournie? I'm hopeful.

 

Di lost in the SF of the doubles, thus ending her 4 weeks of tourneys.

Any idea where she'll play next?

Common sense would suggest that she'll play the 2 $25Ks in Aus next month, but I wonder how she'll fare on clay...

 

I suppose Dianne will play in those two 25K's (Bundaberg- ginger beer anyone?- and Ipswich) in Aus. Dianne should be fine on clay, she has experience on it from her time in Germany and she moves well too. She lists hard court as her favourite surface though, it's probably harder for her to hit winners with her forehand on clay. There are some local tournaments (not ITF) which Kairangi Vano and Shona Lee are playing but which Dianne has not entered, so I assume she is probably training instead. I know she said in an interview that she wanted to focus on playing close to home for a while, basically Australia and Asia, to save funds until she started making inroads. There isn't much happening in Australia and Asia until those two tournies I think.

Also, Chae, who beat Dianne in the Wellington futures, reached the final and lost in three sets. So once again Dianne lost to someone in good form.

 

From Dianne's time as a college player in Arizona State