Tennis

[marko]

Cracking match between Robson and Kvitova.

[leicsmac]

9-9 in the decider...Laura giving it everything here. Win or lose she can be proud she's gone toe-to-toe with one of the top 10 in adverse conditions.

[leicsmac]

And she comes through 11-9!

Fantastic win - probably the best of her career to date.

[marko]

And she comes through 11-9!

Fantastic win - probably the best of her career to date.

Glad she won - not a big fan of Kvitova.

It made a nice change from all the 6-0/6-1 matches that seem to be a common thing in the first week of womens' tournaments.

[Manwell Pablo]

9-9 in the decider...Laura giving it everything here. Win or lose she can be proud she's gone toe-to-toe with one of the top 10 in adverse conditions.

No pride in beating the Petra Kvitova that turned up today. Disgrace to womens tennis. I'd struggle to serve that many doubles in a three set match!

[leicsmac]

No pride in beating the Petra Kvitova that turned up today. Disgrace to womens tennis. I'd struggle to serve that many doubles in a three set match!

Top 10 is top 10, bad day or not. Agreed the quality of the match was poor from both players (check out the number of doubles Robson served), but at least Laura showed she has potential. A lesser player would have lost even with Kvitova playing that badly.

[Manwell Pablo]

Top 10 is top 10, bad day or not. Agreed the quality of the match was poor from both players (check out the number of doubles Robson served), but at least Laura showed she has potential. A lesser player would have lost even with Kvitova playing that badly.

Bad day? Horrific day, ****ing awful top 10 is not top 10 if it playes like 510.

This is exactly right Robson was well below par and still ended up winning. I've seen Robson play better than that and lose to people outside the top 50. Shocking match, longest rally of about 13 or something? As for Laura Robsons "potential" I've seen much, much more promising displays than that, needs to sort her bottle out sometimes. Overall as a 19 year old tennis player she is doing brilliantly but that was, well absloutley wank, she'll get destroyed against Stevens if she plays like that. Hopefully better things to come.

[kingfox]

As proven at the US, Robson is capable of mixing it with the big guns. Kvitova has been on terrible form, so Robson always had a chance, 3-0 in that final set though and chucking it away is another thing that will haunt Kvitova.

Robson's temperament though was first class, and the quality and mental strength she showed to keep with Kvitova was awesome.

Battle of the next big things next though, Laura Robson v Sloane Stephens - Two players with massive bright futures.

[marko]

No pride in beating the Petra Kvitova that turned up today. Disgrace to womens tennis. I'd struggle to serve that many doubles in a three set match!

She still served more than double the number of aces and a higher 1st serve percentage than Robson. You're going a bit OTT for me.

[leicsmac]

Bad day? Horrific day, ****ing awful top 10 is not top 10 if it playes like 510.

This is exactly right Robson was well below par and still ended up winning. I've seen Robson play better than that and lose to people outside the top 50. Shocking match, longest rally of about 13 or something? As for Laura Robsons "potential" I've seen much, much more promising displays than that, needs to sort her bottle out sometimes. Overall as a 19 year old tennis player she is doing brilliantly but that was, well absloutley wank, she'll get destroyed against Stevens if she plays like that. Hopefully better things to come.

Can't disagree with any of that.

Hopefully she'll keep improving, and winning ugly (like today) bodes well.

[Manwell Pablo]

She still served more than double the number of aces and a higher 1st serve percentage than Robson. You're going a bit OTT for me.

Robson was bad, very bad, as well, the number of aces is fairly decent granted, but when your serving as many double faults as you are aces then sorry I don't think I am going OTT. the match in general was awful, 51 unforced errors, horrific, from a top 10 player inexcusable. Probably the worst display of tennis I've witnessed from a top 10 player, most players in the top 50, if not 100 would of knocked her out today.

[marko]

Yeah, there were loads of unforced errors and double faults. But a disgrace to womens' tennis? Hardly.

[Manwell Pablo]

Yeah, there were loads of unforced errors and double faults. But a disgrace to womens' tennis? Hardly.

Oh it was, was awful, she looked like a club player at times (PK) Terrible, woeful if every womens game was like that no one would watch it, hence the comment!

She's just finished an interview admitting as much herself!

[kingfox]

Oh it was, was awful, she looked like a club player at times (PK) Terrible, woeful if every womens game was like that no one would watch it, hence the comment!

She's just finished an interview admitting as much herself!

Kvitova is in shit form though Manwell, yes it might of been woeful, but going by her form it was always likely that she would struggle and that's what happened. She had a terrible 2012, and she hasn't started this season much better.

Probably the worst player in the top 10 right now, despite being a Grand Slam winner, would be surprised though if she goes on a slump and never recovers, like Jankovic or Ivanovic.

[Super_horns]

At least there are some female tennis players from these shores who are competitive even if its not down to great play.

[Manwell Pablo]

Kvitova is in shit form though Manwell, yes it might of been woeful, but going by her form it was always likely that she would struggle and that's what happened. She had a terrible 2012, and she hasn't started this season much better.

Probably the worst player in the top 10 right now, despite being a Grand Slam winner, would be surprised though if she goes on a slump and never recovers, like Jankovic or Ivanovic.

..........Two Semi finals a Quarter final and 4th round in Grand Slams Mate? People accuse me of going OTT .

She might be out of form but I was not expecting that!

Ivanovic is not doing that badly atm by the way!

[kingfox]

..........Two Semi finals a Quarter final and 4th round in Grand Slams Mate? People accuse me of going OTT .

She might be out of form but I was not expecting that!

Ivanovic is not doing that badly atm by the way!

You got to look at her other results as well, honestly she hasn't been the same since the early stages of last year.

US Open 4th round, was a poor result, it was the manner of the loss as well 6-0 in the final set. Last week she lost to Cibulkova 6-1, 6-1 who happened to have a poor loss herself a couple of days ago.

It's not all about Grand Slams, her performances in the smaller tournaments hasn't been great.

Ivanovic is doing better than in previous years, but she still is off her best, come up against anyone in the top 5-6, she doesn't stand a chance tbh.

[Manwell Pablo]

You got to look at her other results as well, honestly she hasn't been the same since the early stages of last year.

US Open 4th round, was a poor result, it was the manner of the loss as well 6-0 in the final set. Last week she lost to Cibulkova 6-1, 6-1 who happened to have a poor loss herself a couple of days ago.

It's not all about Grand Slams, her performances in the smaller tournaments hasn't been great.

Ivanovic is doing better than in previous years, but she still is off her best, come up against anyone in the top 5-6, she doesn't stand a chance tbh.

It's still on the whole a long way from terrible, terrible is....well that match this afternoon! 2013 well by much worse than 2012 if that carries on!

[Captain...]

Coming through that match, regardless of how badly Robson played and how many mistakes she made, will be a massive boost to her and give her confidence going into the next match. Congrats, a win in the next round for her or Heather Watson will be superb and make it a great start to the year for either of them.

[kingfox]

It's still on the whole a long way from terrible, terrible is....well that match this afternoon! 2013 well by much worse than 2012 if that carries on!

She needs to make serious changes, she has all the qualities to be a real top player, she actually has the serve as proven today with the aces, but of course she also backed them with the same amount of double faults, which is incredibly poor.

She has the power as well, but she sometimes overpowers her shots leading to a lot of unforced errors, as also shown today.

She is only 22 herself, so she still has a long way to go, but she can't keep going on this slump, because she will end up like Wozniacki, Ivanovic and Jankovic.

Also many more young players will work there way up, especially a handful of American players, like Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys.

[Alexikokopops]

I realised, watching the match today, that I haven't the foggiest about woman's tennis.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

I realised, watching the match today, that I haven't the foggiest about woman's tennis.

Most people just go for the Perv apart from that all you need to know is it's Serna Williams match to lose.

There was a great match yesterday that went to 10-8 in the final set. Duckworth v Kavic they played for close to 5 hours in 40 degree heat on one of the outside courts, all this after Duckworth played a 5 setter in the first round.

[Super_horns]

Handy for Murray that Del Potro went out.

[leicsmac]

Today highlighted a key difference between the top 3 (and Nadal too when fit) and the 5-8 ranked players immediately before them.

The reason those 5-8 players (Del P, Tsonga, Berdych et al) are not breaking through to the very top is because they are still vulnerable to much lessrer ranked players in the early stages of Slams, whereas (the odd Rosol-style aberration aside) the top 3 are not. They only tend to lose either to each other or occasionally to those 5-8 players. But they never (or hardly ever) go out before the QF of Slams. The ones below them (like Del P and Cilic today) do so, too often. The big 3 might get into trouble, but most often they get themselves out of it. That's why they're at the top consistently.

Murray won ugly today, but it was straight sets, and now the draw has been cracked wide open for him. Federer is about to finish off Tomic, but potentially still has to face Raonic and Tsonga before the SF, whereas Murray has probably Simon and Chardy/Seppi. It's looking good for him.

[kingfox]

Tsonga v Gasquet should be a quality match in the next round.

These all French clashes could all be epics, Simon v Monfils which finished a bit ago was a phenomenal match, think the commentator said the longest rally was around 70 shots. Monfils I thought would struggle just having come back from injury and losing badly in the warm up tournament, but he is back with a bang, two five set matches in a row, but today he played his normal, eccentric game, which is a joy to watch at times, but credit to Simon not the best of players but he is fairly consistent in terms of his ranking, like how he plays fairly behind the baseline as well.