@El Loro posted 11/2/20

GB drawn away to Mexico (GB has generally been drawn away over the years rather then at home so as usual it's another away visit). Means that Mexico have the advantage of choice of venue and surfacs and a home crowd.

 

At present GB have a world ranking of 14 and Mexico 26. Tie is played 17 and 18 April. Winner goes through to the qualifiers round in 2021, loser drops back down to the respective Group 1 groups (those are the Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe/Africa - as more countries play in the Europe/Africa group that group is split in two sub-groups).

Obviously that tie never took place. Announced today that the tie has been posponed until next February.

@El Loro posted:

From 14-18 July is the Progress Tour Champtionships. Harriet Dart, Naomi Broady, Samantha Murray Sharan, Jodie Burrage and Emma Raducanu have already signed up. Johanna Konta isn't expected to be in this one. As with the other events this will be at the National Tennis Centre. Looks as if that's the new name for the Closed Women's Championships.

BBC to show this live on the BBC Sport website, app and Red Button daily. Besides the above, Heather Watson and Katie Boulter are involved.

The event will be played in a round-robin format, similar to the World Tour Finals, with 16 singles players split into two tiers - Premier event and Division 1 - before a knockout semi-final stage.

Eight teams will compete in the Premier doubles competition.

Emma Raducana won the first final of the British Tour events today beating Jodie Burrage over 3 sets. Another tournament at the same venue this coming week, Matches can be watched on the LTA site through their Youtube channel but no spectators or commentary.

This week's tournament is for tier 1 players who are on the whole lower ranked than last week's players so no familiar names

This week's Progress Tour matches have started though Johanna Konta isn't involved and both Heather Watson and Harriet Dart have withdrawn due to injury. There are  the Premier players and the lower ranked Tier 1 players with separate tournaments with eight in each (two groups of four). Today, tomorrow and Thursday are played on a round robin basis. Top two from each group go through to semi-finals on Friday, with final on Saturday. Also doubles matches.

Singles

Premier

Group Elena Baltacha

Freya Christie, Maia Lumsden, Alicia Barnett, Katie Swan

Group Anne Keothavong

Alice Gillan, Katie Boulter, Emily Arbuthnott, Jodie-Anna Burrage

Division 1

Group Sam Smith

Erin Richardson, Olivia Nicholls, Danielle Daley, Victoria Allen

Group Annabel Croft

Sasha Hill, Nell Miller, Amelia Bissett, Esther Adeshina

Doubles

Group Jo Durle

Jodie Burrage & Freya Christie, Soumaya Anane & Alannah Griffin, Annabel Davis and Sally Pethybridge and Esther Adeshina & Sonay Kartal

Group Virginia Wade

Alicia Barnett & Olivia Nicholls, Danielle Daley & Nell Miller, Victoria Allen & Sasha Hill and Emily Arbuthnot & Anna Popescu.

The Sam Smith is Samantha Smith who was the British number one tennis player from 1996 to 1999, not the singer

Katie Boulter had a straight forward win in her first match beating Alice Gillan 6-1, 6-4.
Katie Swan had to withdraw whilst playing due to an injury.

Not too surprising that players are getting injured with the lack of matches for a long time. That's the main reason for these tournaments this month - to enable players to get used to playing matches before the tennis season starts again.

And another straightforward win today beating Emily Arbuthnott 6-1, 6-3. So Katie Boulter through to the semi-finals stage on Friday along with Jodie-Anna Burrage. They meet tomorrow in the last of the round robin matches which will decide who is 1st and who is 2nd.

In the last of the round robin matches Katie Boulter beat Jodie-Anna Burrage 6-3, 7-6 (after a tie break).

In tomorrow's semi-finals it's Katie Boulter against Freya Christie and Alicia Barnett against Jodie-Anna Burrage.

Kaie Boulter through to the final beating her best friend Freya Christie 6-3, 7-6 (after a tie break).

In the other semi-final Jodie-Anna Burrage beat Alicia Barnett 6-4, 6-2.

Alicia Barnett won the tie break tens title yesterday evening. It's fitting that she won as she was one of the main people in getting the Progress Tour Championships into being.

Tie break tens is the short form of tennis. No sets, just a tie break. Winner is the first to get ten points (or more) by a margin of at least two points. So the same as an oridinary tie break other than it's ten points rather than seven.

Jodie-Anna Burrage was beaten in the final by Katie Boulter 6-3, 6-7, 2-6. It was only towards the end of the second set that Katie Boulter got the better of Jodie-Anna Burrage who had looked as if she was going to be the surprise winner. It's been a good week for Katie Boulter getting much needed match play. I don't think the tournament will get any ranking points but that was never the reason for it.

Been too busy to take much notice of this week's Battle of the Brits which is a unique tournament. Sort of a combined Davis Cup and Fed Cup for British men and women. Unusual scoring system for games with a variety of points for men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles with different points from day to day with tomorrow's the highest for the week. Players in two teams, the "winner" is the first to 60 points. The two teams are currently on virtually the same total but which team wins isn't particularly important. The aim of the tournament is to provide some match play experience. The ATP and WTA tournaments may start in a few days time but no guarantee they'll take place.

As far as this week's tournament it's been encouraging for Heather Watson as this has been the first competitive matches she's played for a  long time. She's won all her four singles matches this week. Very obvious with Monday's match that she was really out of form  - the first game took 11 minutes largely due to her error strewn serving and a long time at deuce, advantage one player, back to deuce , back to advantage and going on for quite some time.

However, yesterday's match was much better and today she totally dominated the match winning 6-1, 6-0. Yes, she was playing against lower ranked players, but it was the way she was playing which is encouraging.

US Open starts today, No qualifying rounds so the British entrants are restricted to Johanna Konta and Heather Watson. One of them will get through to the second round as they have been drawn togther for the first round. Their match is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Somewhat short lived tournament for one of them then!

@Extremely Fluffy Fluffy Thing posted:

Somewhat short lived tournament for one of them then!

Yes. Both of them have been in other American tournaments recently. Johanna has had better results than Heather and will be the favourite. Loser will still get $61,000.

@El Loro posted:

Yes. Both of them have been in other American tournaments recently. Johanna has had better results than Heather and will be the favourite. Loser will still get $61,000.

A reasonable cushion against the disappointment!

@Extremely Fluffy Fluffy Thing posted:

A reasonable cushion against the disappointment!

I agree

Johanna Konta beat Heather Watson in two sets, the first set being the closest - 7-6 (9-7) 6-1. Her second round oppenent is Sorana Cirstea.

Sorana Cirstea beat Johanna Konta in the second round 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.

The Fed Cup is to be renamed the Billie Jean King cup:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/54190849
Besides being one of the all time greats in tennis, Billie Jean King also formed the WTA.

French Open qualifying rounds in progress this week. Best known British player in those rounds is Harriet Dart. She plays the first round this afternoon against Mihaela Buzărnescu from Romania who is higher ranked.

Harriet Dart through to the second qualifying round beating Mihaela Buzărnescu comfortably 6-3, 6-0.

Well done Harriet!

Irina Bara beat Harriet Dart this morning 7-5, 6-2.

Main draw matches start on Sunday but draw not yet made. Due to withdrawals Johanna Konta is now 10th seed, Heather Watson is expected to be there as well. I'm not aware that there are any other British women involved though Emma Raducanu would like to be there.

The main draw has been made. The headline match is that Johanna Konta is against Coco Gauff.
Fiona Ferro (ranked 47) from France is against Heather Watson.
No other British women in the main draw.

Not a good day yesterday with all the British players with matches losing. In the women's singles Johanna Konta was beaten by the next Serena Williams - Coco Gauff 3-6, 3-6.
Heather Watson's match seems to be scheduled for tomorrow.

With Fiona Ferro beating Heather Watson yesterday 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. no British players gor through to the second round. First time this has happened since the French Open in 2013.

Very downbeat comments by Heather on the state of professional British tennis:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/54349009

And the head of the Lawn Tennis Association has dismissed Heather Watson's comments:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/54363025

Johanna Konta's ranking won't crash down as it normally would following her first round exit in the French Open. The rankings system has been revised in the short term due to so many tournaments having been cancelled, travel restrictions etc.

The WTA site has this:
"Under the revised system, a player’s ranking will be comprised of her best 16 results in singles and best 11 results in doubles based on the points earned between March 2019 through December 2020. A player’s ranking breakdown will include the "Better of 2019 and 2020" points earned at Tour-level and Grand Slam events. Further, a player may not count the same WTA Tour or Grand Slam level result twice in her ranking breakdown. Tour-level points added in 2020 will drop after the event is scheduled to be played again in 2021 or after 52 weeks, whichever is earlier."

So the 780 points Johanna got in 2019 for getting to the semi-final in France won't get replaced with the 10 points she would normally have got.

Johanna Konta pulled out of the Ostrava Open in the Czech Republic which has started due to not wanting to travel there. Won't be playing in any more tournaments this season and will concentrate on preparing for next year.

Little change in the British rankings - Johanna 13, Heather Watson 60 and Harriet Dart 154.

Little change in the British rankings - Johanna Konta 14, Heather Watson 59 and Harriet Dart 150.

Some good news - Laura Robson is back practising on a tennis court after a long absence. BBC article includes a short clip of her:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/55151093

There's to be another Battle of the Brits tournament from the 20th to 23rd at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton on the same type of surface as the Australian Open (which has been delayed by 3 weeks).
Jame Murray, Dan Evans, Heather Watson, Andy Murray, Emma Raducanu, Cameron Norrie, Harriet Dart, Jay Clarke, Jodie Burrage and James Ward and 6 others will be playing.

The Battle of the Brits tournament ended yesterday. Heather Watson won all 4 of her matches so was top. Harriet Dart didn't participate so Heather's opponents were all noticeably lower ranked. The results don't count towards rankings. The important thing about the tournament was to give the players the chance for some competitive matches ahead of next year.

Katie Boulter is intending to be in the main draw of the Australian Open after using an injury-protected ranking to enter. Johanna Konta and Heather Watson would also be in the main draw. The Open is some weeks off so it's too soon to know if it will get cancelled further postponed and which players will decide not to go.

20 year old Francesca Jones has qualified for the Australian Open, the first time she has qualified for a Grand Slam tournament.

There's a gap between the qualification rounds and the main rounds due to the Open having been postponed by 3 weeks to a start date of 8 February at this time.

Heather Watson is one of the 47 players who are confined to their hotel rooms for two weeks in Melbourne having been on the plane where a member of the flight crew and Sylvain Bruneau - coach of 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu  tested positive. Those two people are staying in a separate "health" hotel.
Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens are also reportedly another 2 of the 47.

Although gym equipment is being sent to each player, they will be at a disadvantage to other players as they will get fewer than 10 days on court practice.

Laura Robson has had to have a third hip operation in the last week, she is not sure where that will leave her tennis career. Her priority is to be able to have a happy pain-free life.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/55749047

There's to be a WTA "tournament" called "Grampians Trophy" from 3 to 7 February for 28 players who have been confined to their hotel rooms in Australia for them to be able to get some match practice before the Open. Heather Watson would be eligible if she decided to take part.