CARSON CALIFORNIA LADIES PRO TENNIS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU

Written by: Tennischiro on 16th July 2014

CARSON CALIFORNIA LADIES PRO TENNIS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU |

Photo by Alejandro

Some Points are More Important than Others!

I wasn’t able to make it to Carson for Tuesday’s matches. I spend a lot of time trying to keep track of what’s happening to some of my current or former students, or just to players I am interested in online. So, when I can’t get video feeds of a match, I might keep track of the match statistics entered in real time by the umpire. These statistics are generally available for all ATP and WTA matches, even most of them on the Challenger level. You can also find them sometimes for ITF junior matches and even some of the collegiate dual matches. If you are a tennis nut, it is another way to satisfy your craving for more information about what the hell is going on!

Unfortunately, not all sources of statistics are complete. During the Grand Slam tournaments, you can get everything. With the ITF events like Carson, you don’t even get first serve percentages. But you do get break points and break point conversion rate. You also see the total number of points played and won on serve (and therefore returns for the opponent).

You might have picked up from my last article that I have more than a passing interest in the progress of Danielle Lao. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I spent over 200 hours one on one working with Danielle when she was 15 and 16 years old, but I am no longer her coach.) So I tried to follow the flow of the match with the umpire’s statistics on line. It’s not a pastime I can honestly recommend; no, everything doesn’t come to a complete halt, but it is definitely very distracting and slows you down getting anything significant done. But if you have to know what is happening, well…

In any case, I was following Danielle’s match with Brianna Morgan. Morgan won the first set, 6-4. I think it was 2 breaks to 1. Then the pattern was reversed in the second set and they went into the third. It didn’t look good for Danielle. Brianna needed less service points to secure her games and Danielle was facing a lot more break points. But I also knew this was where D. Lao, the Little Giant, excels. How do you handle the pressure when the time comes?!

It’s one of the hardest things for me to get across to my students that tennis is not just a game of walking on the court and “playing your game”. Certainly, you have to do that, but you also have to engage your opponent. The modern power game has somewhat diminished or minimized that aspect of tennis. But that is one of the things that makes the game great. Your strengths against the opponent’s weaknesses. And vice versa. And how well do you hide and defend your weaknesses. And how well can you set yourself up to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses and keep them from using their strengths.

If you can deny your opponent the opportunity to use their weapons from the position they want, then you might be able to get them to try those weapons from disadvantageous positions; the result is more errors. And you have to have the patience to survive your opponent’s attempts to pummel you; you have to neutralize their weapons. While you are doing that, you may feel like you are skating on thin ice and in danger of going under any second; you have to have the mental toughness to hit that good defensive shot over and over again without being distracted by the precarious nature of your position. Then when your opponent gives you an opening, you have to be able to instantly turn defense into offense and turn the tables.

And as this match went into the third set, this is where I knew Danielle’s mental toughness would make a difference. She was behind on points and way behind on break chances, but she was doing a lot better job of protecting her serve when she did face those break chances.

It’s interesting to look at the four qualifying matches that were contested today. In each match, the winner broke serve 6 times. Tatjana Maria was a little bit of an outlier. She had 25 break chances against Mari Osaka and won just 24% of those chances while losing her own serve only once on the three break chances she faced as she dominated Osaka and won 68 of 109 points. Tomorrow the 26 year old German mom with her 6 month old infant courtside will take on another Japanese teenager, Nao Hibino, whose 209 current ranking is her career high. Maria’s current ranking is just 861, but she’s obviously had some other issues to deal with in the last 12 months. Her career high ranking is 64 and she very much intends to get back to that level along with her little bundle of joy. She is a very dangerous “floater” in the draw.

In the other three qualifying matches, the winner broke 6 times out of 9 chances. In the Elie/Hardebeck match, Hardebeck had 8 break points, but only converted 3. Krista only held her serve twice and lost the match 6-3, 6-2, 66 points to 43. For her labors, Elie is rewarded with a match tomorrow against number two seeded Nicole Gibbs. Elie would seem to be well set up for this meeting having been severely tested in a three-setter Monday against Zoe Scandalis and going through relatively routinely against Hardebeck today. However, she better protect her serve a little better tomorrow against the 2-time NCAA singles champion.

In the other qualifying match, veteran Alexandra Stevenson, a former Wimbledon semifinalist as a teenager in 1999, ousted Jacqueline Cako. Even though Cako had 15 break points, 6 more than Stevenson, she only converted 5 and Stevenson got the key break in the third to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Alexandra had 3 aces to Jacqueline’s 0, but she also had 9 more double faults. Cako forced Stevenson to serve 102 times and she won 46 points off Stevenson’s serve while Stevenson only won 34 ponts off Cako as Cako served just 69 points. The one key statistic that mattered is 6 converted break chances to 5 for Cako. Stevenson converted 2/3 chances while Cako could only manage 1/3.

But before I bore you completely to death with these numbers, back to Lao/Morgan going into the 3rd set. Lao got off to a quick start and went up 2-0 and 3-1 right away, but Morgan held serve and broke back in the 6th game to even the match. Morgan, as I said, was ahead on points and break chances and now she appeared to be taking momentum as well. Brianna had at least 2 chances to hold and go up 4-3 in that key 7th game (here we go again with the key 7th game), but she didn’t get it done and in a very long game, Lao broke to go up 4-3. Lao held for 3-5 and broke to finish the match out, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Danielle would tell me, “No style points. Just maximizing what is between the ears and beneath my chest. Definitely not playing my cleanest, but I’m making do and finding a way.”

I’ve watched the Little Giant play for 8 years now and she is definitely one of the toughest competitors I have ever known. She knows as well as anyone how to skate on that thin ice until she gets the chance to close the deal. I just wish she would stain the thicker part of the ice a little more; it would be a lot easier on those of us watching; unfortunately, that ice doesn’t always hold. For the record, Morgan had 15 break points, but she only converted 4. I’m hoping Danielle will play a little “cleaner” as she goes into the main draw, but I don’t worry about her finding a way to exploit her weapons and her opponent’s weaknesses. What I do worry about is how do I get my young students to appreciate the nature of the contest they are engaged in. Some points are more important than others and you must fight for those points like it is a matter of life and death.

If you want to see some of these life and death struggles, get yourself down to Carson this week and enjoy some professional tennis up close and personal, … because it is personal!!

You can find the full schedule and the draws at:

http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/women%27s-tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100032270

There were also 4 main draw singles and 8 doubles matches played on Tuesday.

10sChiro

to see other articles by 10sChiro, go to

https://archive.10sballs.com/category/columnists/dr-chiro/

https://archive.10sballs.com/author/don/

For more information about about lessons with TennisChiro or his videotaping and analysis service, just dial **tennispro on your cell phone. You will get a text with his email and phone number

Topics: Brianna Morgan, Carson, Danielle Lao, Don Brosseau, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

July 16, 2014 at 8:06 am

CARSON CALIFORNIA LADIES PRO TENNIS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU- http://t.co/0vZqKGVeij #Carson #wta #tennis #CA #usta #sports