Well, I was actually able to watch the match live for the first time ever on the Wimbledon website so I'm giving my reaction of the match on the day for once. I'll start off with the match summery first and then we'll get into the good and the bad.
Hingis started off well in the first set winning the opening game with some nice serving. Her opponent Laura Granville held however and broke Martina to go up 1/2. Then held her own serve again for 3/1. Next it was Hingis who held for 2/3. Her opponent held again for a 4/2 lead.
Hingis also won a game on her serve for 3/4. I have to hand it to Granville her serve was tough to break and she hardly made unforced errors. She held her serve again for 3/5. Hingis also held hers for 5/4. Had a few more opportunities but made some errors and lost the set 4/6.
In the second set Hingis lost the first 2 games after a tough fight. She held serve at love in the 3rd game for 1/2. But her opponent held again as well. Hingis won the next game on her serve for 2/3. At this point Martina had a bunch of chances to break but couldn't convert giving her opponent another break. She was then broken for a 2/5 lead and Granville won the match.
Now on to some observations, as I was watching the match I noticed Martina hang back on the baseline a lot perhaps trying to out play her opponent from there, but we all know she can't so I'm not sure why she did that. She wasn't really being pushed back or overpowered. I was really surprised she didn't come to the net more like she did in the first round.
Might have equaled to a few more break opportunities. She didn't have as many aces as her previous match and a lot more errors, probably because she seemed to be rushing at times. On to the good, she definitely wasn't in pain and served at 70% percent at least in the first set not sure about the second.
I think this was definitely a winnable match, and I honestly think if she had more practice going into the tournament she could have gone much further. If you look at it in terms of coming back from an injury with no warm-up she did quite well.
I had no expectations as I've said in one of my previous posts but part of me was hoping she would get past this round to erase last years memories. Martina herself expressed regret about not going further in her post match interview, so I think she knew she had a real chance especially with such a nice draw.
In any case it was a valiant effort, I'm a little disappointed but at the same time so happy to see her play again. Hopefully she'll continue to improve game and health wise as the weeks go on. That's what I wish for her. And I can't wait to see her at Rogers Cup in August. It's gonna be a long month lol.
No comments:
Post a Comment