$585K Tier-II JP Morgan Chase WTA, Los Angeles, Aug6-14 2005

[jayakris]

Had to be away for a few hours and just got home ..

[Q1] (wc) Neha Uberoi (USA,265) l. Bethanie Mattek (USA,137), 46 36

.. First of all, Mattek just does not look like a tennis player .. Not too tall, and looks like a slightly chubby highschooler. Nothing much threatening in her game but she is plenty quick and is pretty solid with her ground strokes. She is also playing very well. In her last event, she qualified in through 3 rounds and then reached the semi at Cincinnati with three more upsets including over #35 Bartoli and #19 Jankovic!!! .. So, Neha was up against a player who was not at all easy.. But both Varma and I felt that Neha had perhaps the better game to beat her had she stopped making unforced errors - but then that is what happens when one plays the Neha style game (or shall we start calling it the India style game? Like Sania, she also goes for her shots all the time, though their games are different in the sense that Neha does a bit more of moves up to the net and probably wins a few more points off service winners)...

First set:

0-0 .. An ace and a service winner from Neha .. held at 40-15
1-0 .. Two deuces but no BPs for Neha .. BM held ..
1-1 .. A double fault to start and then two hard forehand shots in the net .. Neha broken in game 3
1-2 .. Scorching FH return winner from Neha, but two long returns too .. BM held at 40-30, with a great cross court passing shot.
1-3 .. One FH and one BH netted .. NU faces a 30-40 .. An 8-shot rally ended in a FH smack from Neha .. Service winner! .. Ace! .. held.
2-3 .. BM playing mistake-free .. 30-15 .. 12 shot rally, Neha nets another FH .. Oh brother ..
2-4 .. Neha nets a hard FH for the 5th time in the match .. Then made another error on a high bounce, hitting without setting up porperly .. Looked a little unfocused at this point .. A bit upset at herself, and hits the ball 22 times to the back wall .. Bethanie wins a nice rally at 30-40 .. Neha broken in game 7
2-5 .. Neha totally charged up .. Two backhand return winners (second on a netchord, that fell in due to the power in her shot) .. BM saved two break points (one on a tee-up service return that went long) ..On the 3rd break point, Neha had an awesome return, followed by a FH winner to the corner .. BM broken in game 8
3-5 .. Spirited tennis from Neha .. Almost an ace, an inch out (may be a bad call?) on the first serve at 40-30, but then she double faulted there .. decue .. Won a nice rally and then she hot a second serve ace up the middle .. Game
4-5 .. neha played her heart out here .. Helped by one DF from BM, she forced a deuce .. Neha actually saved three AD-in set points .. One forhand winner fell an inch out on the 4th deuce (that would have been THE point to win to get a BP and try to even it) .. Then an NU backhand hit the net; error .. BM somehow held on ... DAMN!
4-6

Second Set
0-0 Bethanie really played well in this game, two times coming with forhand crosscourt winners on Neha who was moving up. Then Neha hit a BH long at AD-out .. Neha borken in game 1
0-1 Terrific play by Neha again .. Neha had a nice lunge to return a serve and the won the point with excellent movement on court .. 30-30 .. A forehand return winner! .. 30-40 ... A high back hand dump on the 4th shot in the next point -- that one had "oooph" on it .. BM broken in game 2
1-1 .. Now Neha back to her error-prone play .. Two more unforced errors .. Saved a 30-40 BP but then a double fault caused a second BP, where BM played a rally nicely .. Neha broken in game 3
1-2 .. Again Neha had BM serving at deuce .. But now Bethanie was moving very well on court and catching up to some of the tough screamers from Neha .. Finally Neha netted a service return (going for it!) .. BM held
1-3 .. Neha down 0-40 on serve, due to some very nice work by BM, including one more FH crosscourt pass (that one worked about 5 times for her) .. Service winner .. 15-40 .. Another big serve .. BM somehow catches up and gives lob return .. neha at the net but makes an error in dumping the volley straight to BM who said thank you and took it .. Neha broken again in game 5
1-4 .. Neha hits three return winners in a row (well BM touched a couple of them) .. 0-40 .. BM saved two BPs, but then Neha all over at the net .. BM broken in game 5
2-4 .. A service winner and a second serve ace from Neha .. holds easily at 40-15
3-4 .. Neha probably too excited and goes for too much on her shots .. Not helping herself (but that is her style I guess!) .. BM held at 40-15
3-5 .. Neha makes two crucial mistakes .. One was after a huge serve, neha moved up and hit one deep - BM somehow managed a lob .. Neha had the whole court in front and she hot it out .. That hurt .. deuce .. A double fault .. AD out .. A forehand error .. Match over.

The summary is simple ... Neha gave easily 15 extra points to BM through errors (totally unforced) .. That is a killer .. She hits a ton of big shots, she moves well, she has a pretty big serve (she is not as tall as Shikha, perhaps half an inch shorter than Sania, but she can serve at 115-120 mph) .. She occasionally has good hands at the net too (though not as good as Shikha's hands which are the best among the three) .. All she needs to do is to get a bit more accurate on her shots .. Also, she needs to hit some balls a bit deeper .. There were many cases today when I felt she drew Bethanie in a little farther than she should have .. So, a few things to work on .. Anyway, the scoreline, as you can see above, was totally deceptive - neha played a lot of good tennis also today.

Most important for Neha is to play matches .. With the style of aggressive tennis she has, her shots will become accurate only by playing more .. What PKB said above is absolutely correct .. She needs to play at challengers and play a lot .. Varma and I had a chat with Mahesh, and he was of the same opinion. I think a part of the problem is that he is struggling a bit, with the scheduling. He also wants to send Neha to a few more challengers etc. He will do that soon.

Anyway, it is only about couple of months since she became injury-free after several months of trouble with her rib cage .. I was glad to see her play without problems .. There were patches in this matches where we could see her potential.

Dont worry; Neha will be back making some big noise soon.

Jay

[insideout]

Thanks for the detailed match analysis Jay!

Sad to see Neha losing

[rameshlaus]

Jay - Were you able to check with Mahesh about Shikha missing from JPMC.

Akiki Morigami retired in mid-match in SD due to right knee tendonitis. Its doutful if she will play in LA. Even if she plays she is in the bottom half of the draw. Since Venus is also not playing, it has to be someone new who has to stop Sania in LA Other AM or Venus.

Sania's 1r opp. Benesova is slipping in the ranking from 33 to 54 whereas Sania is moving up. Benesova lost in the 1r to a qualifier in Cincinnatti and even though she reached qf in Stanford, 99% Sania should take care of her in the1r.

[Varma]

Jay - Were you able to check with Mahesh about Shikha missing from JPMC.

Yes, we spoke to Mahesh about it. He said she is perfectly fine, healthwise. Just a lot tired of playing consecutively for 5 weeks. According to him, she should be back next week or the week before the Open.

- Varma

[rameshlaus]

Thanks Varma.

[manus_ind]

sania has made the main draw playing against benesova in first round where if she goes through faces na li or anna chakvatadze and in third round with ultimate star called maria sharapova,best of luck to her

[Sandeep]

Sania Vs Na Li is something I am eagerly waiting for. Sania lost to her in asian championship. But after that Sania improved to a great extent. Want to measure the improvement . Na Li's match should be a good one.

[manus_ind]

sania has made the main draw playing against benesova in first round where if she goes through faces na li or anna chakvatadze and in third round with ultimate star called maria sharapova,best of luck to her

i know for sure that i will be eagerly waiting for sania/sharapova match and may be an upset underway

sorry for being over enthusiastic,but thats what i love to enjoy

[Sandeep]

Sania I don't think can beat Shrapova! Sharapova will have an easy game. Check out Sharapova's shots and their angles. Noway Sania is going to return them. I doubt if she can even reach them

[genius]

I wud be really interested to see a match up vs Maria.But the earlier round opponents are no walkovers and i hope she brings out her best in the week after being deservedly overshadowed by morigami and peng last week. She has to feel its her turn to show the world.

[Sandeep]

Yes, Na Li is not all that easy to beat.

[manus_ind]

well i think that will be great for her being overshadowed by other players so that she have some fresh air from mediocrisy and comeup with some stunning wins which she is capable of and to climb every step slowly and carefully,in anyway a wta tour win at forest hills wil certainly boost her chances of understanding hot to finish-off matches to win a tour event.

and also she should watch more and more videos of top players in her free time to understand the weaknesses of other players and try to dominate everyone of them since the beginning to dictate the match which willagain fires up her self-confidence while playing top rankers which i think is one of her main weapons

[manus_ind]

it seems as if u have not watched kuzni defeating maria several times,so what i presume fromthis is yeah sania has definitely got the game to challenge sharapova,well win/loss is a secondary thought here as she will for sure starts analyzing her style of play for future how to sharpen her way of play with top rankers,as future is always hope to be brighter rather than present

we shouldn't forget that it is still her initial stages of the wtatour,so i think personally it is better to be consistent rather straying herself in the tour




quote="nothingnew"]Sania I don't think can beat Shrapova! Sharapova will have an easy game. Check out Sharapova's shots and their angles. Noway Sania is going to return them. I doubt if she can even reach them [/quote]

[jayakris]

Sania I don't think can beat Shrapova! Sharapova will have an easy game. Check out Sharapova's shots and their angles. Noway Sania is going to return them. I doubt if she can even reach them

Again, I completely agree. Sharapova is one player who I think would be the TOUGHEST for Sania to beat. Particularly because of the angles! .. The key would be to return well to win a lof of points early on MS' serve and to serve well to win a lot of points early on SM's own serve .. And hit the shots consistently deep.

Why are we talking about Sharapova anyway? ... So, what are the chances against Benesova? --- she has wins over Vaidisova, Zvonareva, Jankovic, Llagostera-Vives, Peng etc this year. She beat Peng at Stanford 2 weeks back... Sounds tough. I don't know much about Benesova's game.

Jay

[Sandeep]

it seems as if u have not watched kuzni defeating maria several times

"several times" ?, She won twice and lost twice. And what has Kuz beating Sharapova has to do with Sania beating Sharapova. Both have completely different games. Don't comeup with logic like "Sania beat Kuz, Kuz beat Sharapova and so Sania can beat Sharapova!"