Naomi lost a close match. She certainly fought hard, saving bps, 5 set points and 3 match points. VT came up with some quality shots during the tiebreak, taking it with a stunning lob winner. I think Naomi got put off attacking the net due to the sheer number of brilliant passing shots from VT, resulting in her wasting big chances to move forwards during some of the rallies in the 3rd set.

In the opening set Naomi's backhand earned her the only break, holding throughout without facing a bp, 3 aces in a row as she served for the set. VT lost 7 service points, all of them due to Broady backhands. Naomi fought back to 40-40 in VT's opening service game of the 2nd set but never managed to force a bp in the set, VT coming up with a brilliant volley winner when 0-30 in one game. Aces got Naomi out of trouble in two games, 3 dfs at 4-5 required her to save 3 set points, VT with a rare careless backhand cross-court ue on one bp was a generous gift. VT dominated the tiebreak, a mix of superb play from her and a couple of poor errors from Naomi, who fought back to 4-4 then saved 2 set points with an ace and a backhand down the line winner, before a forehand error gave Viktoriya another chance that she took with a sublime lob winner. 

Having lost the tiebreak Naomi went missing for 10 mins at the start of the third set, everything went wrong. VT contributed 2 points towards 2 breaks of serve, the rest were Broady errors. Naomi saw VT save 3 bps at 1-4* the first two with good play, the third a horrible return error off a 2nd serve, but took the next two points with high quality attacking play. The game at 3-4* might have been her chance. Both players made awful errors early in the game, Naomi eventually got a bp which VT saved with a smash that must have hit the side-line.

Naomi saved 2 mps after back to back dfs got her in trouble. VT served for the match, starting with a drop shot error 0-15. Naomi should have taken the next point too but made a shocking forehand error. One more match point saved with a brilliant backhand winner but next point the contest was over.

Lots of good things about Naomi's performance, plenty of aces in the first two sets though not the third, and her backhand was on fire for spells in the match, but tons of terrible errors and way too many dfs (only once was she actually going for a big serve). Her reluctance to move forwards was doing my head in by the end. Unlike the previous match, there was some talent evident beyond her first serve. Ultimately Tomova was just too good, high first serve percentage, no dfs, few unforced errors and plenty of stunning shots.