Sutton 25K

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Sutton 25K

RobC · All-time great

Here's the final Llewellyn result:
QR2:
Rebecca Llewellyn 2-6 2-6 Liana-Gabriela Ungur

It seems that Miss Ungur is "a quality player and really cute"

-- Edited by RobC at 19:28, 2007-01-29

Sheddie · administrator

Hey guys, many thanks to Rob for posting the scores.

Unfortunately I have hardly any pics as taking photos was strictly prohibited.

I've had the most amazing day, it's been really cool. Spending a day, in a tennis centre packed full with incredibly cute girls all around, how much better can you get ! I had no idea the eye candy in 25Ks was quite this good !! As a result I'm decided to change my career plans and study to become a WTA trainer, engineering can go out the window. The guy there was only in his early 20s, and the amount of thigh massages he got to do was unbelievable.

Had a great chat with Nigel Sears, told him about this site and britishtennis.net and he said it was really great. I asked him whether he'd be interested in contributing and he said he definately would be, I'm going to email him and discuss things further.

I'll do a massive report later, I need a long cold shower !

-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:57, 2007-01-30

Salmon · Tennis legend

Good to see that you enjoyed yourself. I'm really eager to hear about what's the deal with Sears Sr.

-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:58, 2007-01-30

Sheddie · administrator

Massive report coming up....

-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:59, 2007-01-30

RedCabbage · Club Coach

Sounds like you had a great time :)

It reminds me of my Eastbourne adventure last year. I totally fell in love with Tsvetana Pironkova. Shame you couldn't take pics, I'm surprised about that - why the restriction?

Happycynic · Pro player

Aside Natasha Khan, not a good day...

Panova beat Smith 3-6 6-3 6-2
Silva beat Fitzpatrick 5-7 7-6(6) 6-3
De Gubernatis bt Ricketts 7-1 7-5
Georges bt Brown 6-2 6-3

QR: Khan vs Poltoratskaya. Poltoratskaya is hot right now, having steamrollered her two previous opponents, and reached the final of last weeks 10K.

Sheddie · administrator

The shedman's exclusive insight on the day's 25K action:

Part 1: (this is going to be pretty long, so I'm splitting it up into parts).

Arrived in Sutton at 9.50am with what I thought were pretty good directions to the tennis centre, but half an hour later we'd seen most of the local sights but found no tennis centre. Finally discovered that it was tucked away in a large field, and what appeared to be Sutton fitness club had a tennis centre round the back of it. It's one of Britain's special tennis academies and had pretty good facilities - several outdoor hard and clay courts (Slabba tells me that the clay is carpet courts with layers of clay on of them) plus six indoor acrylic courts.

Viewing facilities at Sutton are really good - there's a balcony with 3 courts either side so you can watch any match easily, and there's a good supply on chairs on hand. All matches had umpires and 1 line judge (at some challengers in other parts of the world there are no umpires at all). I think my friend and I were the only "tennis fans" there; there was always quite a lot of people watching but I think it was all either other players, friends, parents or coaches plus lots of the younger squad members who train full-time at Sutton popped in to watch in between training sessions. Later on some octogenarian types turned up and sat in the corner doing the crossword, maybe the local library had shut ? Nigel Sears also turned up in the afternoon and popped back and forth to check out all the British players in action and support them. Most of the players seemed to have some kind of entourage with them, lots of coaches about.

First match we watched was Romania's Liana Ungur (542) against Julia Bone (669). I am seriously amazed that Ungur is ranked that low, she's surely going to be top 200 very soon probably higher, she has such power off the ground off both wings. Judging by today's exploits she will be this week's Shriekapova of Sutton, Ungur has some grunt ! She also has the Shriekapova-style looks to match, my friend and I decided after much debate on the train home that she won "cutie of the day" award....wears dangerously low cut shorts aswell which led to the males flocking to her court.

Anyhow, moving on and back to the tennis....Unger just completely outhit Bone, she was 3-1 up when we arrived and got the double break soon after. It was a similar story in the 2nd set, Bone had a couple of half-chances on the Ungur serve but never came close to breaking. Bone hits with heavy topspin off both sides, her style of play is probably best suited to clay or slowish outdoor hard courts. Problem is that it's not particularly effective on indoor acrylic, the ball tends to sit up especially against a tall player like Ungur who stepped in, took the ball on the rise and consistently thumped booming groundstrokes into the corners. In most of the rallies, they'd exchange 3 to 5 powerful shots and then the power of Ungur would be too much for Bone and she'd mis hit a shot or present Ungur with a short ball. Bone has a good serve but probably needs to do more work on it to get a higher percentage in and get more penetration.

On the adjacent court was Emily Webley-Smith against Anna Hawkins. As some may have suspected, the shedman took a keen interest in this match and I must say, she looks even better in the flesh than in the photos, my friend saw her and said "I see what you mean !" To be honest though, the match wasn't great quality, Hawkins was pretty poor. She has a good serve but made far too many unforced errors from the back and missed some absolute sitters after working points well. Webley-Smith broke twice early on and opened up a 4-1 lead, however she seemed to lose concentration and let Hawkins get it back to 4-4, making too many errors and throwing in a few double faults. However, she stepped it up again and worked some good rallies to break Hawkins again and serve out the set. Hawkins wasn't overjoyed at double-faulting on break point at 4-4 and made her feelings known with an outburst of of Anglo-Saxon.

In the 2nd set Emily broke early on and was leading 3-1 when the shedman decided to check out Anna Smith. Some info on Emily: She's about 5ft6 and she plays an all-court game, not really a power player - she wins her points by working the rallies, mixing things up and getting into the net. She still looks a little rusty to be honest, it will take her a while to get back to the heights of 2004 when she was top 250 before injuries kept her out for nearly two years. She has an extreme forehand grip and hits with very heavy topspin off that side, uses it a lot to push her opponent back and give her time to get into the net, one of her favourite patterns of play. She hits her two-handed backhand a lot flatter and sometimes mixes that up with the slice. Likes to get into the net as much as possible and at times she produces some sublime touches there. However she also missed some easy volleys, chose the wrong balls to come in on or chose to take the ball out of the air or on the half-volley, when it would have been better to let it bounce. A lot of this is also probably down to rust. She's got a great serve but her first serve percentage was pretty low. Emily keeps a very calm demeanour on court, rarely show any frustration or get pumped up.

Natasha Khan disposed of Holly Richards pretty comfortable. I didn't see much at all of that match as I was watching Ungur-Bone and Webley-Smith simultaneously and Khan was on the far courts. However, I looked across every so often and saw several scorching backhand and forehand winners from Khan and a couple of brilliant passing shots. Richards is quite a stocky player, maybe needs to improve her mobility about the court.

Part 2 to follow shortly

Sheddie · administrator

RedCabbage wrote:
Sounds like you had a great time :)

It reminds me of my Eastbourne adventure last year. I totally fell in love with Tsvetana Pironkova. Shame you couldn't take pics, I'm surprised about that - why the restriction?

I was surprised at the restriction too, maybe they're worried people will come along and take photos using the flash otherwise ?? I probably could have got away with taking quite a few but there were LTA people around and I didn't want to get ejected.

For my 18th birthday, I'm going to get a small, portable video camera so that when I go to a lot more of these tournaments after my June exams, I can film lots of the action (which would have been quite easy today) so then I can post some streams on here which people can watch.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Means that I'll actually get to watch Dan.

Lovely report. Continue posting...

Sheddie · administrator

The Shedman in Sutton: Part 2:

I then moved on to watch Anna Smith. I thought she'd have a fairly close match against Spain's Paula Fondeville-Castro (ranked 690) but Smith was simply awesome, blasted the Spaniard off the court 3 and 2. I joined the match at the start of the 2nd set and who hugely impressed by Smith, she is definately a real prospect. I think she'll be top 300 by the end of the year, would be very surprised if she isn't. She has the game to go a lot, lot higher; I would say definately top 200; as for higher, who knows - I'm probably not the best judge of that. Smith can absolutely rip the ball of both wings, she has a double-handed backhand and smashed so many clean winners today, was quite spectacular shot-making at times. She was far to hot for Fondeville-Castro to handle and the Spaniard was sent packing in quickfire fashion. Smith has a great serve, probably 2nd best of the Brits I saw today behind Natasha Khan but as for most of the British players, she needs to get a higher percentage in, when she got it in, she had quite a few aces and service winners. Her weaker wing is probably the forehand, she tends to miss a little more off that side and can get a little carried away at times with the hitting, went for a couple of clean winners on the run which were 2/10 shots. However, as well as being great on the offence Smith has also got a great defense game, she can really return fire with fire when on the run.

Next up was Anna Fitzpatrick, I was very keen to see her in action. Firstly I must say that Bladetiger is absolutely right about Melissa Berry - the photos of her on the web definately don't do her judgement, she is hot ! However, as my friend and I kept having to remind ourselves, we were there to see some quality tennis and so we adjusted our attention from Berry's bosom to her backhand. The first set went with serve till 4-3. Fitzpatrick had had the better opportunities to break and won a long game to break and lead 5-3. She served out the set and then got off to the best possible start in the 2nd, breaking in the opening game. However, she then seemed to lose focus, and forehand errors crept into her game. From 30-0 on her serve, two stunning forehand return winners from Berry made it 30-30 and then two forehand errors from Fitzpatrick (both makeable shots) meant that Berry broke straight back and made it 1-1. However, Fitzpatrick started to regain her focus and her range and broke midway through the set and served it out to win 6-3, 6-4. You can tell that Fitzpatrick trains on clay, she has a very extreme forehand grip and hits with a lot of topspin off that side. The forehand is probably her biggest weakness, at times in her matches she loses focus for a short while, that shot goes slightly awry and she starts hitting it wide and long. Her two-handed backhand is very solid and a great shot, she hit some stunning winners off that wing. Unlike Smith and Khan, she's not so much a power player, she really works the rallies using angles, different lengths to try and open the court up or give her an opportunity to step up the court and attack. The clay-court training in Monte Carlo really does show through her forehand and the tactical side of her game.

It's interesting the different approach certain players take to the short ball; players like Khan and Smith really step up the court, take it on the rise and thump it - going for an outright winner, Webley-Smith will mostly look to use the opportunity to get into the net through a slice or heavy topspin but sometimes does go for the big winner and Fitzpatrick (especially on her forehand) looks to caress the ball into a gap, coming up and over it with her extreme grip.

Fitzpatrick's serve was very effective against Berry, she gets a lot in and gets a lot of service winners and a fair few aces. She regularly look to get into the net to finish off points and hit some classy volleys but this area of her game is still very much a work in progress.

Part 3 will follow either tomorrow morning or later tonight

Sheddie · administrator

Shedman in Sutton: Part 3:

During the Fitzpatrick-Berry match, I started getting a fair few glares from the players as my mobile kept beeping as Rob's texts came through. So, unfortunately I had to tell him not to reply which was a shame as we were having a nice repartee. I really must work out how to set my phone to "silent."

Melissa Berry has a pretty good serve, she also hit some superb forehands during the match. In particular I remember the two scorching forehand returns she hit at 3-6, 0-1 off Fitzpatrick's serve which helped her to break back. However, the backhand is her big weakness, she made way too many unforced errors off that side and Fitzpatrick really targeted it. Berry did also miss some pretty easy shots in the forecourt which didn't help her cause. Several times when she had a short ball she tried forehand dropshots, however the tactic wasn't very successful. She hit one angled one which was absolutely perfect but the other times she tried it, it wasn't short enough and Fitzpatrick was onto it in a flash.

I think that Fitzpatrick definately has the talent to be ranked a lot higher, I was very impressed by what I saw. Top 350 is definately achievable this year, I think she'll need to fill out her frame more and add some muscle to get top 300 and higher but the talent is there.

Saw Keothavong practising, exchanging series of groundstrokes down the line and cross-court, we were hoping to get her autograph when she finished but she'd disappeared.

My friend Moray was being a little indiscreet at times, we were watching Fitzpatrick and this foreign girl came along and started bouncing up and down for quite a while right behind us, making quite a noise. Within earshot, Moray commented (speaking about Fitzpatrick-Berry) "It's a good match, shame we've got Tigger doing a jig right behind us." It seemed to do the trick as she left pretty swiftly after that

Webley-Smith and Anna Smith were hanging around for quite a while in the viewing area, watching Fitzpatrick. I was tempted to go and say hi, but then Moray said (within earshot) "Just don't tell her you fancy her" At least it's out now I guess.

Natasha Khan's mum/coach was there and they spent quite a while discussing her match and tactics.

There was a cracking match going on at this time between Jessica Jackson and India's Tara Iyer. I didn't see much of it apart from the odd few points as I was watching Smith and Fitzpatrick but despite the ranking difference it was really close and the first set was incredibly tight, I don't think there were any breaks of serve. Iyer's extra experience told in the breaker which she cruised through. Jackson was up 3-1 in the 2nd set but lost her way and Iyer took the next 4 games. Iyer served for it at 5-3 but Jackson broke back. Unfortunately she then got broken serving to stay in the match at 4-5 and so Iyer won 7-6, 6-4. I wish I'd watched a bit of it as then I'd have more to say about Jackson's game but from the few points I saw, she's a pretty hard hitter, definately way better than 1438, she'll be in the top 1000 very soon I should think.

Although there was no British interest in it, an absolute marathon went on between Laura Haberkorn and Desislava Mladenova. The match lasted ages, must have been 3 hours, possibly more. Every single game seemed to go to several deuces. Both players are massive strikers of the ball and Haberkorn herself was also extremely pleasing to the eye (top 4 in the "cutie of the day" competition). Felt really sorry for the winner and loser of that match, must be so gutting to lose such a long one and the winner must have been absolutely knackered and she had to play another match 2 hours later !

I think watched the 2nd set of Lucy Warburton's match against Ekaterina Dranets. Warburton had quite a bit of support from other players. Dranets has a slightly weird serve, very abbreviated and she doesn't get much bite at all off it, some serves did really sit up. She also looked in need of a few good meals. 1st set was very close, I think that Warburton had the better chances to break but didn't take them and it went with serve till 4-5 when Warburton got broken serving to stay in the set. Dramets broke early in the 2nd set and led 4-1 (Warburton had several half-chances to break but again missed them) before Warburton upped her game slightly and broke the Dramets serve and got it back to 3-4, on serve. Unfortunately she then played a sloppy game, double-faulting on break point and Dramets served the match out to win 6-4, 6-3. Despite the straight sets defeat, I was impressed by parts of Warburton's game, I felt that it was a match that she could have won (and definately could have taken it to 3 sets). She's got a good solid serve and hits a heavy ball off both sides from the back of the court. However, she needs to do a lot of work on her forecourt game and unfortunately for her Dramets is an excellent counter-puncher, very fast around the court. There were so many times when Warburton was in control of the rally, hitting hard from the baseline to move Dramets around from side to side. She then got a short or midcourt ball and promptly thumped it into the net, or attacked the net and missed a fairly easy volley. She would make a few, but she seemed to miss the majority. The story of the match was that Warburton would do all the hard work, rallying from the back with heavy groundstrokes and then getting the chance to finish the point but would lack the killer punch on the final shot. I definately think she's better than her current ranking of 812. Part 4 to follow

Sheddie · administrator

Shedman in Sutton: Part 4:

Melissa Gibb got an absolute thumping from Germany's Ria Doernemann, that match didn't last long at all. I was amazed it was so one-sided as I only saw a couple of points every now and then as I was watching Danielle Brown and Deborah Armstrong. Gibb and Doernemann seemed to be having some cracking rallies, trading laser-like shots from the back. They looked well matched from what I could see, Doernemann must have just won all those rallies.

I then watched the Deborah Armstrong-Martina Pavelec match. Armstrong is a pretty good player, after the opening couple of games I thought there might be an upset on the cards as she hit some stunning winners particularly off her forehand. However, Pavelec was just on fire today, I wasn't at all surprised that she went on to knock out the 7th seed in rd2. She's tall and very powerfully built, and has a devastating forehand + single-handed backhand combination. Armstrong didn't play badly at all, she was timing the ball very sweetly but for a set and a half Pavelec was just blasting unstoppable winners to all corners, I'm amazed she's not top 400, just shows the depth of the women's game. Pavelec won 6 straight games to take the first set 6-1 and then raced to a 5-2 lead in the 2nd set. Armstrong was just being outhit, she has quite a slender frame. She got quite frustrated and had several arguments with the umpire, there were no curtains dividing the courts and so balls regularly went over onto adjacent courts. During 1 rally, a ball from the Gibb match came onto the court behind the baseline and Armstrong stopped playing. She felt that they should replay the point as the ball had come over, but the umpire correctly (imo) said no as the ball was way behind the baseline. At 1-6, 2-5 down Armstrong then started attacking the net more which proved successful and maybe Pavelec got tight as errors started to creep into her play. Armstrong began to dominate more of the rallies and worked her way back into the set, breaking Pavelec and levelling it at 5-5. Pavelec then held a close service game to lead 6-5 and Armstrong got broken to 30, serving to stay in it.

The Danielle Brown-Abbie Probert match was interesting. From the pics of Dani which I've seen on the web, she really does look startlingly like Kim Cljisters. However, in the flesh there isn't so much of a similarity. Dani broke serve in the opening game but then got broken straight back - hitting 3 straight double faults. She broke again to lead 2-1 and opened up a 4-1 lead. A break in the 7th game made it 5-2 and she wrapped up the set 6-2. 2nd set was much, much closer, Danielle was an early break up but Probert broke back and it went with serve till 5-5 when Dani crunched some return winners to break and then held a marathon service game to win 6-2, 7-5. Dani has probably the biggest serve of all the British players in action yesterday, however it's extremely inconsistent. She also really, really goes for her 2nd serve, at times it's virtually as fast as her 1st and so she hit quite a few double-faults. Before she serves she has this little habit of touching her left and right knees several times, must be some kind of superstition lol. From the baseline, she's a massive hitter , she crunched some massive forehand and backhand winners today and when she strings that together for several points she's unplayable. However, again consistency is a problem and is probably what's holding her back at the moment as she's got the power of a top 100 player. In the 1st set Probert was trying to anticipate where Dani was going with the short and midcourt shots and moving far too early, she also made some sloppy errors. However, in the 2nd set, she scrambled a lot better, cut out the errors and her length was deeper which kept Dani at bay. Dani's friend/coach was also watching the match and was saying that in the 2nd set Dani was going for the big winner too early in the rally, she needed to work the point more and wait for the right opportunities instead of getting impatient.

Probert's boyfriend was also watching the match with us (we didn't realise till later - oops), don't think he was too happy as we were cheering on Dani and during the first set we were saying that we didn't think it would last too long and wouldn't really be much of a contest

Moray also made the slight mistake of slating Probert during the first set without realising that she was just below him, collecting balls for her next serve

Melissa Berry was having a great time, chatting up two lads and then disappeared with one of them shortly afterwards. I think she, Dani and Webley-Smith are all close friends.

The trainer was also having a great time, having a go on Webley-Smith's thighs. As Moray said "Its a tough life being a WTA trainer !" It was at that point that we both realised that we're in the wrong profession. The guy only looked in his early 20s, I guess it could be a case of too much fun, too young though. It's pretty funny as when he comes on court to give some "treatment" he has to be accompanied by a female ITF supervisor to make sure that he behaves himself.

Part 5 to follow....

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Sounds like you had a good day! Going again for the main draw??

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Despite it being a good day, only one Brit made it into qualies final round out of a possey.

Hope for better in main draw and pleeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeee Natasha qualify!