25K Tipton (6th Feb)

Happycynic · Pro player

RE: 25K Tipton (6th Feb)

Michael · Pro player

Nice! Who are their opponents in the next round?

Sheddie · administrator

imoen wrote:

ashamed: so i was not right in saying... Oh well. But still both opponents were ranked higher and whilst I agree we should hope that our players beat higher ranked guys (how else will they rise up the rankings?) I don't think we should expect them to do so. I mean we expect them to beat anyone ranked lower so why are foreign players expected to always lose to lower ranked Brits? I'm not trying to rant at anyone in particular and I myself am guilty of the same thing, just trying to put the results in perspective and say that whilst we can be disappointed we shouldn't think it the end of the world.

ultimateshedman wrote:

"Anna Fitzpatrick played a great second set against Hlavackova. Anna's still only 17 and she, Naomi, Jade Windley and Jocelyn Rae are our 3 best upcoming teenage prospects. I have high hopes for all of them."

I have to ask, is it Nigel Sears who can't count or Ultimateshedman, the guy taking A level further maths?

I wasn't expecting Amanda or Sarah to win their round 1 matches, I was saying how it was a missed opportunity for both of them as (especially in Sarah's case) those were very good round 1 draws for a 25K challenger. It's the sort of match she needs to win to move upwards as normally in 25Ks the opponents she'll face will outrank her a lot more than 20-30 places. Amanda's conqueror, Margit Ruutel is very experienced and made the semis in Sutton last week, but given that it's an indoor tournament and they have similar rankings, I hoped it would be 3 sets. Unfortunately Amanda didn't play very well, and it was quite a routine win for Tamaela.

Lol, it was that scatty shedman

Nigel Sears forgot to mention Naomi and so I added her but forgot to change 3 to 4 !

Sheddie · administrator

Michael wrote:

Nice! Who are their opponents in the next round?

Katie plays top seed Elise Tamaela in the quarters. Really tough draw for her, Taemala's ranked 144 and won Sutton last week. She dropped a set in rd1 to qualifier Claire De Gubenatis but brushed aside the challenge of Margit Ruutel 6-2, 6-3 today.

Naomi plays French 8th seed Pauline Parmentier (ranked 183). Parmentier beat Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 6-2 in rd1 so is evidently playing some great tennis. She's had a great start to 2007, winning a 25K title in the USA and reaching the Sutton quarters last week before losing 7-5, 7-6 to Taemala. She beat Amanda Keen indoors last autumn.

Anne plays Belgian Caroline Maes. Maes is ranked 234, this is her first tournament of 2007. In rd1 she thrashed 6th seed Sara Errani 6-1, 6-1 and beat a German qualifier 6-4, 6-2 today.

Anne has definately the best chance of all three, I'd be disappointed if she didn't make the semis. Of the other two, they're both big underdogs, can't really expect anything other than straight sets defeats....hopefully one might be able to pull off a shock upset, Naomi is probably the more likely to do so

Sheddie · administrator

johnnylad wrote:
nice and close still between Cavaday and Stoop.

Reckon they'll crack top 200 this year?

I'd be very, very surprised if they didn't both make top 200 this year. Both should get wildcards for Wimbledon, Birmingham/Eastbourne and Surbiton this summer so the grass season will be very interesting especially as both have good games for grass.

I think that either Georgie or Naomi will be our next top 100 player on the womens side.

Incidentally if you take Andy Murray out of the equation....things look more promising for the future on the womens side of the game. There are a lot more talented young prospects coming through than on the mens side. Aswell as Georgie and Naomi, there's also Natasha, Anna Smith, Anna Fitzpatrick, Jade Windley, Yasmin Clarke, Steph Cornish, Jade Curtis and Jocelyn Rae; all of whom have made big ranking increases over the past year plus the established 6 of Anne K, Mel, Katie, Amanda, Sarah, Rebecca and Bally, at least one of whom will hopefully make the breakthrough onto the main tour.

Michael · Pro player

Sounds like 1 out of 3 would be great then.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Article on Fitzy's match.

http://www.mctacademy.com/news/2007/070207-01.shtml

Salmon · Tennis legend

ultimateshedman wrote:
Incidentally if you take Andy Murray out of the equation....things look more promising for the future on the womens side of the game. There are a lot more talented young prospects coming through than on the mens side. Aswell as Georgie and Naomi, there's also Natasha, Anna Smith, Anna Fitzpatrick, Jade Windley, Yasmin Clarke, Steph Cornish, Jade Curtis and Jocelyn Rae; all of whom have made big ranking increases over the past year plus the established 6 of Anne K, Mel, Katie, Amanda, Sarah, Rebecca and Bally, at least one of whom will hopefully make the breakthrough onto the main tour.

Very right. Hardly anyone of the boys of age 18 or 19 is making a big impact.
We also lack world class players amongst the boys - just the two Daniels and then Liam Broady. And among the younger girls you've got people like Tara Moore.
I'd be pretty stunned if none of the two Rens, Tara, Laura Robson, Eleanor Dean and Sian Bayliss went on to become a top 20 player.

-- Edited by Arka at 21:06, 2007-02-08

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Quarter finals:

Elise Tamaela (Ned) bt Katie O’Brien (Gbr) 6-2 6-2

Pauline Parmentier (Fra) bt Naomi Cavaday (Gbr) 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1)

close

Maret Ani (Est) bt Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze) 6-2 6-4

Anne Keothavong (Gbr) bt Caroline Maes (Bel) 6-0 6-4,

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Glad to see Anne winning again, hope she continues that this weekend!

Naomi came very close there wonder what happened in the tiebreak.

Salmon · Tennis legend

What does this do to Cavaday's ranking?

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Around 347...

Salmon · Tennis legend

I was hoping for more, but every little helps...

Thanks a lot.

Sheddie · administrator

It will mean that Naomi cracks the top 350 for the first time

She did so well against Parmentier,much better than Radwanska earlier in the week...looks like she was close to winning. Shame that Nigel Sears wasn't there yesterday. Given Parmentier's results so far this year - 25K title in the States and Sutton quarters last week, it was an impressive performance from Naomi

Shame that Katie got outplayed so comprehensively by Tamaela but that was to be expected

Anne needs to make the final here as she's defending points from making 25K finals in Jersey and Sunderland this time last year. Great win against Maes

She plays Estonian 4th seed Maret Ani in today's semis which will be tough. Like Keothavong, Ani has dropped only 1 set en route, that was in the second round when she beat hard-hitting German Julia Goerges 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Ani is currently ranked 141, she's had a highly impressive start to 2007. In January she won a 25K title in Italy and last week she reaches the Sutton 25K final before losing to top seed Elise Tamaela in a 3rd set tiebreak.

Sheddie · administrator

Arka wrote:

Very right. Hardly anyone of the boys of age 18 or 19 is making a big impact.
We also lack world class players amongst the boys - just the two Daniels and then Liam Broady. And among the younger girls you've got people like Tara Moore.
I'd be pretty stunned if none of the two Rens, Tara, Laura Robson, Eleanor Dean and Sian Bayliss went on to become a top 20 player.
-- Edited by Arka at 21:06, 2007-02-08

Chris Eaton and Simon Childs are probably the only chances of a top 500 player from the 1987-1988 generation. For Eaton that looks likely given his results so far, he's given several top 300 and top 400 players close matches, just needs to step up a level and start winning those. As for how much further he can go, depends whether he has the ability to develop some big weapons in his game. There's a long way to go for Childs but he had a great series of tournaments last autumn, hopefully he can break the top 1000 this year. I think he should have started playing futures a bit sooner, he was in the top 200 juniors but didn't get close to making top 100 so personally I would have thought it would have been better to start playing futures qualies regularly instead of G4 and G5s.

There is a fair bit of talent in the younger age groups: Dyce, the two Daniels, Willis, Milton, Rice, Pauffley, Barnes - all of whom are or almost certainly will be junior top 100. However, apart from Cox, none of those players has done anything particularly special in senior tournaments so far which is what it comes down to in the end. Hopefully that'll change this year.

I think that the Rens, Tara, Laura, Sian and Eleanor are extremely talented but it's way to soon to say whether they'll be top 100 never mind top 20 !

To do that you have to be among the absolute elite - top 20 players like Vaidisova and Karantcheva were competing with success on the WTA at 15 and it's a similar story for lots of the others. The above mentioned 5 players are good but it's far too early to say whether they'll be that good ! Like on the mens circuit, it's very hard breaking through from challenger level onto the main tour - you have to start doing well regularly in 50Ks, 75Ks and tier IV events and that's proved a step too far at the moment for the likes of Keothavong and Baltacha who've come close in the past few years and Keothavong was an immensely talented junior, made the junior Wimbledon semis in 2001 and beat Kuznetsova along the way .