Las Palmas 25K

Happycynic · Pro player

Las Palmas 25K

Salmon · Tennis legend

Very good!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Very nice indeed!

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Well done Bally and Stoopy! i think Stoop getting her game working now since her rough start to the year!

i know bally playing in the fed cup but isnt it risky when she hasnt played on clay at the moment, for instance she might play a 3 setter against a higher ranked opponent and probably be shattered by the time they play doubles! im just thinking about her health

Sheddie · administrator

Excellent wins for both, particularly Georgie. Very impressive to beat a player ranked 226 as comfortably as that, she's aiming to break the top 200 by Wimbledon so she'll need a big next 3 months.

Georgie's starting to gain consistency at this level, it's the 3rd time she's reached the last 8 of a 25K in her career, having made the semis in Jersey and won a title down under last autumn.

It's the first time Bally's made a 25K quarter-final since last April after missing 7 months of the 2006 season with injury and it's been a very encouraging past few weeks for her and Fed Cup captain Nigel Sears.

Georgie now faces Austrian qualifier Anna Bartenstein. The 19 year old from Graz is only ranked 395 but knocked out Polish 4th seed Joanne Sakowicz in straight sets in rd2.

Bally's up against Estonia's Margit Ruutel. They've played twice before, Bally won 6-2, 7-5 on indoor carpet in the juniors back in 1999 and crushed Ruutel 6-2, 6-0 in Hull 3 years ago. Ruutel is ranked 226 and has been consistently around that mark for a while now. She started the year excellently, reaching a 25K semi in Sutton but has had almost identical results to Bally in this month's Spanish 25Ks, losing in rd1 of Gran Canerias and in qualies for Tenerife.

Sheddie · administrator

VSandhi20 wrote:

Well done Bally and Stoopy! i think Stoop getting her game working now since her rough start to the year!

i know bally playing in the fed cup but isnt it risky when she hasnt played on clay at the moment, for instance she might play a 3 setter against a higher ranked opponent and probably be shattered by the time they play doubles! im just thinking about her health

I wouldn't say she's had a rough start to the year Vik. She beat Mel South twice in the GB 25Ks, going on to lose to Gaelle Widmer (shouldn't have really lost that one, had lots of chances) and Naomi Cavaday. Then she's been playing these 25Ks, got edged out by Bally in the first one, last week she did v well to come through a tough qualifying then got a terrible rd1 draw against Kerber who's been picking up titles everywhere this year. All her losses have been against very good opponents.

Winning the 25K title last year probably raised our expectations a bit too much, it was a fantastic achievement but it was a weak field, she only had to beat 1 top 200 player. Georgie's still not played that much at this level (she only started playing 25Ks last September, her ranking rise has been that rapid) and is still getting used to competing against players of this quality on a regular basis. IMO, she's our best prospect after Naomi, I think her goal of top 200 by Wimbledon is a bit ambitious, if she manages it by the end of the season, it'd have been a great 2007 for her.

It's a bit of a gamble playing Bally because she won't have played many tournaments on clay but she's fully fit and coming back into form and I think Nigel's counting on her experience and relish for the big occasion. I'd still back Bally to win a crucial match-deciding rubber more than Katie or Sarah or Mel and I think that's why she's been selected. Regarding the doubles issue, the beauty of the team selected is that Anne, Naomi or Bally could play the doubles with Claire. Anne's won a 25K with her this year plus Naomi's also had doubles success in the past.

Happycynic · Pro player

Bally and Ruutel know each other very well-they commonly play doubles together (and are here). Always makes for an interesting match...

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Hopefully Bally can make it a 3-0 h2h

Sheddie · administrator

Will be tough though, Ruutel's come a long way in the 3 years since they last played and has had some excellent results this year

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Ruutel is a bit up and down though. I;m shocked shes still not inside the top 200, she much better than her ranking.

On the subject of Georgie she has jumped up the rankings quite quickly in the past 12 months. If i'm not mistaken 12 months ago she was ranked around 600 so its a huge jump, last time saw her play i was shocked at how low she was ranked but she had a nasty knee injury which has held her back.

Its going to be tough for her to make the top 200 before wimbledon, after yes maybe, depens if she plays maindraw or qualifying, i think shes more likely to win a round or 2 in qualies and make a steady climb. I think if she manages to play US open quallies on her own rank this year she will have done well and as someone else said end the year top 200 would be a great achivement.

Sheddie · administrator

QF:

G Stoop (GB) bt A Bartenstein (Aut)(q) 6-2, 6-1

M Ruutel (Est) bt E Baltacha (GB) 6-1, 7-5

Georgie's now guaranteed to move up 16 places to a new career high of 258 ! 46.5 more pts needed to break the top 200, that's the equivalent of making another four 25K semis

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Crackin win for Stoop! Sad for Bally

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Well Done Georgie, i think this takes her into the 250's.

Will be a tough semi but a good chance to see how her game does against a consistent top 150 player.

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Good news from Spain:

Semi final:

Georgie STOOP (GBR) d. (1) Elise TAMAELA (NED) 76(3) 76(8)

johnnylad · Tennis legend

That's a brilliant result!

Nice one Georgie!