Not too surprising that Sarah won that comfortably...I saw Holly Richards play at Sutton in Jan and she has some power off the ground but is quite 'well-built' and I felt she really needed to work on her movement. I thought Jade W would be able to exploit that but she's still only 16 and as with many juniors, it's tough to produce your best level day in, day out.

Looking at the draw, the bottom half is now wide open and Jade Curtis looks to have a really good shot of reaching her first 10K final. The highest seed in that half is Liz Thomas and Jade beat her 3 and 2 indoors in April.

Jade C plays the unranked German qualifier Mona Barthel today, Barthel's 17 and this is her first womens tournament.

Liz Thomas plays Samantha Murray who had that amazing win over Becky Llewellyn. I guess Samantha has been out with injury or at uni as Felixstowe last week was her first pro tournament since last August.

Kirsty Woolley will now climb back into the top 1000 after beating Julia Bone. Kirsty now faces Italian 4th seed Alice Balducci. Balducci is ranked 540 and has beaten Sarah Borwell and Natasha Khan this week but she's a clay-courter. She has been in a rich vein of form on the dirt since May, made the final in Edinburgh. However on grass, Kirsty could have a chance. Although Kirsty competes a lot in Italy and Spain, her game is more suited for fast surfaces, she really goes for her shots, quite a big hitter. With more consistency she could be top 500

Just read that Samantha Murray has been at uni in the States, I guess she's doing one of these collegiate schemes. Apparently she was quite a promising player, a lot better than her ranking of 1200ish suggests

this is why i think many opt for the uni as they see no real chance of getting anywhere!!

Sarah Borwell (Gbr) bt Holly Richards (Gbr) 6-2 6-1

Alice Balducci (Ita) bt Kirsty Woolley (Gbr) 6-3 7-6 (7-1)

Jade Curtis (Gbr) bt Mona Barthel (Ger) 6-0 6-3

Samantha Murray (Gbr) bt Elizabeth Thomas (Gbr) 6-2 6-3

Arka wrote:

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Sarah Borwell (Gbr) bt Alice Balducci (Ita) 6-1 6-4

Jade Curtis (Gbr) bt Samantha Murray (Gbr) 6-4 6-2

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An all-Brit final, Well done girls

tennisbrain wrote:

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i think it is hard for the plaayer sin britain to gain any confidence in getting anywhere mainly because we dont have a girl in top 100. everything do to with wimbledon is rather like a lottery and to me if i were a young junior girl it would seem that the commen aim is to try and get a wildcard for wimbledon. i dont think they should stop giving them out but i think as soon as we have one or two players in top 100 e.g obien and cavaday possible then more will gain confidence and advance up the rankings

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Very true, especially when they read the girls who are in top 250 getting bashed in the press during the grass season. The performances at Birmingham and Eastbourne were the best for ages and yet in the papers I read, there was no praise, just nothing but negativity and moaning about no Brits getting through to the Eastbourne quarters. I was like, these journalists need to get real, Eastbourne's one of the strongest tourneys, the British girls are outside top 150, you can hardly expect them to knock out top 20 opposition. Not even a mention of Liz Thomas' win over a top 100 girl in Liverpool either.

It's no wonder that a lot of players who show promise in their late teens, feel the need to get some options behind them and go to uni.

I agree that once one of the current crop between 100-300, breaks the top 100, more will follow as it'll give them the belief  they can do it. We've definately got a lot of players with the capability to be top 100

Regarding Samantha Murray, hopefully this run will give her belief that she could have a future in the game and maybe she'll play some futures while at uni in the States.  

 

Yeah she's really started making big inroads in these 10Ks since April, having success indoors, on clay and grass which is great to see. Hopefully she'll be top 500 by the end of the year