Week 39 - Womens ITF 25K - Nottingham

tennisbrain · Club Coach

Week 39 - Womens ITF 25K - Nottingham

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Quarterfinal

LAINE (FIN) / MAES (BEL) (1) defeated AUGUSTINE (USA) / CLARKE (GBR) 6-0 3-6 [13-11]
O'BRIEN (GBR) / RUUTEL (EST) (3) defeated SCARFI (GBR) / STEIRO (NOR) 6-4 2-6 [11-9]
FITZPATRICK (GBR) / VESELINOVIC (SRB) (4) defeated ELLIOTT (GBR) / LARSSON (SWE) 6-2 6-4
ANDERSON (RSA) / MEKEL (NED) defeated BALDUCCI (ITA) / SABINO (ITA) 6-1 3-6 [10-4]

Semifinal

LAINE (FIN) / MAES (BEL) (1) Vs O'BRIEN (GBR) / RUUTEL (EST) (3)
FITZPATRICK (GBR) / VESELINOVIC (SRB) (4) Vs ANDERSON (RSA) / MEKEL (NED)

Sheddie · administrator

Spoke to Nigel last night, apologies for delay in posting this...not allowed to access the site at work cry

Nigel Sears gives his views on rd1 action in the Nottingham 25K:

Katie O'Brien (GB)(1) bt Johanna Larson (Swe) 6-3, 6-2:
"Very good performance from Katie, Larson beat Naomi Cavaday at the Fed Cup earlier in the year. She's a very fit player, very strong. Katie never allowed her in the match, dominated from start to finish, very convincing performance. She now plays Holland's Pauline Wong (who won last week) which is a good match-up for Katie, should be able to come through that."

Anna Smith (GB)(q) bt T Iyer (Ind) 7-5, 6-4:
"Really good win for Anna (Iyer is ranked over 100 places higher at 354), she's recovered form recently having had a very disappointing year since winning the U18 nationals in August 2006. Definately coming back into form which is good, the courts here suit her game, she likes medium paced hard. Basically she was very solid in the baseline exchanges which gave her the edge. Unfortunately she now has a really tough one against the very experienced 4th seed Ruutel."

Yasmin Clarke (GB)(wc) bt Mel South (GB)(5) 2-6, 7-5, 3-4 ret:
"Mel South had a bad back before the match started and was sturggling with that. She saw the trainer beforehand and was able to play with it but Yasmin fought hard, made Mel work very hard. Full credit to Yasmin who showed great fighting qualities to get back into it. If she hadn't made Mel work so hard, Mel might have played on to see if she could come through it, she was leading 4-1 in the 3rd but Yasmin pulled it back to 4-3. Yasmin now plays Nooni which will be tough though Amanda Elliott was leading her by 6-3, 3-1, 30-30 but then had a big concentration lapse and lost the last 11 games !"

Aniko Kapros (Hun) bt Natasha Khan (GB)(wc) 6-3, 6-2:
"Natasha pulled a stomach muscle which really affected her serve and she had to pull out of doubles later on. Kapros used to be a lot higher so it was always going to be tough. Hopefully its juts a strain but you have to be so careful with stomach
injuries."

Emma Laine (Fin)(3) bt Olivia Scarfi (GB) 6-1, 6-0:
"Olivia was outclassed, tough draw though as Laine used to be 60 in the world so is a level apart from a lot of the players in 25K fields."

Lisa Sabino (Ita) bt Lucy Warburton (GB) 6-3, 6-2:
"Lucy just made too many errors in this one, she hit some nice shots from the back but the errors let her down. Needs to work on shot selection."

Anna Fitzpatrick (GB) bt Nadine Vergos (Fra):
"Anna was first class today, played very well, never gave Vergos a chance, completely dominated the match. She's one of the big 4 contenders for the title here. It's a good opportunity for her to see if she can make that big step forward at this level. Going to be tough against Hofmanova next who has a Junior Exemption so must have done something special to earn that. She's something of an unknown quantity game-wise."

Sheddie · administrator

Katie O'Brien (GB)(1) bt Pauline Wong (Ned) 7-5, 2-6, 6-2:
"Very happy with Katie's result. Although there's ome tough players left in the draw, she's got a great shot at defending her title. Came through a tricky match today Wong had a lot of momentum coming into this having won 6 straight matches. She now faces Pavlovic of France who has been a difficult opponent for Katie in the past, beating her in French Open qualies this year. Katie's definately been improving a lot recently though."

Anna Smith (GB)(q) bt Margit Ruutel (Est)(4) 7-5, 4-6, 6-0:
"Anna played very well today, playing a lot better now, has really built on making the final last week which gave her a lot more confidence as she was a bit down earlier in the summer after a few disappointing results. As a result she's hitting a lot heavier from the back and much more solid too . In particular her forehand has really improved. She has a great shot at making the semis."

Hanna Nooni (Est)(q) bt Yasmin Clarke (GB)(wc) 7-5, 6-1:
"Yaz didn't played aswell as against Mel yesterday but the other girl has a lot more experience at this level. It's been a decent tournament for Yaz, she can build on this."

Nicole Hofmanova (Aut)(JE) bt Anna Fitzpatrick (GB) 7-5, 6-4:
"Hofmanova is a very tough opponent, Anna was unlucky to draw her so early. It was a close match though and Anna just made a few more errors, uncharacteristically off the backhand. However its clear to me that Anna has improved a huge amount recently, her serve and forehand in particular have become a lot stronger since Wimbledon and her legs look a lot stronger too."

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Good to see Katie winning again.

Great result for Anna Smith, hope she can keep going.

Anna F. :( tough draw so early, would be great to see her go deep in a 25k before the end of the year.

tennisbrain · Club Coach

anna smith lost
i think katie won it only showed score not who won on the results
anna has played matches every day for over a week wat an two weeks for her

Tutu · Club Coach

katie lost too. Straight sets

Sheddie · administrator

Katie lost 6-3, 6-3

Anna lost 7-5, 6-3

Disappointing stuff as when i spoke to Nigel on Thursday night we were both pretty confident of an all-British semi. Real shame about Katie as she was looking very strong in her first two matches and Nigel felt she had a great chance of defending her title....ranking will take a bit of a buffeting now. Got a few pts to defend in next couple of months...a semi and two quarters in 25Ks...but should be able to do that as she'll be seeded well in most challengers now.

I'm doing an interview with Katie for the site, should have it up on the homepage sometime this week.

Does anyone know her schedule plans for next few weeks ? I think she should go for challengers for the rest of the year...problem with WTA qualies is that although the potential rewards are great, you can get a few tough players in the final rounds and end up with nothing to show for the week....while at least in challengers she should be able to make quarters at least week in, week out for rest of the season

I think that Anna probably ran out of steam after playing non-stop for last 2 weeks....think she'd beat Nooni usually. Had a really gruelling rd2 win over Ruutel on Thursday. Fantastic couple of weeks for her, really great to see...should be back inside top 400 now...hopefully it continues in the Jersey and Glasgow 25Ks

Sheddie · administrator

Btw, Olivia Scarfi is now heading down under for the series of 25Ks along with Anne K and Sarah

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Good news about Scarfi! WAs she one of the ones quitting for Uni or am i getting mixed up with Bone

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Anna hotfoots it to Nantes for a 25k challenger qualies.

Mel South is in the main draw.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Can;t be boithered to do a new thread but Liz Thomas made QF's in singles in a French futures and SEmis in doubles