Wk 1 - WTA Auckland - Tier 4

Sheddie · administrator

Wk 1 - WTA Auckland - Tier 4

PockyTastic · Futures level

Daniilidou is a classy player and has been top 20. I was just glad to see Bally make the main draw - sign that she's getting back to her best. Also have been very impressed by Mel - taking down Kremer was an amazing result. Naomi yet again performing well in qualies but falling at the final hurdle (as in New Haven).

Compared to last year where our girls fell at the first hurdle (?), these results shows have they have progressed these past 12 months and gives hope that in the future more of them will sneak into main draws and start winning matches.

Sheddie · administrator

Although she may have done better against another opponent, playing a top 50 player was a good test for Bally...shows what she needs to do to get to that level.......against players of this quality she always seems to start slowly and take a while to adjust to the extra pace/extra intensity...which you can't afford to do.....in this match she never really found her game and the backhand in particular let her down

however, very promising to see her go through qualies here without dropping a set...she's reached main draw now of the last 2 wtas she's played - Tokyo and Auckland. Hopefully she continues to play them, you really need a good run in a wta to make the top 100, it's hard to do so just by doing well in challengers

steven · Tennis legend

The result against Daniilidou does show how difficult it will be for any of our girls to remain in the top 100 if they do ever get there, though I imagine the more matches like this you play, the better you get at coping with them.

Sheddie · administrator

well I think that on a faster surface or if Bally had played as well as she can do...it would have been closer...something like 3&4 maybe

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Good to see Bally qualify. Shame about the MD loss but good start to the year.

I was more dissapointed with Naomis loss. Rolle isn't an amazing player so a 2 and 2 loss is shocking.

Sheddie · administrator

Whats Rolle's game style like Mervatron ? She did beat the very talented Morita 1&3 in the previous round. Still a good start to the year though from Naomi...the fact that she can beat players like Kerber 4&2 is very promising