Notes from a small city

The Sunderland Futures was again a very welcoming event; the staff at the Centre are very pleasant and helpful, and the fare on offer in the cafeteria really good. So, too, was today's tennis. The women's last 16 matches featured five Britons, who achieved a 40% success rate. It was so nearly 60%, though; although Amanda Elliott lost, she put up a very strong battle before going down 3-6 in the final set to her Czech opponent. Amanda's serving was a revelation to me; she opened up with two clean aces in her first service game, and managed at least one more in each of her other opening set service games. The serve, like the rest of her game, rather went to pieces in the middle set, but came on strongly again in the decider. Amanda's final serving session featured two more aces, which whistled past the Czech girl; unfortunately, they were negated by the same number of double-faults, and the game was lost, as was the match moments later. Amanda's downfall seemed to lie in her ambition; she hit the ball so much closer to the net than her opponent, but with slightly less accuracy, so that literally dozens of her drives hit the tape - an impressive display, though.
Anna Smith outclassed her Danish adversary, even though her serve seemed relatively gentle; she certainly made up for that, though, with a series of searing, accurate and deep drives. She did look good! What a player an amalgam of Amanda's serving and Anna's ground strokes would produce!
Our second winner was a resurgent Naomi Broady, whose high-class backhands, both cross-court and down the line, were the difference between the powerful American, Katie Ruckert, and herself.
A restrained Olivia Scarfi was being out-hit 2-6, 0-5, by Russia's Elena Kulikova, when she finally managed to hold her serve; then Olivia seemed to throw off her shackles, opened her shoulders and produced a devastating ten or fifteen minutes of high-class hitting; a break was followed by a much more confident service game and a second break. During this second break, it was refreshing to see Olivia applaud an ace from Elena - so nice to see, Olivia. Sadly, the luck turned, and two or three shots landing very close to the line were marginally the wrong side. That purple patch, though, should give young Miss Scarfi great confidence in her ability.
Liz Thomas seemed to be overpowered by her French opponent and, after staying with Ms Vongsouthi to 3-4, lost the remaining eight games.

-- Edited by DJ at 12:45, 2008-01-19

naomi broady does not have any points to defend until MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
she is at the 700 mark now and i think she could be top 500 by then especially as indoors is her greatest strength

Fantastic effort to get into the semis. How much roughly would a semis place put her up?

Good to see Naomi in the semis and Anna Smith getting back to back wins. I'm hoping for bigger and better things from her in 2008. Top 300 is a must.

Great to see positive feedback on Amanda, i saw her play 18months ago and i could see the making sof a great player, shes getting there. Top 500 by wimbledon hopefully.