Week 23 - Surbiton $50K

PockyTastic · Futures level

RE: Week 23 - Surbiton $50K

johnnylad · Tennis legend

very nice. Should help cement her top 100 place with some more wins here and a win or two at one of the other 3 British grass tournaments.

steven · Tennis legend

So far:

L16: (8) Katie O'Brien WR 112 lost to (Q) Carly Gullickson (USA) WR 367 by 3 & 2(?) bleh

L16: (WC) Georgie Stoop WR 408 lost to Monique Adamczak (AUS) WR 170 by 4 & 4 cry

L16: (3) Marina Erakovic (NZL) WR 80 beat Melinda Czink (HUN) WR 126 by 6 & 6
L16: (4) Anne Keothavong WR 96 beat Ahsha Rolle (USA) WR 135 by 4 & 4 smile

=> QF: L16: (4) Anne Keothavong WR 96 v (Q) Carly Gullickson (USA) WR 367

-- Edited by steven at 14:23, 2008-06-05

PockyTastic · Futures level

From tennisforum.com:

"Bally 2-1 up with a break, Mel 4-3 up with a break."

Peter too · Tennis legend

At the next ranking Anne will lose one of her 17 best results, the 15 points from last year's French Open, so she could do with winning another round to cover that.

steven · Tennis legend

L16: Melanie South WR 153 v Regina Kulikova (RUS) WR 174 : 6-7 cry

(after being a break up)

steven · Tennis legend

What a dreadful day this is becoming cry

... I think we need that guy from Centre Court to do the Heimlich on all our players to stop the chokefest! ashamed

L16: Elena Baltacha WR 144 v (2) Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) WR 75 : 6-7(1) cry

(also after being a break up)
L16: Melanie South WR 153 v Regina Kulikova (RUS) WR 174 : 6-7 1-1

... and Sally has to leave now, so we'll have to get updates from elsewhere.

-- Edited by steven at 15:12, 2008-06-05

PockyTastic · Futures level

According to tennisforum.com:

Tanasugarn bt Baltacha 7-6(1) 6-1

steven · Tennis legend

From Sally on AM.com, now back at her computer:

I was at the wrong end for Katie's match but it looked as though she just wasn't in the match at all from the scoreline. Georgie didn't get ahead at all really in her match and one break of serve in each set was enough for her opponent.

Anne started 0-3 and clawed it back to take the first set 6-4. She was ahead throughout the second and was a break up but lost it at on her serve to make it 4-4. She then broke for 5-4 and her opponent (who by this time was swearing a lot and chucking her racquet about the place) then asked for the trainer.
The last game went to 6 deuces before Anne closed it out for 6-4 again.

Bally was up 2-0, then 2-2, then 4-2 then it went to 4-5 and she held on for 6-6 but the tb was 7-1.
Mel was also up 4-2 but then lost the set.......

Sorry I couldn't stay for the end - Mel was playing some great shots but her opponent was about a foot taller and unleashed some great serves/aces which helped her particular cause no end.

jazar · Junior player

i spent the day at surbiton, so i can provide some match reports and appraisals of the players:

erakovic df czink 7-6, 7-6:
czink made too many unforced errors and got too down on herself; she beat herself really. she kept swearing loudly in english, and her coach kept telling her to swear in hungarian instead, lol. erakovic is really overranked. she has a good serve and thats it really.

wickmayer df jozami 6-3, 6-1:
sat next to yanina's dad for this one. she is a player to watch. typical young player: tall, big serve, big groundstroke, not a clue how to volley. very talented. jozami was playing lots of drop shots, which she made for the first 4 games. after that it looked like she didnt want to be there.

keothavong df rolle 6-4, 6-4:
i'm afraid to say that i dont think anne deserves to be top 100. if rolle could, 1. move at least helf decently, and 2. actually volley instead of just thinking she could volley, she would have won the match. rolle was actually quite rude to the ball girls and line judges.

spears df fujiwara 6-1, 6-4?:
fujiwara is just too short and has no power. spears played a nice serve volley game

adamczak df stoop 6-4, 6-4:
georgie played pretty well and i was impressed, though she seems to think grunting louder will make her hit the ball harder.

tanasugarn df baltacha 7-6, ?-?:
tamarine was just too steady and played a good counter pucnching game to counter bally's aggression.

gullickson df o'brien 6-3, 6-2:
katie didnt know what to do with gullickson's slice backhand

kulikova df south 7-6, ?-?:
melanie was overpowered

borwell/thomas df czink/scheepers 3-6, ret.:
after comfortably taking the first set, czink retired with some sort of lame arm injury

elliot/o'brien df broady/khan 6-4, 6-1:
thoroughly impressed with elliot, she has a good all round game and looks a great prospect. broady was thoroughly underwhelming. she has a good serve due to her height, but is over-reliant on it and could still stand to improve it a lot. she hits her forehand too flat and whoever got her hitting a single handed backhand is a moron and should be shot

and thats all i saw

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Surprised at a couple of results from today, especially Katie's loss to Gullickson as I thought she'd beat her, but maybe being back on the grass didn't help her as Gullickson has a big serve and serve/volleys a lot, although she doesn't actually have a very good volley at all.

South being overpowered by Kulikova? Be amazed if that was the case as Kulikova was so passive yesterday and didn't look able to hit a winner if her life depended on it, but maybe she played differently today.

Keothavong is a solid player but may have trouble with Gullickson if she serve's well as she won't often face the out and out net rushing game that she'll be faced with, and if things go well for Gullickson she could overpower her

DJ · County player

Interesting reports, Jazar; thanks!

jazar · Junior player

forgot to mention, barry cowan was there watching today

Count Zero · Tennis legend

looks like its still at surbs tomorrow and the men will be joining in
if anne wins she will have to play twice.

Sheddie · administrator

Gullickson has been in great form this week, beating Alexandra Stevenson (made wimbledon semis all the way back in 99 remember) and defending champ Schultz-McCarthy.....Not surprised she had too much for Katie who struggled against another scrapper in Vania King yesterday

Tanasugarn has such nous on the grass and a good volley game, hoped that Bally might be able to take her to 3 particularly after the way she blew Klepac off the court in sets 2 and 3 on Wed

Surprised that Anne was so unimpressive today....she was on fire on Wed....ok Amanda E didn't turn up at all but Anne still blazed numerous winners off both wings. She's a good returner and a bit more firepower from the back than Katie so she can take Gullickson if she plays a good match but it'll be close....Anne will need to serve well and that has been the achilles heel in the past