Laura next plays Romana Tabakova a 17 year old from the Slovak Rep. Romana has an 831 senior ranking and 76 junior ranking.

Montana Doug wrote:

---

I just checked out a picture of Laura....she looks tiny and so young....wow.....well done young lady.

---

You should see her on court, blasting 100+ mph serves over the net and finishing points off with crashing forehands in both directions, frightening!

Great win for Laura and once again she managed to get out of a very difficult situation and saved set points again.

She really does seem to play well at the end of sets, which is a good thing to have, and I don't think she played as well today as she did yesterday, especially at the start of the match where she served 6 double faults in 3 games, but got better as the match went on.

She does seem a little one paced at time with her game which may be okay at junior level, but she may need a bit of variety added to the game at senior level - it seems as if she does try and just hit the ball hard at times, and doesn't like coming to the net, as there were 2 or 3 occasions where the ball was dropped short and instead of following it in she retreated to the baseline.

Guessing her semi will be on court 2, which will be a step-up in stadium for her, but she's got the problem of still playing her first round doubles match, so guessing she'll finish that as soon as the rain stops, and then if she wins it she may have to play her doubles match first up tomorrow before a singles match.

She's on BBC1 at the moment, with them showing the replay of her win today while it's raining.

Very impressed from what I saw.

I looked up the ITF Junior Rankings, and I see that she is ranked 36, and is clearly the youngest player in the top 100.

So much can still change in the next few years, but maybe, just maybe, she could be the real deal ! 

Man, it feels so good to see the hype! But this is nothing compared to what can happen next year - she should get a Wimbly main draw WC (the LTA will probably work hard to prevent it) and with some luck she could do well there.


I'm out of my home for the weekend, sadly. I'll miss tomorrow's match unless she has an early start and will definitely miss the final if she gets there as I won't have a connection and my mobile phone is messed up. I'm praying for divine intervention to postpone my trip...

She plays Tabakova, who has shocked Greenleaf by making the semis and has to be considered as the best draw possible in the latter stages. If she wins, she'll probably face Hendler, the self styled Belgian Babe ( ), and that'll be tough. Good luck to her - whatever she does, is all right with me.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 17:36, 2008-07-03

Yeah, the qualifying WC is always a guarantee but winning the tournament and getting a main draw one is still a far way off.


And the AELTC aren't consistent, sadly...

Cool.