Good entertaining match from Anne. She seems well able to cope with the show courts and produced some terrific winners at times making for a very competitive second set. She should feel very happy with her week and encouraged by her progress. Such a pleasure to follow another British player at this level. Looking forward to more of the same and hoping it will inspire the other girls who are upping their level too.

Anne Keothavong's impressive run at the US Open came to an end after a spirited display against the recent Olympic gold medal winner Elena Dementieva. There was plenty to admire from the british number one despite a 3-6 4-6 scoreline up against the 5th seed; her approach was aggressive, some brutal returns of serve and fierce forehands as she put the russian under serious pressure for spells during the match.

Keothavong started slowly, three errors as she immediately went 0-40 down and despite saving one break point with a fine forehand winner, she conceded her serve to a backhand winner from Dementieva. Anne responded by taking four points in a row from 40-15 to break straight back but once again found herself in trouble in her next service game and a backhand unforced error cost her another break.

Comfortable holds for both players for the next five games until Anne found herself serving to stay in the set at 3-5. A couple of wild backhands cost her the opening two points and Elena's aggressive forehand crosscourt brought about two set points. Anne's forehand went wide as the set ended 3-6.

Anne started the second set in ultra aggressive fashion. A brutal forehand return winner bringing up three break points but Elena responded with a couple of fine serves that were unreturned and then a superb forehand winner after Anne had taken on a second serve but been unable to break through Dementieva's defences. In a long game Keothavong had one more break point chance but yet again the russian's serve came to her rescue; this time a kick serve climbed up high causing Anne to lose control of her attempted backhand return.

Serving at 1-1 Dementieva found another penetrating serve to save break point then took advantage of Anne's first and second double faults of the match to break to love for 3-1. Keothavong responded with her best spell of tennis of the match. A forehand return winner, a forehand winner and then a fierce forehand passing shot down the line that Dementieva could only volley into the net, got her the break and some good serving enabled her to hold for 3-3.

Serving at 30-15 Elena missed her first serve and Anne fired her forehand return for a clean winner. She dismissed the next second serve in similar fashion then crashed an inside-out forehand crosscourt for a winner to gain the advantage at 4-3.

Despite four first serves the british number one was soon down 15-40 and her forehand unforced error long cost her the advantage. There were a couple of break point opportunities during Dementieva's next service game but she saved the first with a superb forehand winner. The second was perhaps the one point in the match that Anne will regret, a poor forehand error into the net.

Serving to stay in the match Elena put Anne under serious pressure and a double fault gave Dementieva three match points. Keothavong saved two but the russian's backhand winner down the line finished the match 6-3 6-4.

Overall an encouraging display from Anne. If she can put this standard of tennis on court on a regular basis, then she'll have an excellent chance of breaking into the top 50.

Her serving was generally good against one of the best returners in the women's game, while her return was bold; some flying past Elena for clean winners, others missing the court by some distance. Unsurprisingly, the russian's athleticism and consistency was the difference between the two players. Anne should have few regrets with her performance against a superior opponent. She demonstrated that she has genuine weapons at this level and with a bit of fine-tuning, she could well make the second week of a grand slam at some point in the next few years.


-- Edited by kundalini at 00:05, 2008-08-30

Thanks! That was quick of them. Here's Elena on Anne too:

"Q. Was that slightly a tougher match than you expected?

ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Yeah, I think she played really well, especially in the beginning of the match. She really went there, and she's not afraid, you know, in hitting the ball pretty hard.

It was our first meeting so it took me couple games, you know, just to know her and to find a way to play.

Yeah, I think it was she was playing really well.

Q. She's only just broken into the top 100 this year. How far do you think Anne can go?

ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think she's probably the best British player that I ever played. She has a very good potential, she's very aggressive, and she has a good serve.

The whole game is pretty good. I think it's just a matter of experience, you know. Just maybe I'm sure she's still pretty young.

Q. Maybe top 40?

ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Maybe better. Who knows?"


Very encouraging that Elena thinks she could go that high and Anne's disappointed that she didn't play as well as she thinks she can!
Good to see Anne disappointed that she didn't at least nick a set

-- Edited by steven at 00:29, 2008-08-30

Haha, you edited it in time

steven wrote:

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ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think she's probably the best British player that I ever played.

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She's obviously never played Katie...














...oh wait.

I think Anne does deserve a couple of weeks off shes been playing lamost every week since wimbledon.

Hopefully she'll be back with ana even bigger bang at the next event.

Im glad she was critical of her performace and she definatly should be because she can play better. Definatly. But its really encouraging that shes competing with these girls even when shes not playing her best tennis. Imagine what happens when she starts playing really well?

Oh and I loved some of those return winners.