Week 2 - WTA International (220K) - Hobart TAS, Australia

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 2 - WTA International (220K) - Hobart TAS, Australia

steven · Tennis legend

2nd set

Anne's toughest service game so far, including her first DF of the match ("British female player goes through whole set without a DF *shock*" - I can see the headline now

) sees her taken to two deuces, but she serves her first ace to go ad-in after the second deuce and holds : 1-0*

Szavay definitely has steadied the ship a bit now. with a much easier service game than Anne's, she holds to 15 : 1-1*

More danger for Anne as she goes 0-30 down, gets back to 30-30 then gives Szavay her first bp ... saved ... ad-in and holds, nae bother

2-1*

Our relentless heroine piles on the pressure again to create 2 bps ... Szavay's first missed 1st serve of the set, but saved ... 2nd serve again ... df!!

*3-1

-- Edited by steven at 04:03, 2009-01-12

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Well I've been looking at the draw to see who Anne plays next! She's playing the world number 25 and I'm assuming she's going to win. This is surreal.

Answer is that the winner of this match will play Virginie Razzano who beat Camerin 6-1 6-2

Anne saved a bp to hold for 2-1*

She has 15-30 on AS's serve. Now 15-40. 2nd serve. saved 30-40 2nd serve df so Anne now *3-1 ahead

steven · Tennis legend

Wow that's suddenly looking like a nice draw!

Races through service game (was that a love hold?) : 4-1*

-- Edited by steven at 04:15, 2009-01-12

steven · Tennis legend

Anne gets another bp ... saved ... ad-in ... Szavay doggedly holds on : *4-2

I do hope she can finish it this set - there's still room for a big momentum swing.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Had bp but saved by AS who held for 2-4*

Anne serving *4-2

0-30
30-30
holds for 5-2*

steven · Tennis legend

She needs more than one win here to break the top 50, doesn't she - just 30 points with 20 to be replaced.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Broken serving for the match having fought back from 15-40 to get match point only to lose 3 points in a row. Seemed to get plenty of first serves in but wasn't enough.

0-15 40-15 AS holds for 5-5 (so 7 out of 8 points for Szavay)

15-0 15-15 30-15 AK holds for 6-5

0-15 0-30 0-40 she better finish it now!

2nd serve and Anne Keothavong wins in straight sets 6-3 7-5.

She is now the favourite for this event (Only kidding!)

Back to reality, Anne doesn't look like a top 30 player to me. Her first serve has its moments but the penetration isn't consistent. Second serve looks like an invitation to take a swing. Her groundstrokes, especially the forehand, aren't bad but some days she's a bit wild. There were some inspired volleys in that match against Bartoli last summer. She appears to be much better on hardcourt than the other surfaces.

I suppose she'll have a bad run at some point but she's clearly got a lot of momentum right now.

-- Edited by kundalini at 04:39, 2009-01-12

airsmashers · County player

wow! great win had me on tender hooks at end there but great way to close out

steven · Tennis legend

My take, getting over-excited LOL ...

Anne's put under pressure again, 0-30, but having stayed awake all night after her last match replaying it over and over in her head (according to her twitter), she's in no mood to let this one get away from her and wins the next three points : 5-2*

Szavay holds to 30 and it's going to be the moment of truth : *5-3

Anne serves for the match, drops the first point 0-15 ... 2nd serve and it's 0-30 for the third time this set ... 15-30 ... 15-40 uh oh ... 30-40 ... 2nd serve ... deuce, my this is impressive fighting from the East End girl! ... ad-in MATCH POINT 1 ... deuce ... ad-out bp no. 3 ... oh no, Szavay breaks

Szavay serves to stay in the match ... 0-15 ... 15-15 ... 30-15 ... 40-15 ... game : *5-5

Anne holds to 15, a much-needed hold, now at worst it's a tiebreak in this set : 6-5*

Anne clearly doesn't want to take her chances in the tiebreak, she breaks to love and it's all over - anything Mel can do

... top 25 players, who's scared of them, eh? Fantastic!

76% first serves in too, she really meant business!

So there we have it:

L32: Anne Keothavong WR 53 beat (5) Agnes Szavay (HUN) WR 25 by 6-3 7-5

L16: Anne Keothavong WR 53 v Virginie Razzano (FRA) WR 62

Razzano was at a career high of 24 just under a year ago and Anne overtook her in the rankings for the first time today. She now has another chance to make it into the top 50 before the AO if she can beat her, but it won't be easy.

Anne has played her once, at Wimby way back in 2002, when Razzano won 6-3 7-6(5) but the Frenchwoman last played a Brit in Japan in 2007, beating Elena Baltacha convincingly 2 & 2, having also beaten her 4 & 1 at Eastbourne in 2003, revenge for a 3 set loss to Elena at the same tournament in 2001.

-- Edited by steven at 04:48, 2009-01-12

steven · Tennis legend

kundalini, you write as if you were watching this - you weren't were you? (I couldn't find a stream anywhere)

+ welcome airsmashers

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

steven wrote:

kundalini, you write as if you were watching this - you weren't were you? (I couldn't find a stream anywhere)

+ welcome airsmashers

No.

I was just thinking in my head what her ceiling might be. Most of us on here tend to get overexcited when a brit is doing well and expect them to continue that form throughout the year. I'm as guilty as anyone of doing it.

steven · Tennis legend

Ah, that makes sense. I'm just happy she's doing it now and hope she can keep it up for long enough to crack the top 50

Looking on the bright side, a year ago we wouldn't have been thinking she was a potential top 50 player either, I don't think.

-- Edited by steven at 04:49, 2009-01-12

steven · Tennis legend

Borwell/Nagle have just beaten Erakovic/Niculescu 2-6 6-2 10:8 - that gets Sarah 70 points and her 12th best score is 36, so that would lift her over the number of points the world no. 100 has at the moment. There are no points coming off this week, so whether she has made it will all depend on whether those around her are adding points too.

If she hasn't, we could have Anne playing for a top 50 place, Mel playing for a top 100 singles place (also both dependent on those around them not doing too well too) and Sarah playing for a top 100 doubles place tomorrow!

Tutu · Club Coach

AMAZING. Second top 25 win! GO ANNE!!