The combination of a Danish Fed Cup player and the Les Petits As finalist proved too strong for Taro and partner (6-1 6-3). From the oop for Thursday it is possible to deduce that Daneika Borthwick is the only British player in the singles QFs, through to play the Swedish top seed Hilda Melander.
I know very little about Daneika Borthwick, so in light of her successful week have just found the following recent article from a Cumbrian local paper, which may be of interest to others who do not know much about her. The comment about top 300 "securing a place at Junior Wimbledon" is a puzzle, unless she has been promised a WC for that (DA cut-off will be well inside 100) ------------------------------------------------------------- Junior Wimbledon is Daneikas 2009 target
Last updated 19:33, Thursday, 29 January 2009
EVEN during the icy blast of winter, Daneika Borthwick is already thinking about the long summer shadows of Wimbledons tennis courts.
Cumbrias best young tennis hopeful, who is ranked number four in the UK at U16 level, is already counting down towards her dream of reaching this years Junior Wimbledon.
Borthwick is preparing for a number of tournaments on the International Tennis Federation circuit in a bid to gain enough points to earn a place in the top 300 in the world, securing a place at Junior Wimbledon.
The 15-year-old comes from a family seeped in sport. Her father, Tommy, is a former Cumbria rugby union coach while mother Linda is the partnership development manager for the Allerdale School Sport Partnership.
Borthwick, from Aspatria, is in Slovenia this week and then on to Denmark for back-to-back tournaments.
She will then play in the Masters Grand Prix in Roehampton at the end of February the first of the big domestic British tournaments she will play in this year.
Her hopes of reaching SW19 have received a major boost after she was invited to train with Nigel Sears, the British womens tennis coach, at the National Tennis Centre.
Borthwick said: Nigel Sears is one of the most important people in womens tennis and getting to train with him and find out his thoughts on my game will be fantastic.
I saw him when I played in a winter Grand Prix match at Bolton Arena and he came to speak to me and said he liked the way I played.
He has given me the opportunity to work at Roehampton with me and my coach.
Borthwicks promising career is back on track after a frustrating three months on the sidelines with a broken metatarsal in her right foot the same injury that sidelined England football stars David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.
It happened in a tournament in Ripon in April, just when she was getting into her stride for some important tournaments, wrecking her start to the season and resulting in her tumbling out of the top 20 British under-16 rankings.
But she returned to the court in impressive style by winning both the Scottish U16 and U18 titles in Moffat.
November saw her reach the semi-final of the Winter Grand Prix followed by two weeks in Manila in the Philippines where she reached the semi-final of the Phinma ITF under-18 singles, losing to Chinas Zhaoxuan Yang 6-3, 6-2.
Borthwick said: The winter is an important part of the year even though it is called the off-season.
Its all about building up points, as well as your confidence and your fitness.
As well as Junior Wimbledon, the other main aim this year is the British National Championships in Bournemouth in August.
I was knocked out in the second round last year by the number one seed, so the aim this year is to reach the semis or even the final.
Maybe top 300 and top of the under 16s will get her into qualifying?
The cut-off for Wimbledon qualifying last year was 107, so it would still need to be via a WC, but a qualy WC is more likely to be what has been offered given the number of girls we have in the top 300 or so already.
