Week 23 - WTA International 220k - Birmingham (Grass)

wolf · Tennis legend

RE: Week 23 - WTA International 220k - Birmingham (Grass)

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

hopefully that will lift bally and mel. looks like masha is on the verge of winning so shouldn't be too long until southy.

L16: (WC) CAVADAY, Naomi WR 297 v VOEGELE, Stephanie WR 99

philwrig · Hall of fame

rain anytime

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Great win for Naomi and she's really found her form in this event, and beating someone like Tanasugarn on a grass court is an impressive result as she is a good grass court player.

Vogele up next should be a good match that is probably winnable if she can play well. Vogele is a lovely player to watch but I'm a bit surprised at the success she's had on grass as I didn't think her game would overly suit it. It's winnable if she can put it all together.

If she does keep this run up, it's going to make people wonder why she hasn't got a Wimbledon WC.

Bad loss for Anne though against Mirza who has done nothing all year and with that bad choke in the second set as well. She's not likely to get a nice draw at Eastbourne next week either so she's not going to be heading to Wimbledon in the best of form.

jb288 · Satellite level

Woop! Nice one. And good to see her lasting the distance in all these 3-setters too.
Glad Glatch is starting to fight back, but want Mel on court...

philwrig · Hall of fame

Anne doesn't choke so Mirza must be playing better. Let's face it Mirza is a much better player than her current ranking suggests.
Outstanding, outstanding from Cav looked dead and buried after the 2nd set but dug deep to win the 3rd. Is grass Cav's best surface or will she be able to sustain this level of form when she's back on the hard courts?

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

people are really jumping the gun over anne. She lost to Safina at the French. She lost a bad match today. That doesn't mean she's in a rut of terrible form, it just means she had an off-day

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

and the rain starts. anne does choke, its just part of being british.

jb288 · Satellite level

Glatch just aced on MP - classy...Cav reached the FQR at USO in 2007, so can't be too averse to that surface. I still think Wimbledon qualies is best for her though (and in any case MD is full) as she needs consistency and points - who's to say she won't draw another GS champion in R1 and go away with nothing? There's no point trying to go on a fantastic run through the MD if you can't win 3 qualies games.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Cav is a great hardcourt player, almost qualified for US open in 2007 but got injured and has won a 25k out in the states against some good opposition.

Didn't Voegle loose to Camerin in the Nottingham final?

Its a match that Cav can win but i wouldn't be suprised if she lost it. A nice set of 40 juicy points if Cav wins that oen though.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Anne is by far the strongest mentally in Gb tennis . That's why she has reached the top 50.

philwrig · Hall of fame

long delay expected. rain quite heavy

wolf · Tennis legend

The rain comes.

They will move the doubles matches indoors at least, I guess. I'm sure they'll want to complete the singles 2nd round today.

The problem is that most of these players are going to want to play Eastbourne qualies, so they'll want to get the matches in as soon as possible.

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

just because she is the strongest doesn't mean she doesn't choke. she just does it less often than the others and not quite as spectacularly as individuals such as katie.

philwrig · Hall of fame

She will tighten up in certain situations but not from 5-1 up in a set IMO.