Haven't as yet commented about Heather's very encouraging displays over the weekend, so here it is.

First of all I would like to know whether she conveniently lost the Jackson match knowing she had a wildcard here. She had no preparation time at this venue but has arguably played her best tennis of her senior career. Difficult to guage her level of performance in the first round as her opponent was completely out of form but given the emphatic scoreline Heather must have played pretty well. Much more impressed by her performane in the FQR because I thought Diyas would have been too strong for Heather on clay. Slight note of caution though would be that Diyas has been injured recently.

Week by week we learn more and more about Heather and apart from the very occasional poor performance she is very consistent and a tough competitor. She is also a very quick learner, just in the space of three weeks Heather has become a very competent player on the green clay.

Comparisons with Laura will no doubt be made throughout both their careers and at this stage it is pretty clear which one will perform more consistently week to week, as per Andy. Whilst Laura is more likely to play to a higher level but more inconsistently.

Finally I suppose we would all have preferred an easier matchup than Vesnina who is a powerful striker of the tennis ball but also very inconsistent. A very streaky player so hopefully Heather will play her on an offday. Still though a good test for Heather a will provide her with a great experience in her rapidly developing career.

In case you're interested, Bet365 odds for the 1st round has Vesnina as the strongest favorite - 1/9 with Heather at 5/1. They've been wrong before! 

Oops! Changed so nobody can see my mistake.

-- Edited by SMC1809 on Monday 12th of April 2010 01:25:27 PM

Odds look fair enough to me.

Actually just being prepared to offer 5 / 1 against Heather beating a player of Vesnina's quality is quite a compliment to her progress.

So, bright and early at 10 am local time.   Actually I doubt Heather is fazed particularly by starting times, early or late, and she played Diyas at 10 am as well. 

I see that Heather has pulled out of the challenger in two weeks time. This would seem sensible given her hectic schedule over the last several weeks. The big question for me is will she continue to play in the junior grand slams. That was her original plan at the start of the year but I wonder whether that will change now that she has made such great progress with her senior career.

2-2 now. Facing a bit of trouble on serve. was 0-30 now 15-30. C'mon Heather!

Decent competitive start already saved several break points.