OOP has Robson v Voegele 2nd on Centre, followed by Watson and then Broady with South opening up on Court 1 and O'Brien 4th on against an unnamed qualifier (at a guess either Karatantcheva or Riske?)
Edit: Sorry, should have posted the link to go alongside it.
Her form doesn't look that great - she was doing better in the 2nd half of last year than the 1st half of this. Could be a lot worse. However, if she does win, Wickmayer awaits.
Her form doesn't look that great - she was doing better in the 2nd half of last year than the 1st half of this. Could be a lot worse. However, if she does win, Wickmayer awaits.
Her form isn't great but on closer inspection 11 of her 13 losses this year has come to top 100 players, the only exceptions being former Junior World #1 Mladenovic and Scheepers who reached the 4th round of RG last week.
Last year she got to the quarters here by beating Cavaday and top #50 Russian.
Could have had a better draw given the options, but I'd still say Laura is in with a good chance of pulling off a third win.
You have to be impressed with Laura's performances so far given the week shes had. When she lost five consecutive games in her first round match I thought we were going to end up with a predictable result. But somehow Laura turned that match around showing great mental fortitude. Dare I say it showing Bally mental strength. By all reports it was a patchy performance so to win it was even more impressive. I had a feeling we would see an improved performance today and according to an eye witness account she didn't put a foot wrong.
Arguably given one of the tougher qualifier spots against Voegele with Wickmayer awaiting in the second round. Voegele is decent on grass but she has been beaten by two top juniors in the past 12 months so possibly doesn't enjoy being drawn by these young upstarts. Tough match to call but I have a feeling she can pull this match out if she can play like she did today. It would of course be her first win at tour level.
Cav so close and I had forgotten that she reached the L16 here last year. The ranking points on offer here are pretty stingy so she will only drop 24 points (30-6). Coincidentally she was beaten by Voegele last year.
Anna better than last week so could use her QWC for Wimby effectively.
Joss struggling compared to this time last year and Lisa also struggling to cope with the step up in class.
I'm wondering if there's a problem with the WTA site today because there are still no new rankings and no Birmingham draw with qualifiers placed on it. The draw on the LTA site has been updated though, and it turns out that Elena is playing Kaia Kanepi (EST) WR 118. The H2H is 0-1, Kanepi having won 3 & 4 at a 25K in Sunderland back in 2004, so revenge is long overdue!