Week 44 - ITF ($10K+H) - Sunderland, GBR - Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 44 - ITF ($10K+H) - Sunderland, GBR - Hard

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

Anna Fitzpatrick (Gbr) bt Samantha Murray (Gbr) 6-2 3-6 7-5

indiana · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:

In their headline story the LTA has Samantha as a 19 year old from Lincolnshire. The ITF has her as a 23 year old from Manchester.

http://www.lta.org.uk/News/All-news-items/2010-11-01/Fitzpatrick-and-Murray-to-contest-the-final-in-Sunderland/

-- Edited by Peter too on Sunday 7th of November 2010 01:00:06 PM

Well, I was assuming that it was this 23 yo with the links I gave on this post in the Glasgow thread and to whom the WTA has assigned the recent Barnstaple and Glasgow results and show first playing a 10K in 2004. The university has that Samantha Murray at uni in USA from 2006 to 2010 and from Altrincham, i.e. Manchester.

If it is, then that's a pretty epic fail by LTA News even by their standards !

Calling Phil, who's actually seen her... smile

indiana wrote:

Yes, I was wondering about her too, seeing an impressive win and tight loss against top 500 players.

Dug up her bio from Northwestern University in Illinois. Looks fairly impressive :

http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-tennis/mtt/murray_samantha00.html

Looking at her WTA profile, she has recently turned 23 ( dob 09/10/87 ), career high of WR 850 in September 2006, aged 18. Last pro matches apparently before her recent Barnstaple qualifying appearance, Felixstowe 25K qualifying and Frinton 10K in July 2007.

http://www.wtatour.com/page/Player/Stats/0,,12781~11906,00.html

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 7th of November 2010 01:48:13 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

alex03maccy wrote:

Anna Fitzpatrick (Gbr) bt Samantha Murray (Gbr) 6-2 3-6 7-5

Well done Anna on the title, and also to Samantha on a great week and another good performance and much closer match than their tour match last week ( assuming that was her wink

)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Hard luck on Sam but great for Anna who is making decent progress.
Going back to Sam, it looks as if she has picked up her form this week but also shows she was maybe below par for a British tour event last week which is also clearly not as important as a proper tour event and not such a good formline.
Her form this week is better than she has showed to date because of the easiness of her victories and the exceptional tightness of this final. I suspect the win over Tara gave her more confidence and it showed in her subsequent performances.
I stick with the assumption that she is 23 and not 19 but I cannot be certain.
There is a picture of her on the LTA website which is definitely her and it says 23 so I am more certain.

http://www.lta.org.uk/News/All-news-items/2010-11-01/Five-British-players-line-up-for-Sunderland-quarter-finals/

SMC1809 · All-time great

The report appears to have changed now, but a I recall a few days ago there was a report about the Sam Vickers v Sam Murray match. I suspect the LTA have mixed up their Sams and dragged through info about Sam Vickers in error.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I see now altered, and that the LTA News had her consistently as the 23 yo in reports earlier in the week.

However, they mixed this up I stand by the remark that that's a pretty epic fail re the LTA News headline story about a 10K final in this country.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Congratulations Anna. Seems at long last to be making some progress up the rankings.

jb288 · Satellite level

Yay for Anna! And well done Sam :) As someone on GBTG noted, MCTA-TB seem to have acquired Sam as a Bath Uni player. However, their recent tweets mention only Sam reaching the final here, suggesting Fitzy may no longer be involved perhaps? Interesting also that Tasha Khan is scheduled to return next week and is still down as an MCTA player...

SMC1809 · All-time great

I just checked and Sam Vickers is indeed 19 and from Lincolnshire.