Week 15 - WTA ($100K+H) - Johannesburg, South Africa Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 15 - WTA ($100K+H) - Johannesburg, South Africa Hard

Armchair · County player

Oooh I'm really excited. Its so nice to have five players to follow, even knowing that at least one will go. Cant wait.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Katie lost to Noppawan recently I think.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Good to see several of the British players have cottoned on to how soft this tournament is. Haven't Naomi, Emily and Lisa been in qualifiers for 25k tournaments recently?

LordBrownof · Futures level

it's a very good chance for Anne to pick up some points and confidence too.

steven · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
Katie lost to Noppawan recently I think.

Yes, she got thrashed 0 & 3 by her in Auckland WTA qualifying, having also lost to her in straight sets in Ningbo last year.

Naomi leads the H2H with Emily 2-0 too, a 4 & 4 win in Shrewsbury last year being their most recent meeting.

Peter too · Tennis legend

R1: KEOTHAVONG, Anne (GBR) 107 v MUHAMMED, Asia (USA) Q 503

wolf · Tennis legend

The conditions out here should suit Naomi, and she has a decent draw so hopefully she can go far.

Doubles draw

(1)Birnerova/Cetkovska (CZE) v Augustine/Muhammed (USA)
Broady/Webley-Smith (GBR) v (wc)Fourouclas/Hattingh (RSA)

(3)Lertcheewakarn/Moore (THA/AUS) v (wc)De Beer/Simmonds (RSA)
Grajdek/Jegiolka (GER/POL) v Duarte/Mircic (BRA/SRB)

Georgatou/Kalashnikova (GRE/GEO) v (wc)Du Plessis/Edwards (RSA)
(4)Bratchikova/Savinykh (RUS) v Laurendon/Minella (FRA/LUX)

Dentoni/O'Brien (ITA/GBR) v Kremer/Rottmann (LUX/AUT)
(2)Moulton-Levy/Woerle (USA/GER) v Bertens/Keothavong (NED/GBR)

PockyTastic · Futures level

Hmm Muhammed is possibly the toughest of the qualifiers, but hopefully Anne will be energised and power through the draw.

Danjn · Lower Club Player

According to the Soweto Open facebook page Katie lost 4-6 7-6 0-6 cry .

At least it was better than last time she played Lerch...

steven · Tennis legend

Emily beat Naomi 4 & 4 - that's a bit of a shock, though kind of follows on from their respective recent form - not so much bad in Naomi's case as extremely patchy.

20 points for a R1 win here, which will lift her about 20 places to c. 313.

In R2, she'll play (8) Kathrin Wörle (GER) WR 153 (CH 119 in Feb 2010), who lost to a Brit here last year, though that Brit was Bally.

-- Edited by steven on Monday 11th of April 2011 01:46:31 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Shame, I was hoping Naomi would win a couple of matches here and secure a top 250 spot for Wimbledon.

indiana · Tennis legend

tony_orient wrote:
Shame, I was hoping Naomi would win a couple of matches here and secure a top 250 spot for Wimbledon.

Yes, must admit I was feeling the same. Though credit to Emily.

With just 20 points to defend after this week before Wimbledon, 40 points ( the reward for 2 wins here ) would have just about clinched the WR 250 before Wimbledon deal. 20 for a R1 win would have been very helpful in that regard.

Even forgetting Wimbledon ( and always useful qualifying points on offer there ) would just be good to see Naomi getting into at least the lowish 200 rankings.

Now how many points does Emily need to get to WR 250..... smile

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 11th of April 2011 03:27:39 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Not setting out to be contrarian, but delighted for EWS. She's been really solid recently and feels somewhat overdue a good lot of points for a win. And this should mean (no?) that she is pretty well assured of being in the mix for qualifying at Wimbledon. Re: Broady not at all convinced, given her record in general and the points on offer in qualies, that a MD WC would be better for her than qualifying.

-- Edited by Spectator on Monday 11th of April 2011 04:25:47 PM

jb288 · Satellite level

Ooh, glad Emily got that one!
BUT gutted for Katie. She drew the eventual winner here in R1 last year, and then to draw Noppawan again this time was not good luck. It will all come together sometime soon....