Week 22 - ITF ($75K + H) - Nottingham, Grass

DavidC · Tennis legend

Week 22 - ITF ($75K + H) - Nottingham, Grass

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

No surprises so far, but a decent fight by Emilia in the first set:

South df Hindmarsh 6-1 6-1
Fujiwara df Banos-Gregorians 7-6 6-0
Glushko df Horn 6-1 6-1

Some more winners but no scores:

Lucy Brown df Lisa Whybourn
Lottie Fox df Aimee Gibson
Samantha Murray df Natasha Starling
Jade Windley df Francesca Stephenson
Lindsay Lee-Waters df Daneika Borthwick
Eirini Georgatou df Charlotte Phillips

-- Edited by RBBOT on Saturday 28th of May 2011 04:17:46 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Live scores (for once) one the main draw starts. (Possibly for mens qualies as well?)

http://www.protennislive.com/frameset.asp?year=2011&wkno=22C&lang=en&tabno=2&eventid=1631&ref=www.nottinghamfestivaloftennis.com

-- Edited by johnnylad on Saturday 28th of May 2011 04:17:23 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

Tara lost too.

Think any chance she and Lisa could sneak a main draw wildcard I think have probably gone with round 1 exits here

steven · Tennis legend

Really not a good day here so far - the only GB wins have come in all-GB matches and the one other match we had a realistic hope of getting a player through (Sadikovic was ranked about 200 places below Tara, though has been top 350) was lost too.

You really wonder who the LTA are trying to help by attracting more overseas players to Nottingham by having big ITFs two weeks in a row and making these events so strong that the qualifying seeds wouldn't look out of place as the main draw seeds in a strong 25K!

Last year, when it was a 1-week 50K, we got the winner (Bally), another QFist (Anne) and 3 more in the last 16 from a total of 12 Brits in the main draw and 10 more Brits reached qr2 with one of them getting to the fqr. This year, it looks like the numbers will be halved, with 6 Brits in the main draw and only 5 winning at least one match in qualifying, and it is largely to do with the change in strength of the entry list.

Ratty · County player

steven wrote:
You really wonder who the LTA are trying to help by attracting more overseas players to Nottingham by having big ITFs two weeks in a row and making these events so strong that the qualifying seeds wouldn't look out of place as the main draw seeds in a strong 25K!

Is the main purpose of putting on a tournament to boost the rankings of the home players?

DavidC · Tennis legend

Good wins by Sam and Mel in the second qualifying round

QR1

Erakovic bt Richards 46 62 61,
Rodionova bt Seaborne 64 60,

QR2

Glushko bt Fox 61 62,
South bt Fujiwara 62 64,
Lu bt Windley 76 64,
Zhang bt Brown 67 63 63,
Murray bt Georgatou 75 75

FQR

Samantha Murray (GBR) v Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) or (6)Lindsay Lee-Waters (USA)
(3)Jing-Jing Lu (CHN) v Melanie South (GBR)

DavidC · Tennis legend

From the LTA site:

Melanie South is just one match away from the AEGON Trophy main draw after reaching the third qualifying round on day one of the Nottingham Festival of Tennis.

The 25-year-old has struggled for form so far in 2011 but was back to her best on home turf as she started the grass court season in style at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

South, who has slipped to 296 in the world rankings, recorded a 6-1, 6-1 victory over fellow Brit Caitlin Hindmarsh before defeating Japans Rika Fujiwara 6-2, 6-4 in round two.

This year has not been great for me so far but I always seem to have a bit more confidence when I come onto the grass, said South, from Kingston upon Thames in Surrey.

Both wins felt really good and hopefully it will give me a bit of confidence. The last year and a half has been really tough but I dont think Im a 300 (world ranked) player.

Im better than that Ive been a top 100 player but I know I have got to work hard to get back there.

Fujiwara was ranked as the eighth seed in the qualifying rounds and South will have to defeat another seed, number three Jing-Jing Lu, to book her place in the main draw alongside the likes of fellow Britons Anne Keothavong and Laura Robson.

Lu defeated Brit Jade Windley 7-6, 6-4 to set up a head to head with South but the Surrey player added: Playing two games in a day is tough but I felt quite comfortable. I feel more at home on the grass even though there is a bit more pressure with Wimbledon just around the corner.

South is joined in the last eight of qualifying by Samantha Murray, who enjoyed a battling 7-5, 7-5 victory against second seed Elrini Georgatou.

The 23-year-old, from Stockport, had earlier defeated Natasha Stirling 6-0, 6-3, to reach the second round and will now face either Czech Republics Kristyna Plisnova or American Lindsay Lee-Waters for a place in the main draw.

Murray said: It was a tough game. Im still quite new to this level but Im really pleased to get the win in the end.

Ive been playing a few of the 10k events on the tour and this will help improve my ranking which is good.

steven · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
steven wrote:
You really wonder who the LTA are trying to help by attracting more overseas players to Nottingham by having big ITFs two weeks in a row and making these events so strong that the qualifying seeds wouldn't look out of place as the main draw seeds in a strong 25K!

Is the main purpose of putting on a tournament to boost the rankings of the home players?

Not the only purpose, but when we're talking about ITFs and Challengers that don't charge for entry, surely giving home players at least a decent chance of getting to play a few matches should be one of the priorities, shouldn't it? I'm sure it is in most other countries.

steven · Tennis legend

Anyway, the day certainly got a bit better with those wins for Mel and Samantha

indiana · Tennis legend

Well done to Mel and Samantha, hope they can get an FQR win.

In the end with all the withdrawals, which always looked possible, lots of Brits did indeed get a chance to play.

Good British presence getting a chance in qualifying. Good class field. All our Wimbledon main draw competitors who wanted to play are in the main draw here, with a chance of facing good quality opposition and if they can rise to the occasion a chance of some very good points if they can progress. Seems to me for them just the right sort of tests and opportunities. Looks like some interesting and quality tennis in store for spectators, in the main draw mixing 6 or 7 of the top British players with good players from around the world.

Nottingham First Week - already looks like it will tick most boxes. So. I'll say it when it is deserved :

WELL DONE - LTA !

jb288 · Satellite level

Was there all day today, saw quite a lot of different players. Mel was looking great against Fujiwara, completely outclassed her in the first and didn't get down when she went 0-3 in the second. She is absolutely a class above the likes of Lisa & Tara at the minute, and as she says is definitely not a 300 player - she has a penetration and accuracy on her shots which most of our girls do not, and is looking in the best physical shape I've seen her too. Hope this can translate into more wins.

Lisa - Lucy was an interesting match but only saw bits of it; Lisa's backhand as ever was great, but her forehand is still a bit vulnerable. She was playing a lot more consistently than at Notts last year but wasn't building points that well and getting down on herself. No obvious injury. Lucy is more of a textbook player with solid groundstrokes but a not-that-big serve; I think she is easily as good as Lisa from the 3 times I've seen Lisa play.

Caitlin Hindmarsh against Mel really struggled (though to be fair the wind was quite strong all day and it was very cold, so everyone was probably not at their best!), and didn't yet look comfortable at this level. I was impressed with Fran against Jade - she has a nice variety to her game and hits pretty hard given how tiny she is! Jade was impressive and great to watch, less passive than when I've seen her before, and as always looking extremely athletic and moving well; she is one player we have who you are always confident will get the ball back - but at the minute too many of them are midcourt, and she struggled to put away some winners. She was a break up against Lu in the first, deservedly (as was Lucy in her QR2 match, though I didn't watch that).

Tara wasn't really on song, but her opponent was a great grasscourter, huge and great coming forward, volleying lots. Tara's backhand kind of deserted her in the first set but she picked it up a bit in the second. Holly Richards surprised me, watched her win the 1st against Erakovic in front of a crowd of 2! She has a nice game actually, slice backhand was staying very low and a big serve; early in the second she got into a dispute with the umpire (wrongly, I saw the chalk), Marina upped her game and I assume that was it.

Lottie Fox has a big serve too, being rather tall, and although she was outclassed today by Glushko, there were some good moments for her to take away, and she showed some promise. Daneika I couldn't really work out - she seemed to lack a great deal of power but did some very good placement and was getting plenty of winners against a very aggressive Lee-Waters in what was a very long match. No huge weapons but plenty of potential and a great on-court attitude and energy.

Sam murray I didn't watch that closely but again she has a nice counterpunching game which is good to see, very solid. Seaborne I only watched for a while but she was struggling a bit with her groundstrokes, serve strong though, and looks a great athlete.

Mel definitely the star of the day though!

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Ratty wrote:
steven wrote:
You really wonder who the LTA are trying to help by attracting more overseas players to Nottingham by having big ITFs two weeks in a row and making these events so strong that the qualifying seeds wouldn't look out of place as the main draw seeds in a strong 25K!

Is the main purpose of putting on a tournament to boost the rankings of the home players?
Not the only purpose, but when we're talking about ITFs and Challengers that don't charge for entry, surely giving home players at least a decent chance of getting to play a few matches should be one of the priorities, shouldn't it? I'm sure it is in most other countries.

I really don't know what you are trying to say here, Steven. Do you want a much lower quality, 25K or 50 K tournament, where our players will have more chance of whacking a few much lower quality Brits and get some fairly easy points ? . As I said in my above post, this seems a really good tournament to me, with a good challenge of opponents and good points opportunities for these that can produce under a bit more prsssure.

I certainly don't see that a load of British QR1 winners ( and 1 point ) from no doubt a very weak qualifying field is any great loss. Well done to Mel and Sam for producing good looking wins here, certainly in QR2.

I am sure the two week 75k / 100K Nottingham festival has raised the quality, particularly in this first week and made it a bit tougher, but not ludicrously so. Looks good to me.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 28th of May 2011 10:56:04 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

jb288 wrote:
Was there all day today, saw quite a lot of different players.....

Thanks very much for taking the time to write all that out, a very interesting read.

Really good, in particular, to read how Mel seemed to be playing so well. She is verging on falling outside the top 300, simply because of her results, although has intimated more than once frustratingly that there is a much better game that she just hasn't managed to bring to the match court. A slight problem !

Be great if this is some signal of a turnaround. Clearly she really impressed you and she still believes herself that she can get back up the rankings. All the best to her.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 28th of May 2011 10:45:30 PM

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Thanks jb288. Much appreciated.