Lalami defeated the then WR 24 Rezai to reach the QF of Fes last year which is how she achieved that career high. Clearly no slouch but let's see how things go...
Lalami defeated the then WR 24 Rezai to reach the QF of Fes last year which is how she achieved that career high. Clearly no slouch but let's see how things go...
That's true, but that was in the period when all of the trauma's of Aravane's personal life were imploding, when she was finding it almost impossible to focus on tennis at all. She hardly won a match, falliing out of the top 100 within 4 months of that result, and inexorably down (one tournament, Dallas 2011, apart) to the ~160's where she now is. She's back playing mentally unencumbered now, and I wish her well - there was a good ITF interview with her at the Shrewsbury event.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that Lalami's victory against WR24 might have more context to it, and not be as impressive as that headline suggests.
I (hope, and) expect for Jade to win in straights.
True Rezai was pretty bad that day, but my memory of watching that match includes Nadia putting in a decent performance. Given her form since I doubt that week in Fes is representative of her "normal" form, though her low ranking seems to be due to playing few matches this year which hints at an injury? Possibly... Though a double bagel loss to Peer early in 2012 suggests that her giant killing moment was a one off...... ANYWAY a very roundabout way of saying that Jade has a good chance of coming through, but Nadia has some game in there somewhere but will hopefully not find it when they meet.