Marina breaks back.
3 - 2

Erakovic wins 6'4, 6'7, 6'3; tough loss for Heather.

And she is broken once more to lose the match ,  so another week of training and practice for Heather as she is not in the doubles here, which Marina is with her new partner Cara Black and Laura seems to have given Lisa Raymond enough time this week to find another partner, Andrea Hlavackova with whom she is seeded 4th.

The nature of Hevs illness and her playstyle mean its always going to be tough to come back - hard hitters would no doubt be able to steamroll through a few matches with less fatigue but for Heather patience wil be key and she is improving for sure.

Hopefully her fitness will be somewhere near where it needs to be to win a match at Flushing meadows. Doesnt seem five minutes ago that we were celebrating Heather winning a WTA title and breaking the drought but now her defence is coming up on the horizon with virtually no big points additions since.

Thanks to Fitzy's involvement with Sloane, I went to the stream on bet365 when she got into a 2nd set tiebreak with Shazza ... and I'm glad I did! She took the tiebreak then won the 3rd set too, the first time she has beaten Maria in 4 attempts.

Not sure how much Fitzy can have enjoyed it in the box - it was very tense at times, especially when she df'd on two match points! Great for him to look back on though

tony_orient wrote:

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steven wrote:

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Thanks to Fitzy's involvement with Sloane, I went to the stream on bet365 when she got into a 2nd set tiebreak with Shazza ... and I'm glad I did! She took the tiebreak then won the 3rd set too, the first time she has beaten Maria in 4 attempts.

Not sure how much Fitzy can have enjoyed it in the box - it was very tense at times, especially when she df'd on two match points! Great for him to look back on though

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 I watched the first set of that match, and Sharapova was completely in control so was quite surprised at the turn around. The winners to unforced error stats are pretty horrible (Stephens 20-51 Sharapova 16-62 which makes Laura's AO match against Kvitova look like a classic!) but Sloane now has wins over Serena and Maria as her only two top 10 wins, and she will benefit a lot from being able to close it out against a top player.

-- Edited by tony_orient on Wednesday 14th of August 2013 10:18:34 AM

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 I also watched the first set of the match and my main observation was how surreal it felt that Jimmy Connors was in Maria's box and our very own Fitzy in Sloane's. Now if you'd forecast that about 6 weeks ago.......... I just don't know !!