Evening all, Priesty the roving reporter here with today's round-up.....

Due to over-optimistic estimation of the travelling time by AA route planner I arrived about half an hour late, by which time Maia and Freya were respectively 2-5 and 3-5 down. Both managed to claw back to 5-5 (possibly inspired by my arrival ) but while Freya was able to steal the set, Maia wasn't.

Maia showed some lovely touches with some clever forehand drop shots and deft volleying, as well as some powerful down-the line winners particularly off the BH. But whilst she was a constant threat on Niedmers's serve, breaking several times, her slender frame was unable to deliver enough consistent power and penetration to make her own enough of a threat. She broke back from 1-3 to 2-3 in the 2nd, prompting the German to slam the ball in frustration, but was broken again straight away. A couple of unlucky net cords also went against her in the closing stages and when a chipped FH return sailed long to cost her the match her dejection was evident. 

The more powerfully-built Freya meanwhile impressed with some powerful and well placed serves and forehands and some good one-two punches - serve out wide followed by FH winner into the opposite corner. One such point clinched the first set for her, though her BH was a bit wild at times. She was somewhat vocal at times, one FH missed wide prompting her to cry out "how can you miss that, you've got the whole court!!". An outburst early in the 2nd set, after she dropped her serve to trail 0-2, prompted a man in her camp at court side (presumably coach or dad) to command "Stop it!".

Eventually she broke back at 2-4 at the 3rd time of asking, having netted a FH then a BH return on the 2 previous bps. A Vajdova DF followed by a lovely wrong-footing FH winner clinched the break to love for 5-4, by which time Vajdova appeared to be clutching her lower back. Freya showed no mercy as she served out to love, some impressive deep FHs forcing errors from her opponent.

By this time Paulisi had arrived and between us we tried to keep an eye on Dunne v Wallace, Brown v (the other) Vajdova and Dixon v Touly. Grace was done an injustice by her score line in the 2nd set, there were many long hard-fought rallies but the French girl's superb court coverage meant she usually came out on top. In KD v IW meanwhile, there were some impressive rallies in the first set with good shot placement, but once KD broke for 5-4 it was pretty much one-way traffic. IW attempted to change tactics in the 2nd with some drop-shots followed by passes, but to no avail. Aptly for a Wallace she showed plenty of Braveheart and no-one could accuse her of not battling to the end, though she was helped a little by KD dropping serve twice in the second, giving away the break at 5-2 with a DF. However a netted BH from IW gave Katy a deserved win.

Meanwhile for those baffled by Lucy's result - the truth is she played some impressive points but just could not string enough of them together on a consistent basis. Neither Paulisi nor I were holding our breath even when she was in the driving seat at 5*-4 then 6*-5 in the first, and then 5-4 in the TB with her serve to come, because she just never looked comfortable there. Every time she had the chance to finish the set she faltered and the errors started to creep in. It looked like things may be on the turn when she took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd but alas it wasn't to be. Lucy's frustration boiled over when she dropped her serve to love at 4-4 and then whacked a ball down the other end which prompted her opponent to instinctively duck. Some nice wide angled FHs from Vajdova finished the match off, but to be fair there is definite potential in Lucy's game - she just needs to play the big points better and be a better front-runner.

Harriet Dart was pretty competitive against last week's r-u Liebens, but was up against a clearly in-form player who just had a slight edge. The Dartist was also blunted by a few questionable line calls, at one point venting her frustration at the umpire.

Wasn't really able to keep much of an eye on Asghar or Drew/Craven as they were being played on the courts behind us. As I left, wanting to avoid the worst of the traffic heading back to Stoke-on-Trent, Paulisi was still there and hopefully will have seen the rest of Anna Smith's game and Katie B's. Thanks for your company Paulisi, tennis events can be lonely things if there's no-one there to chat to. It was also good to see Jeremy Bates keeping an eye on things and Tara Moore supporting her fellow Brits.

-- Edited by Priesty on Wednesday 13th of November 2013 07:36:31 PM