Sunderland 25K Challenger

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RE: Sunderland 25K Challenger

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

Semi-finals:

Elise Tamaela (Ned) bt Margit Ruutel (Est) 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

Anne Keothavong (Gbr) bt Katie O’Brien (Gbr) 6-2 6-4,

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

Anne lost 7-6(6) 6-3

Sheddie · administrator

Thanks for the great reports Madeline

Great runs this week from Sarah, Katie and Anne, it's a shame Anne wasn't able to win her 2nd challenger in a row [looks as if the 1st set tiebreak was the turning point in the match - it's always so hard to come back from losing such a close set especially if you've had chances to win it] but still an amazing performance this week from her. Hopefully she won't be burnt out for Stockholm this week.

Anne earned about £1500 from this week

Ranking movements this week [for some reason Anne's points from winning a title last week weren't added on

]:

Assuming that players will get their Jersey and Sunderland points added on this week:

Anne will rise from 194 to 156.

Katie will rise from 268 to 229

Sarah Coles will rise from 723 to 562

-- Edited by Peter at 18:30, 2006-02-12

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

For some reason, I think they don`t put the Challenger points on for a fortnight, like with the men`s Futures but I `m not 100% on that.

Sheddie · administrator

Sarah Coles is very fast improving, she'll definately be top 500 very soon. It's impressive that she took Anne that close in the match despite Anne having done so well recently. It's also impressive that Sarah continued to play well in set 1 after missing those chances in set 2. What do you make of Sarah's game Madeline ?

Maybe if Sarah had served out the second set, the result may have been different, did you think she could have gone on to win a 3rd Madeline ?

Anne apparently often gets too down on herself in matches when she's not playing well and making errors. It's a weakness of hers I think.

There's quite a group of British women aged 20-21 who are really making surges up the rankings which is really promising. It's going to be very competitive this year for wildcards into Wimbledon qualies. Ones to watch are: Anna Smith, Sarah Coles, Rebecca Fong, Georgie Stoop, Naomi Cavaday, Melissa Berry and Lindsay Cox.

I'd think that Rebecca Llewellyn and Mel South are likely to be getting wildcards into the main draw.

Sheddie · administrator

Sally wrote:

For some reason, I think they don`t put the Challenger points on for a fortnight, like with the men`s Futures but I `m not 100% on that.

It seems so as it's not just with Anne but with all the British players.

The ranking jumps I mentioned in an above post will occur on the 20th Feb.

Sheddie · administrator

Sally wrote:

Semi-finals:Elise Tamaela (Ned) bt Margit Ruutel (Est) 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-4)Anne Keothavong (Gbr) bt Katie O’Brien (Gbr) 6-2 6-4,

A very convincing win for Anne in the semis, I did think that Katie O'Brien might trouble her more especially after her great QF win. The previous time they played had been in a challenger in Africa and it had been a close 3 setter

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Peter wrote:

Sarah Coles is very fast improving, she'll definately be top 500 very soon. It's impressive that she took Anne that close in the match despite Anne having done so well recently. It's also impressive that Sarah continued to play well in set 1 after missing those chances in set 2. What do you make of Sarah's game Madeline ? Maybe if Sarah had served out the second set, the result may have been different, did you think she could have gone on to win a 3rd Madeline ?

I found her play pretty impressive, but I'm no expert mind. She has quite a big serve and another which cuts away sharply, though for some reason she places it in the middle of the service box. If she could get it nearer the tramlines she would get a lot of points from it. Her returns looked good, too, hard and skimming the net. I did really think she was going to pull off a shock win, but - dare I mention the word choke? - she looks as though she needs to have a bit more confidence and belief in herself as the sets draw to a close, she never looked like winning the tiebreaks.