Week 23 - ITF ($75K) - Nottingham - Grass

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 23 - ITF ($75K) - Nottingham - Grass

wolf · Tennis legend

R1: (WC) Samantha Murray & Jade Windley CR 382 v Christina Mchale & Miki Miyamura (USA/JPN) CR 257
R1: (WC) Johanna Konta & Tara Moore CR 552 v Magda Linette & Saisai Zheng (POL/CHN) CR 191
R1: Naomi Broady & Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) CR 213 v Vesna Dolonc & Varvara Lepchenko (SRB/USA) CR 268
R1: Jocelyn Rae & Anna Smith CR 312 v (3) Anastasia Rodionova & Arina Rodionova (AUS/AUS) CR 148
R1: (WC) Nicola Slater & Emily Webley-Smith CR 422 v Stephanie Foretz-Gacon & Eva Hrdinova (FRA/CZE) CR 192

wolf · Tennis legend

Emily 2nd on Centre tomorrow (11am start) followed by Katy. Johanna/Tara 5th on centre, with Sam/Jade 5th on Court 4.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Centre is being streamed on bet365

LTA are showing a stream, but it's not currently working.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Emily has started and broken in her first game.

PaulM · Tennis legend

First point of the match, Em hits a great first serve, a cute little dink, and Dolonc scurries and just scrapes it over for the pass.

I think that kind of sums up what this match is going to be like, even Em's very best is probably not going to be enough to compete at this level.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I predict topsy turvy.

EWS got it back to 2-2 but is 0-40 down on serve.

PaulM · Tennis legend

She played beautifully to break and then recover from 0-40 to advantage, but she missed 3 first serves and was broken. I think this set might slip away now but she's played some good stuff.

I sometimes think Em's tennis brain is too clever for what she able to pull off on the court, but it really is fun to watch her on a grass court.

PaulM · Tennis legend

3 good points to 40-0, 5 poor points to be broken

2-5*

She's actually playing well enough to make this a real contest, but just can't string it together long enough to close out some of these games which will result in her losing 2 and 1 or something.

PaulM · Tennis legend

After losing the set 62, Em seems to be looking steadier, but her overthinking costs her dear as she misses a sitter to be broken for 2-3* in the second set

The last 3 times she's been broken she's had game point, very fine margins in this one despite the scoreline

PaulM · Tennis legend

Em saves 3 game points, carves out a break point, but Dolonc comes up with a massive serve to save it and a stunning pass to hold.

*2-4

Good match this, although that was probably Em's last chance

-- Edited by PaulM on Monday 2nd of June 2014 12:29:44 PM

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Ems shots are a thing if beauty or maybe that's just Em. I find it difficult to judge her game for admiring her presence in life.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Broken on a double for the second time in a row, and Dolonc serves out to win 62 62

Em actually played pretty well, some nice old school slicing and dicing and cute little lobs, first serve was effective when she struck it right. If she takes a couple of those game points (particularly at *22 in the second) it would have been a much friendlier (and arguably fairer) looking scoreline. She never really threatended Dolonc but should have taken another couple of games and kept it to one break in each set.

I still think she's likely to come through pre-qualies, as she's so much better than most of girls in the 600+ range, but it's difficult to see her beating anyone in the top 150 unless she gets someone who just can't play on grass and/or has a total off day.

-- Edited by PaulM on Monday 2nd of June 2014 12:38:54 PM

PaulM · Tennis legend

Katy warming up against former Wimbledon semi-finalist. Be a good barometer of where she is at.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Katy was very shaky early on, but Lucic-Baroni has made some pretty big errors allowing her to level at 2-2* and settle down a bit.