Week 6 - ITF ($10K) - El Kantaoul, Tunisia Hard

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 6 - ITF ($10K) - El Kantaoul, Tunisia Hard

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Here's hoping for more points this week.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Q1: NJOZE, Mirabelle (GBR) UNR def. KAERCHER, Catiana (GER) UNR 6-3 6-1

Q2: NJOZE, Mirabelle (GBR) UNR v (q6) CODINO, Fiona (FRA) WR 1106 (CH 831 Sept. 14)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

NB According to l'espace tennis, Fiona Codino had the dubious honour to be the French girl who entered the most pro tournaments last year (38) and had the longest run of defeats (14).

I assume Mirabelle will know this . . . (Mirabelle is also ranked higher than Fiona in the domestic system).

Fingers crossed.

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah, going backwards, the last 2 weeks Mirabelle has won 6-0 6-0 in Q1 :)

TennisLover · Strong Club Player

More like getting exhausted :)? Not easy to be playing all these qualies every week and getting to the main draw to be drawned against the top seed. It must be taxing physically and mentally - and I suspect must have contributed to her unexpected second round loss. All the same kudos to her. She appears to be one of those players that have a big game well suited to the seniors hence the apparently seamless transition from the juniors, which is really great to see.

Looking at her profile on ITF site, her qualifying performances have been very impressive since she started last year?, with only the mighty Oceane Dodin now top 200 (that I commented about in Junior Rankings thread) and Barbieri top 250 that could stop her from qualifying. She appears to be earning her way through - no wild cards. Very impressive.

I am curious. Not heard about her until this forum. It appears CD knows much about her? Any idea of her game style? Is she really a leftie as stated on her profile in ITFtennis? And is she based in France?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Tennislover, I really don't know that much about her (certainly not in terms of her background etc.). I've seen her play live twice (although once was only briefly) and was obviously naturally curious to watch her (as I was in France, and she was playing there, in a very domestic sort of event, but had GBR next to her name). I've since followed her results a bit and watched her on livestream.

She's certainly based in France, at a private academy down in the South east. She's at the Barbossi club (Alpes-Maritimes, Cote d'Azur). She's been there about three years but was at the Sophia club in Nice before. Had a breakthrough year last year in terms of domestic rankings - went up two whole ranks (which - pyramid style - gets more and more difficult) and is now up there with some of the best. (Nowhere near Ferro, the best 97, of course, or Harmony Tan, or Yerolymos, but in the next group, along with Margot Decker and girls like her).

She has a powerful game, aggressive, certainly left-handed, and - according to one coach in the UK - has a tricky game to play against. Not that tall, from recollection, but I might be mistaken. I remember reading some article about her too and was taken with her attitude, work ethic, ambitions etc. Others may well know more (especially as someone a while back said she used to be based in the UK before moving). Here's a picture:

www.wta96.com/wiki/images/5/5a/Mirabelle_NJOZE_0244.jpg

TennisLover · Strong Club Player

Thanks for the info and photo. I travel to Monaco from time to time so will be on the look out. Will certainly be following her progress along with Freya (saw Freya play a while back and has a big game).

I have seen Ferro play - she is more of a counter puncher. Was very impressed with Oceane though - very aggressive and not surprised where she is now (top 150). Saw her only about 6 months or there about ago when she was 700+

What's the secret of the French system? Is it by design or happenstance or a combination of both :)?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I've only seen Freya on livestream but am a big fan (based on the livestream and what certain people I trust have said).

Agree about Ferro - and she's been having a bit of wobble recently - it's difficult when you're the 'golden girl' and suddenly it all falls apart a bit - will be interesting to see how she handles it. I've never seen Dodin although I knew she was majorly underanked when she came over here last year.

Do let us know, TennisLover, if you manage to catch up with Mirabelle in your travels (NB I don't think there's anything that magical about the French system, although it has been hashed and re-hashed a bit on this forum. It's the most popular individual sport, therefore most people play and so it's really just a question of numbers, it takes care of itself. The question, though, I guess, is how they made it the most popular individual sport . . . how long have you got???)

wimdledont · Challenger level

Mirabelle's slightly belated birthday present is a WTA ranking.

Amusingly, it's 1106, which was the listed ranking of her next opponent, Codino, who is now down to 1112.

steven · Tennis legend

No result for Mirabelle yet but from Tuesday's OoP on the ATP site, she must have won (or got in as a lucky loser, but I assume she won because her FQR opponent, Codino, is not on the OoP):

L32: (Q) Mirabelle Njoze WR 1106 v (Q) Marcella Cucca (ITA) UNR

DF · Tennis legend

She won 4 and 4

wimdledont · Challenger level

I'm superstitiously saying nothing, but Cucca has a win/loss ratio of 1/27.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

wimdledont wrote:
I'm superstitiously saying nothing, but Cucca has a win/loss ratio of 1/27.

(Say it softly but it looks like you were spot on, wimbledont - Mirabelle currently 4*-0 up)

steven · Tennis legend

Another double bagel for Mirabelle, this time in a main draw

L32: (Q) Mirabelle Njoze WR 1106 beat (Q) Marcella Cucca (ITA) UNR by 0 & 0