Week 9 - WTA International ($227K) - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia- Hard

Deano13 · Social player

RE: Week 9 - WTA International ($227K) - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia- Hard

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Good win Naomi. Hopefully she can keep going.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I suspect Zheng maybe was a little fatigued after her major exploits last week. If Naomi's plays half decent she should be able to progress.

cwej · Lower Club Player

I imagine Yang to be completed shocked by the ferocity of Broady's serve and for Broady to actually win this one quite easily.

DF · Tennis legend

How fast is it?

FriendofLouieG · Lower Club Player

Fast enough to get 17 aces in R1!

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Naomi against Yang is first up on centre court at 6am GMT

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Here we go! Naomi's attempt to reach her second WTA QF of the year, and third in total, are underway.
1-0*

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Very sloppy game, just one first serve and 3 unforced errors immediately after her serve, to get broken to love for 1-2*

But immediately breaks back to love with a stunning backhand return winner and a drop shot winner *2-2

First ace for Naomi, and a good deep unreturned 2nd serve, as she holds to 30 3-2*

Good play gets Naomi back to 40-40 but Yang takes the next two points 3-3

A second serve ace from Naomi but from 30-15 it all goes wrong with 3 missed first serves and 2 poor backhands immediately after her serve 3-4*

Naomi recovers from 40-15 with some stunning tennis including two power crosscourt backhands and a drop shot winner to break 4-4

Another ace as Naomi holds to 30 with a super backhand down the line winner to take the game 5-4

Yang gifts Naomi the first two points with backhand errors then Naomi takes her 2nd set point with a forehand winner 6-4

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 3rd of March 2016 09:32:26 AM

PaulM · Tennis legend

Come on!

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

:D
Keep going Naomi :)

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Naomi holds to 40 despite two dfs 1-0*

Yang can't deal with Naomi's short low sliced return, a super backhand down the line makes it 0-40 and a df gifts Naomi the break *2-0

Naomi holds to love thanks to three unreturned serves 3-0*

Yang recovers from 15-30 with some impressive tennis 3-1*

Two aces as Naomi holds to 15 4-1*

Naomi rather wastes an opening at 0-30 as she nets a backhand, Yang goes on to hold to 40 *4-2

Two stunning deep forehand first serve returns that Naomi can't deal with make it 15-30, three times Yang gets bp but Naomi saves them with 2 aces and one unreturned first serve , a total of 4 aces in the game 5-2*

Yang looks in trouble at 0-30 after two backhand errors but comes up with two aces as she holds to 30 *5-3

Naomi holds to love 6-3

---

Overall 1st set was a poor standard and Naomi was somewhat fortunate to take it, given she twice gave away her serve with a series of careless errors. Having said that, when she did break herself, she won lots of the points with super tennis. More determination from Naomi in the 2nd set, served a bit better, especially on the bps, got more returns in play, generally did most things slightly better.

First ground-stroke after her serve was a problem area today, especially on the backhand side and after 2nd serves. At times Yang appeared to struggle with Naomi's slice; normally it is bad sign if Naomi is playing passively, slicing lots of shots but today it looked a reasonable tactic, especially when used to create an opening to unleash her backhand either cross court or down the line.

Naomi won 28/36 when she landed her first serve, of which 19 were unreturned serves (including 8 aces). She won 12/29 on second serve including one second serve ace, and 3 unreturned second serves, also hit 3 dfs. Not many trips to the net for Naomi, one missed volley and she put away 3 smashes (one challenging, 2 routine). Two drop shot winners.

Zhaoxuan Yang was also rather careless on her first shot after her serve, with 9 unforced errors on this particular shot. A few sensational shots from Yang but not enough to compensate for her fairly high error count.

-- Edited by kundalini on Thursday 3rd of March 2016 05:20:26 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Getting a bit windy over in KL.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

saves consecutive BP's with Aces

PaulM · Tennis legend

Brilliant!