2nd Set

Watson to serve First

15-0

15-15

30-15

40-15

40-30

1-0

 

Doesn't look as if either one wants to win this looking at the pathetic serves at times!
Halep 4-3 up

A strange match.
Halep seemed inordinately fractious and ornery from beginning to end.
Heather did some very good things, and often moved Halep around at will, winning rallies with ease and constructing points really well.
And then she'd make random unforced errors to negate all of it.
By the end Heather was almost in as bad a mood as Halep.
The UE's have to be reined in, as you can't beat the best players with twice as many UE as winners.
But, also today, Heather though serving well enough in terms of % and points won, did not have something that her serve has had all year so far that has been getting her out of pressure situations - the cheap points on serve. Regularly Hev has been able to put in big serves and get leads or benefit from quick points in most service games. Today this was not the case and so any pressure Halep created was much harder to defuse - every point having to be rallied for.

Frustrating watch, as Heather was closer than you'd suspect, she just needs to put everything together in these matches against the biggest players and not be repeatedly undoing her good work. Hard won point, Hard won point, cheap freebie to the opponent, cheap freebie...

Wouldn't surprise me if Heather withdraws from Katowice.

Over to Jo!

It's been a building few weeks for Heather.

Short break before the clay season now. Mix of Internationals and the bigger events before RG.

Frankly a magnificent opening three games from Jo. *3-0

Jo takes the first set 6-2

What makes it even better is that every time you think she's loosing it a bit she gets back to business and does something else amazing.