Astra Sharma looks well on her way in her match against the 3rd seed and thus much higher ranked Cabrera. 5-2 double break up and serving for the set. Katy plays the winner of that one.
With these 8 ( net 7 ) points, Gabi will so far move level with Katie Swan on 328 points, about WR 180 and GB #6/7.
With her time out with glandular fever last year Gabi has a rankings window until the anniversary of her December 2017 India 5 and 50 ( 25K title) points so hopefully even more onwards and upwards.
Pegula reached the final of the recent 60k in Hawaii, so she will represent a good challenge for Gabi too, though in the final she lost convincingly to Nao Hibini (WR136)
With these 8 ( net 7 ) points, Gabi will so far move level with Katie Swan on 328 points, about WR 180 and GB #6/7.
With her time out with glandular fever last year Gabi has a rankings window until the anniversary of her December 2017 India 5 and 50 ( 25K title) points so hopefully even more onwards and upwards.
Yes, interesting here that although Gabi has the higher ranking, mainly because of her series of 25k wins, she also still has a couple of 1 pointers left, so the 8 first round points her give her that healthy +7, whilst Katy's minimum counter is now 9 points, so she needs another win here this week - which will be tough - to go into positive territory with her overall rankings account.
With these 8 ( net 7 ) points, Gabi will so far move level with Katie Swan on 328 points, about WR 180 and GB #6/7.
With her time out with glandular fever last year Gabi has a rankings window until the anniversary of her December 2017 India 5 and 50 ( 25K title) points so hopefully even more onwards and upwards.
Yes, interesting here that although Gabi has the higher ranking, mainly because of her series of 25k wins, she also still has a couple of 1 pointers left, so the 8 first round points her give her that healthy +7, whilst Katy's minimum counter is now 9 points, so she needs another win here this week - which will be tough - to go into positive territory with her overall rankings account.
Yes, looking at Katy's points distribution her 16th counter is indeed 9, in fact she has four 9s. However her best counters are two 30s, so all 16 counters are rom 9 to 30. What she lacks against our other up and comers is big weeks.
Bookies make Pegula and Sharma favourites in the respective matches despite being lower ranked, quite a big favourite in Sharma's case. Sharma is obviously in fine form, comprehensively beating Freya the other week and has massively cut her tanking during this successful North American trip
*ranking
Although she may have had a reputation for being a bit of a tanker as far as I know ;)
-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Thursday 2nd of August 2018 01:47:34 PM
I thought they'd got the coffee when they went 5-3 up in the second set, but it obviously wasn't strong enough as they lost the next 4 games and the match 2-6 5-7
Gabi's performance thus far is decidedly error strewn, both on her service and return games. Is down 3-6 *0-1, but I don't see Pegula as a better player than Gabi, just making fewer errors thus far. Several service games Gabi should have broken Pegula (beyond the one break she did win), but she has been rather throwing away the opportunities to do so. Her own serve has been rather hit and miss thus far too, with only 2/14 2nd serves win... and losing another second serve Gabi is now 3-6 0-2* down.
She is going to have to pick up her game a lot to turn this round; so far the signs are not there that she will do so.
Gabi also has a rather resigned look about her today, not the usual fighter. This second set is heading south fast. She at least manages to rescue a service game after retrieving 1 BP and going to a number of deuces 3-6 1-3*