Katie 3rd on Court 5 after Niculescu-Jakupovic and Karatantcheva-Cabrera. Play starts at 4pm and there doesn't look to be any chance of rain (unlike yesterday) so we're looking at around 7ish UK time (obviously depending on the duration of those preceding matches).
Katie is 1/8, Fernandez 9/2 so it's obviously a very good chance of progression - Fernandez judging by that JWR is obviously a talented youngster and recently made the semi finals of RG but lost in straight sets to Emma Rad in the 2nd round at Wimbledon.
A quick look at her most recent pro results - she lost 4 and 1 to Andreescu in Canada a couple of weeks ago, lost 6 and 6 to Kilnarova (282) in Greece in March and 4 and 3 to Bondar (330) at the same venue a week earlier. She did beat the #462 7-6 in the decider in Granby a couple of week ago (and obviously the unranked Rosolska yesterday) and I know factors like specific match ups, hometown crowd etc. can be a factor, but it would be a glorious opportunity missed if Katie didn't come through.
I'm really excited for Katie, in her first Prem Mand(?). This is a great chance to get loads of (easy?) points and then play a great player. She should be well rested from her exploits last week now too.
LS has her due on at 19.00.
Not Premier Mandatory ( of which there are 4 ) but Premium 5 ( of which there are 5 strangely enough ) but Premier 5s give almost as many points as Premier Mandatories and are pretty much the same elite level. I look on the 9 Premier Mandatories plus 5s as the equivalent of ATP Masters ( with Premiers as ATP 500s and Internationals as ATP 250s ).
Superb opportunity indeed for Katie, just hope that her last match and particularly last set against Kiick was just a bad day at the office and maybe a bad match-up. And her R1 win against Krunic last week was very good.
Katie now underway. Not the best of starts, Fernaandez holding to love and 0-30, so 6 points in a row to start things off. Hopefully not continuing from where she left off the other night.
I am reliably informed that Katie leads GB women for victories in 2018 after losing the first set.
She has 8 such wins from 21 matches where she has lost the first set.
So hope.
Ms. Boulter has actually won the fewest matches as a % of her matches played in 2018 of the breakout quartet of Swan, G Taylor, Dart and herself.
Her % is 62.22% matches won - not shabby, but the other three surpass her, and Gabi & Harriet are ~70%
She's been very good at winning big matches for points, especially when the underdog. Winning 57.14% of her matches when the lower ranked player. That's right in line with Swan & Dart, but Gabi is again the leader on ~70%
Funny how things shake out in terms of ranking.
She's going to turn this around. My relaible source didn't tell me this part.