Week 14 - ITF (W25) Bolton, GB Hard

paulisi · Tennis legend

Week 14 - ITF (W25) Bolton, GB Hard

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Big hold from Alicia, she had to save a number of BPs, but came through a long game and she leads 6-5* second set, but a set down.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Glad that Lilly Mould is putting up a decent score, there's a lot to like in Lilly's game.

Never expected anything from Amelia R so not disappointed.

Will be interested to see if Ola can irritate Tara sufficiently to make a mark - not impossible.

PS am keeping an eye on the 16 year-old French youngster too, Djoubri

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 1st of April 2019 12:56:09 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Dreaded MTB in the Alicia Holly match
7-5 5-7.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Most bizarre - seriously don't understand why Lissey Barnett thought she had to come to the net so much....

She doesn't normally (i.e. some but not all the time). And the courts are super slow, says everyone. And it really isn't the right tactic against a younger, 'weaker' player.

Most strange.....

But well done Holly.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Which Holly takes 10-7 and probably deserves it. A bit sad for Alicia, certainly not the start to the year she'd have wanted, but at the same time, it is quite nice to see a young player come through. Mould's conqueror Noel up next for Holly - maybe Alicia might have had more chance, but I'm sure Holly will give it a good go.

SuperT · Futures level

So now both streamed courts will be showing overseas players while Laura and Freya are both in action but we can't see them. Did someone actually plan this?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Sad times for Freya. She actually broke in the opening game, but then lost 6 of the last 7 games to drop the set 2-6.

seagull · Hall of fame

First set for Laura 6-2

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

Main draw is out. Wild cards confirmed as Alice, Victoria, Sasha and Ella.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Just noticed that and there does look to be plenty of opportunities, although Maia has a toughie.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

That's got to be one of the best opening round draws I've seen to be honest.

Naomi, Emma, Ella vs Qs - now the strength of these will vary and may well feature GB players, but you're normally happy with a Q

Victoria against the the lowest ranked IR and one without a WTA ranking, 25 as well, so not an up and comer, so that's a very fair draw.

Sasha against Stojanovic who has hardly played for about 6 months, so an opportunity there.

Alice vs Marcinkevica who lost to Eden last week and has not started the year well at all. Also lost 3 and 1 to Jodie in India a few weeks ago. Now, she'll be obviously be a strong favourite and will be very pleased that she has drawn Alice, but she is 3-6 this year, so who knows.

Maia against the 4th seed Kerkhove, so that will be tough, but with her indoor GB form, assuming she is reasonably fit, if you wanted a result, you'd probably choose Maia out of anyone in the draw.

To draw only 1 seed and avoid the likes of Diatchenko, Minnen, recent GB 25k winner Ponchet etc. is very fortunate and hopefully the girls can take advantage of this break.

Edit - strong favourite indeed. Marcinkevica is 1/14 to beat Alice. I guess in reality, Alice would probably be a pretty big underdog against most in the draw but is being rewarded for a promising showing last week. In hindsight, it probably would have been better for her to play a fellow Brit and sacrifice one, but guarantee someone in the 2nd round. I might have underestimated Stojanovic as well (or overestimated Sasha) as the Serb is a huge 1/16 fave, even though she hasn't played since the start of November. Maia 11/8.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 1st of April 2019 03:04:27 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Malmqvist serving for the match against Freya. 3-5*

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

2nd seed Bektas has started like a train vs Kimberly M, 5-0 up already, so may have had too much for Freya in the potential final anyway, but that's a bad defeat for Freya and just when you think she might be showing signs of light, she loses early in the British Tour and then here. A step forward, 2 or 3 back.

Malmqvist has been losing early rounds in Egypt 15k's for most of this year and lost 3 and 0 to Eden the last time she was in the UK (late Oct 2018), so that's shockingly bad for Freya to lose 2-6 3-6.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 1st of April 2019 02:17:03 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Paar/Andrei beat the French youngster CD was keeping an eye on, 10-8 in the match tie break and 6-7 6-4 before that, so a long match. She'll probably be favourite to beat Sam in the FQR, but in terms of energy used, it couldn't have gone much better for Sam who only dropped 2 games and was off the court in no time.

Just want Laura to come through so that we are guaranteed at least 1 qualifier. She is *3-4 2nd set.