Doubles draw still to show, but imagine Emily with Sofia Shapatava, as she has also travelled here from Obidos after their 2 victories there, and possible Jodie with Sam.
Such a pity that the draw has come out like that. Emily and Sofia were stuck at the airport for 6 hours, so arrived in the small hours.
If Lopatetska doesn't play, that could help Sam if she gets through her first round match. The draw is generally very weak and there are points to be had.
Yeah shame that they have drawn each other in a weak draw as there were opportunities, but I'll be hoping Jodie can see off EWS and get another run going to boost her ranking for the grass season and maybe jump the queue a bit in the general WC pecking order.
Could be a bit foolish to look too far ahead as EWS has beaten some good players recently and Jodie lost to the lowly ranked Papamichail (who is in the other half) the other week, but from Jodie's POV, it's a pretty kind draw. The 5th seed Yashina, who she would be due to meet in the QF if it went with seeding, is in awful form this year and pretty much always seems to lose early despite being a seed - she even lost to Ella in a GB event and has lost her last 4 matches in straight sets, despite being the higher ranked seed in each of those matches. If Lopatestska is replaced by a LL, then it should be a decent opportunity for her to get to the final.
-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 20th of May 2019 12:13:52 PM
Such a pity that the draw has come out like that. Emily and Sofia were stuck at the airport for 6 hours, so arrived in the small hours.
If Lopatetska doesn't play, that could help Sam if she gets through her first round match. The draw is generally very weak and there are points to be had.
Yes, I think anyone from the 5th seed downwards, Emily would probably have been favourite. Scholsen is the 6th seed who Mandy beat easily in the first round at Obidos last week.
The doubles draw is now up, and as expected Emily and Sofia are seeded, and so is Sam, although Jodie is not there. Rankings are current from the ITF site - so not those used for seedings.
L16:- Sofia SHAPATAVA (GEO) / Emily WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) [2] 335 (222+113) v BYE
They are in opposite halves of the draw.
Incidentally, the top seeds have a CR of 548.
Good of you to give Emily a rankings increase to her career high
ITF's current rankings are still last week's rankings, so they are the rankings used for seedings. Emily's ranking last week (current ranking on ITF site) was 327 to give a CR of 549. The top seeds have a CR last week of 528 by my calculations.
Current rankings Sam's team 565 (332 + 233) v opponents 1568 (952 + 616) Emily's team 485 (288 + 197) Top seeds 542 (372 + 170)
Yes, for this week, Emily and Sofia's first Obidos W25 win points are added, so Sofia is now top 200 and Emily top 300. Next week Sofia will be up to approx 180 and Em to 245.
And Lopatetska has now been replaced by a LL. I guess her team didn't communicate with the tournament organisers, or someone certainly didn't, which isn't very good of them, since unless it was going to be wheelchair tennis, there didn't seem much chance of her competing this week....
Sam served it out and has a break in the second, 6-3 *3-2, and yes the aforementioned LL is currently on court now, so while expected Lopatetska wouldn't be playing, a bit of a boost for Sam and Jodie/Emily, because it's basically a LL replacing the top seed, rather than a revised draw and the 2 and 4 seed are in the bottom half and the top half looks a lot weaker as a result - hopefully they can take advantage of it.
Good to see Sam come through after her initial favourable draw. And as noted by Ace, her 2nd round chances will be much enhanced by Lopatetska's withdrawal, though I fail to understand why she was included in the draw in the first place... I think Emily will be a little envious here, as she certainly didn't get any break with the draw...