Michael D wrote:

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Sorry, I'm not so interested in your £18 Ace, but I would like to know more about the match please! 

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Ha, I would have liked to have watched it, but no streams unfortunately. Maybe someone on here will be there now and report back at the end of the day.

The worst part is, I was checking the ITF Woking page pretty much every day for about 2 weeks and was pleased when the likes of Smitkova and Grammatikapolou withdrew to push the likes of Alicia and SBG in directly to save MDWCs, so that more could play, and simultaneously the likes of Sam and Gabi would be seeds to supposedly give them an easier route. 13 players involved, 5 vs qualifiers, and a couple of all GB matches (which look a god send now) - at the moment it pretty much couldn't have gone much worse. Obviously tough draws for Holly and Ali (although I did expect Holly to push Ozgen a bit closer, but there's clearly levels involved). Emily App pretty much can't win at W25 level. I guess in hindsight a couple more GB vs GB would have helped, like Emily App vs Alice or something, but this was generally the weakest GB W25 field that I can remember for some time - how often is the 15th direct entrant (before we even consider the IRs and Qs) outside the top 500, like Lily was?

Gabi's opponent was 469 on the entry list, not 'sub 500' as I mentioned earlier.

Gabi lost 3-6 4-6, grim.

Do you know much about Cascino CD, with her being French?

Just looking at her recent results against players I am aware of, she lost 4-6 0-6 to Georges last week (6th seed here - who Gabi beat twice in straight sets in her Aussie runs in early 2018). Also lost to 0-6 6-7 to Gervais (who is well known on here) in R1 the week before that, and lost 2 and 4 to Fourlis a couple of weeks ago, who CD likes and is coming on a bit more recently. So doesn't really appear to be that spectacular, but I guess it's just a sign of where Gabi is at the moment. It's a pity :(

Coup Droit wrote:

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You're not wrong. It's a pretty weak field. And yet there's not been a single result, or even score, to get upbeat about yet.

(Angelica beating Mandy is interesting but hardly exciting in and of itself, considering that the hard court - in my view - is Mandy's worst surface - she's better on grass than hard)

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I know what you mean about Mandy, but I personally am taking it as a(n exciting) positive as I'm going to try and combine it with her demolition of Alice, then beating Freya in the final - so it's like a nice little portfolio of hard court wins she is building and adds to her reputation a bit, and to give us something, anything, to cling on to. 

What I will say is, her going off to Stanford in September (not that you can blame her), does kind of take the gloss off a bit as after next week, we'll probably not hear from her until next Summer where any points she has won will sharp fall off - unless she can get out a bit on the low ITF scene in the US or maybe come back for a couple of the W25s that we do put on here, but basically, I remember being quite encouraged when Eden Richardson beat Sophie Chang (ranked in the 200s) in Manchester W100 (albeit on grass) last year to qualify, but as far as I can tell, she's literally not played one pro match since, could be wrong there, but if not, then those points gained have been pretty pointless, at least in the short term - may help indirectly with confidence / ambition in the longer term.

 

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Wednesday 31st of July 2019 02:29:25 PM

A glimmer of light - Beth takes the second set 7-1 in the tie-break to level the match.

Beth is down an early break in the decider 0-2*. It would be good if she could win as the winner of that plays Freya/Naiktha, so would at least guarantee a QF and keep interest going until at least Friday.

Ace Ventura wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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You're not wrong. It's a pretty weak field. And yet there's not been a single result, or even score, to get upbeat about yet.

(Angelica beating Mandy is interesting but hardly exciting in and of itself, considering that the hard court - in my view - is Mandy's worst surface - she's better on grass than hard)

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I know what you mean about Mandy, but I personally am taking it as a(n exciting) positive as I'm going to try and combine it with her demolition of Alice, then beating Freya in the final - so it's like a nice little portfolio of hard court wins she is building and adds to her reputation a bit, and to give us something, anything, to cling on to. 

What I will say is, her going off to Stanford in September (not that you can blame her), does kind of take the gloss off a bit as after next week, we'll probably not hear from her until next Summer where any points she has won will sharp fall off - unless she can get out a bit on the low ITF scene in the US or maybe come back for a couple of the W25s that we do put on here, but basically, I remember being quite encouraged when Eden Richardson beat Sophie Chang (ranked in the 200s) in Manchester W100 (albeit on grass) last year to qualify, but as far as I can tell, she's literally not played one pro match since, could be wrong there, but if not, then those points gained have been pretty pointless, at least in the short term - may help indirectly with confidence / ambition in the longer term.

 

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 Yes, you're right Ace, the Manchester 100k last June is the last time Eden has played in a pro tournament. Interesting there she beat Sophie Chang in QR2, then in the FQR her win was over Vic Allen in two easy sets. Then in the first round she lost to Beth Grey in two tighter sets.

I also wonder how much more we will hear of Angelica Blake in the near term once she's off to Stanford. Emily Arb our current Stanford rep has just lost her WTA ranking...