Its the first time in a long while since Ive seen Eden play singles. Enjoying dipping in and out of the match.

Great to see a decent number of line officials and ball kids too... if not too many spectators (from what can be seen).

I just watched the final stages as I'll be watching plenty of tennis from 4pm, but it's good the likes of Sam and Eden are going to China because there is a good opportunity - this Sun made the SF of the W25 last week (so whether that was a factor in this match, I'm not sure), but there's a great chance to pick up big points, and while it (may or) may not be too relevant to these two, China is becoming the dominant force in the WTA, so if you are going to get near the top 100 then the chances are you'll be playing in China a lot towards the back end of the year. Plus there's a number of W100, 125K events throughout the year, so it would be good to get used to the culture, conditions etc.

There's a 27 year old Bulgarian called Naydenova who came to China at the end of May and has pretty much played exclusively there until now (and is playing this W60 this week) - she may be based in China as far as I know, but she came ranked mid 450's - I guess like Eden, and now she is 264 in the live rankings following her W25 title last week (her second of her trip).

www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/wplayer.cgi

Tennis Abstract hasn't updated her most recent title which is a shame because it would have provided a clearer snaphot, but if we look at who Naydenova beat last week to win her title:

R1 WC Sheng, 23, ranked outside top 1000, won 6-4 6-3
R2 WC Tang, 19, ranked 855 (in the 200s in dubs), won 6-1 6-1
QF WC Jiang, 20, ranked 997 (163 in dubs), won 6-0 6-0
SF This Sun (who Eden has just beaten), who was a Q, ranked in the 500s, won 6-0 6-2
Then she beat Jang in the final, who beat Sam

Have you ever seen a weaker run to a final than that to guarantee yourself 30 points - imagine if that was a Chiswick, Glasgow - it just wouldn't happen - they'd be playing the likes of Smitkova, Ozgen, Kerkove and various other top 200 players who always come here.

It would help if you were seeded, which Sam just missed out on, so you would avoid some of the few decent players here until the QF, and a lot of it this has fallen during the British grass season which obviously doesn't help, but the likes of Fran rarely plays on grass, so some others could do a one off sacrifice, and I was thinking someone like Emma (who has family in China, and is actually there now, although not playing) could look to target this swing next year and hopefully build a solid foundation, a bit like Gabi did in Australia at the start of last year.

Well done Eden - hopefully she can qualify and then get a nice initial draw.

Peter too wrote:

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Q1: SILVA, Eden (GBR) 454 def SUN, Xu Liu (CHN) 549 6-3 6-2

Q2: SILVA, Eden (GBR) 454 v LIU, Chang (CHN) 550 CH=171 2016

R1: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) 304 v JAKSIC, Jovana (SRB) 4 263 CH=102 2014

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 Eden through in final tie break 10-7

Revised first round draw. A good one for Eden, a real chance for further points. Sam's is much tougher.

FQR: SILVA, Eden (GBR) 454 def LIU, Chang (CHN) 550 CH=171 2016 7-6(2) 1-6 10-7

R32: MURRAY, Samantha (GBR) 304 v JAKSIC, Jovana (SRB) [4] 263 (CH=102 2014)
R32: SILVA, Eden (GBR) 454 vs Wushuang ZHENG (CHN) [WC] 579 (CH:453)

Sam and Eden are playing together in the doubles too - are 4th seeds.

the addict wrote:

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L16: Samantha MURRAY (GBR) / Eden SILVA (GBR) CR451 (297+154) [4] v Su Jeong JANG (KOR) / Yuxuan ZHANG (CHI) UNR (556+UNR/CH299)

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 Sam lost in straight sets 6-2 7-6

1st serve percentage doesn't look too good at 46% in.

Eden currently 4-1 down in 1st set.

paulisi wrote:

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Eden gets it back to 5-5

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 5-6 now.

Watching the live stream there doesn't appear to be a single person watching. Must be strange to play in such a big stadium with noone/virtually noone watching.