But the thought of two not very well known Israeli girls, one only born in 2002, playing at home, saving three MPs against the top seeds, and sneaking the win - a little bit of me says, you've got to smile......
This win slould take Maia to GB #6 above Katie Swan.
Yes and that will already be a possible further CH on Monday week. She will at least be very close to her CH 263.
Maia may not always fully convince but overall she has certainly progressed this year.
While others have fallen back for now, who'd have thought that she and Jodie ( even having been out ) would so far into the year be GB race #4 and #5 respectively, although clearly still far behind Jo, Heather and Harriet.
She couldn't hold her serve in the second set, but kept breaking back until she was at 3-4 40-0, and I thought, good, she's finally got the set back to parity... Then when I next looked the score was 3-5, and she'd lost that service game losing 5 pts in a row from the time I saw the score.
Maia will need to serve much better 3rd set to reach the final... and she has at least started with a hold, so 1-0*
Whew, stepped on it finally at the end. From 4-4, Maia won the last 8 points straight to reach the final. Another 12 pts today moves Maia within 1 pt of Naiktha and near the 250 ranking mark.
Maia plays Snigur, the talented Ukranian junior in the final. Although she's higher ranked I suspect Maia will not start the favourite in this match.