First set to Matilda 6-1

Well done, Matilda (or Mattie, or Tillie, or whatever she might like to go by - which is probably just 'Matilda'! )

Worth just adding that she is born in 2004, so a VERY young junior.

Coup Droit wrote:

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Well done, Matilda (or Mattie, or Tillie, or whatever she might like to go by - which is probably just 'Matilda'! )

Worth just adding that she is born in 2004, so a VERY young junior.

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I don't mean to quote you here CD, but it's still not working for me, so needs must...

 

Much harder for the bookies to gauge at this level, especially when all they really have to go on for Matilda is a few junior results, but they did have her a 2/9 favourite to beat the Austrian in R1. It's pretty much a reversal tomorrow and she is 10/3 to win with the 5th seed 1/5 fave. Having a quick look at recent results and the Russian did lose 0 and 2 last week as the #1 seed to another junior entry (albeit a much older one) in Carole Monnet, plus while Emily App is by no means chopped liver (and obviously much more experienced than Matilda) she did beat Pribylova in straight sets in a French W15 in late September, so despite the odds, it may not be completely beyond MM. It'll be interesting to see how she gets on, but whatever happens, it's quite exciting seeing her try these tournaments at such a young age. 

 

Edit - it's not that relevant, but literally within the 15 mins that I posted the above, the match odds have just changed from 10/3 vs 1/5 to 12/5 vs 3/10 at Bet365. 

 

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Thursday 12th of December 2019 01:57:58 AM

Indeed fantastic from Alice who was *3-4 BP down in the 3rd but somehow came back from there.

R16: GILLAN, Alice (GBR) 764 def Bojana MARINKOVIC (SRB) 732 (CH:509 Oct 17) 7-6(3) 1-6 6-4

Matilda lost 1-6 2-6

Looks a good SF draw for Alice, though Karpovich did put out the 2nd seed today.

SF: GILLAN, Alice (GBR) 764 vs Yana KARPOVICH (RUS) 1095 (CH:970 Dec 12)

Good to see Alice maintain a level. We have very few now in the range where they can win a few rounds reliably at $15K. MOst of our players struggle to qualify at $15K or qualifying in itself is the weekly big achievement.

The system has been tweaked to attempt to eliminate the journey pros that slog around the bottom of the tour for years on end, as the rational goes that they're not going to become top players so why pretend. I do miss not having those players around in numbers on the GB side though. THey stick araound, and those are the ones that you look for each week, who's playing where this week, will this be a QF week, will they make a frst final etc. the ones that through that process you grow ever more irrationally fond of even if they never are going to win much beyond a single $15K, at best. The Dommie Covington's, Mirabelle when she was at her best, Fran Stephenson, Anna Fitzpatrick etc.

Right now we have Alice and Emilie that provide some welcome runs and not much else. Makes the quiet weeks of the schedule so much netter to have one of ours brighten up in some far flung corner and provide interest into the Thursday or later of the week. I miss when we used to have multiple such interest most weeks.