11am Holly Staff vs Lily Miyazaki (1) Emma Wilson vs Grace Piper 2 men's SF matches to follow on, NB 1.30pm
Am I correct in thinking that Emma has been at US uni?
Yep, she was definitely at US uni - I think Tennpar said she has recently graduated on a different thread, but not sure what her upcoming plans are.
She and Grace had a really close match in last weeks final, Grace winning 10-8 in the MTB, and their odds are pretty much 50/50 tomorrow, so it could be another really close match. I'd love to see Holly make the final, but could be a long shot.
Grace vs Lily starts at 9.30am tomorrow on Centre Court. The men's is on Court 1 at the same time, so presumably the women will have the commentators and production value. Lily won 6-3 6-1 when they met in Glasgow earlier in the year, but hopefully Grace can push her a bit closer now that she has 7 succesive wins under her belt.
The Fast 4 doubles competitions start from noon across 4 courts.
Watching the final, errors in commentary and stats getting frustrating....firstly comment that piper probably won't have played players of miyazaki's standard before, yet they have already played each other before, and there are others I think in 25k itfs! Then the stats after set one showed piper 0/0 on break points.....but she had 40-15 and ad in one of her opponents service games. Then there is the umpire correctly pronouncing miyazaki with a first syllable as in me, but commentators persistently getting it wrong. If it wasn't already taken I might be the pedant....but impressed with miyazaki so far.
Lily won 6-0 6-2, tough match for Grace. So Lily just dropped 8 games all week I think.
It just goes to show how well Alicia Dudeney did the other week. Lily obviously has a few more matches under her belt now, but she'd already played 4 matches prior to that Alicia defeat, including a MTB defeat to Jodie, and a hard fought 4-6 7-5 10-8 win over Eliz in the BT week 1, so it wasn't simply a case of a lack of match practice (she also won the round before Alicia 6-0 6-1). A shame Alicia had to withdraw from the last 2 weeks here, it would have been very interesting to see how she'd have backed up that showing, which also included a very narrow loss to Maia in the final.
Emily and Lily have won the doubles event again, beating Spink and Staff 4-1 4-3(5) in the final. Not as strong a field as their first triumph in week 1, but another bit of silverware for them all the same.
I noticed that Lily Miyazaki had a Japanese flag on the score board during the BBC red button coverage so, is she Japanese or did she change her allegiance to GB like Choinski did :O?
I noticed that Lily Miyazaki had a Japanese flag on the score board during the BBC red button coverage so, is she Japanese or did she change her allegiance to GB like Choinski did :O?
Lily is Japanese but has lived in GB for a substantial part of her life. Non-British players are permitted to take part in British Tour events.
British Tour - Return to Elite Competition - August Swing
Just to note that there are three upcoming tournaments at the NTC - starting 21st, 28th August and 4th September. The entry closing date for the first tournament is today 06/08/20, and the list should be published shortly. Enhanced prize-money available again as for the earlier series. They are all Tier 1 events, singles only, with £900 to the winner, and will be played outdoors from Friday to Sunday.
At the moment there are also some Tier 2 tournaments still on the calendar at various venues around the country starting from 31st August, but they may well be cancelled.
Here is the entry list for the Week 5 BT event, w.c. 17th
Looks stronger than the UK Pro events , if all these players stay in the draw!
1 Jones, Francesca DA 322 A
2 Miyazaki, Lily DA 351 A
3 Lumsden, Maia DA 368 A
4 Boulter, Katie DA 374 A
5 Barnett, Alicia DA 569 A
6 Grey, Beth DA 607 A
7 CHRISTIE, FREYA DA 643 A
8 Appleton, Emily DA 675 A
9 Arbuthnott, Emily DA 954 A
10 Dissanayake, Tanysha DA 1065 A
11 Maloney, Eliz DA 1109 A
12 Lukosiute, Andre DA 1292 A
13 Banks, Marni DA 1383 B
14 Piper, Grace DA 1.1 30 C
15 Wild Card WC
16 Wild Card WC
Stronger than you'd expect for a Tier 1 by some way ! But if the higher ranked players can't play elsewhere I don't blame them for entering this three day tournament for match practice, even though the money is not that great - just £150 for a quarter final spot.