Week 2 - Australian Open - women's qualifying (hard) (in Dubai)

ROSAMUND · Futures level

RE: Week 2 - Australian Open - women's qualifying (hard) (in Dubai)

Jan · Hall of fame

Brilliant! First time I've seen Fran play

ROSAMUND · Futures level

PaulM wrote:
Amazing. A very good final round draw but she did seem to be hobbling a fair bit walking up to the net. Lu is the sort of player I'd be expecting Fran to beat in ITFs as she moves up the rankings, and this is the first time Lu has ever won matches in Slam qualies (with a pretty kind draw herself - Jovic then Shinikova). The final 4 in this section all ranked in the 200s

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 12th of January 2021 12:00:38 PM

Looked up Lu Jiajing on Wikipedia and found she is 31 years old. She seems to have been playing on the ITF circuit since 2008.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
The next opponent for the winner would be Jia-Jing Lu, ranked 200. No idea about her pedigree, on face value not a bad opponent for FQR

I do remember her beating Heather in China a couple of years ago, but she's 31, been on the tour for years and never been top 150, so considering the potential opponents she could have had in the FQR, it's decent enough.

After checking, Heather is actually the only top 100 win she has had in her career, and she only has a handful of top 200 wins as well (she will benefit from the multiple ITF events in China, and she seems to target weaker Indian ITFs at the back end of the year). Fran of course isn't a top 200 player (yet), and Lu could be a late bloomer, but I'd imagine Fran would at least be the betting favourite.

http://www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/wplayer-classic.cgi?p=JiaJingLu&f=ACareerqq

Fairly similar with 19 year old top 150 players Wang Xiyu and Wang Xinyu, she's not to be confused with fellow 31 year old Jing-Jing Lu, who was in and around her in the rankings a couple of years ago.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

PaulM wrote:
Amazing. A very good final round draw but she did seem to be hobbling a fair bit walking up to the net. Lu is the sort of player I'd be expecting Fran to beat in ITFs as she moves up the rankings, and this is the first time Lu has ever won matches in Slam qualies (with a pretty kind draw herself - Jovic then Shinikova). The final 4 in this section all ranked in the 200s

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 12th of January 2021 12:00:38 PM

A noticed that too, but wasn't sure if it was to do with her condition, hopefully she'll fine tomorrow if indeed it was an issue, but great win, and a really good opportunity as you say. Fingers crossed she can make the main draw.

DF · Tennis legend

Glad to see that Fran managed to win. smile

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Yep, I've seen a few 5-1 third set leads disappear in recent years at the Australian Open (main draw at least), Serena-Pliskova, and Fett with probably the most notable of them all against Wozniacki, so wasn't counting my chickens, but great that she saw it out, and fairly comfortably in the end too.

What a great few months she has had, as shown with her successive POTMs, and Cam may now be sweating about his for this month biggrin

P.S. Just hope she's not on first at 6am tomorrow. The men's event is a lot more UK friendly with Doha being an hour closer to us, and play starting at 10.30am local not 10am.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 12th of January 2021 12:34:42 PM

Jaffa · Challenger level

What a fantastic result. I really hope she can do it.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

I notice that Grace Min who beat Harriet lost in the 2nd round to Egypt's Mayar Sherif. She then plays a name familiar to some of us in Aleksandra Krunic.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Q2: JONES, Francesca (GBR) 241 def FETT, Jana (CRO) 209 7-6(9) 2-6 6-1

Q3: JONES, Francesca (GBR) 241 =CH v JIA-JING, Lu (CHN) 200 (CH=162 2019)

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

She's on 2nd tomorrow following Gasparyan vs Pironkova, so should be fine getting up at 7.15/30 to catch it, unless there's a retirement in that opening match.

Not sure if there's a NB time.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Another big name ( but not sure how much of a tennis player these days) to lose in the 2nd round of qualifying was Eugenie Bouchard.

Social player

Very impressed by Ms. Jones; both on and off court.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

If I Could Serve Id Have Been A Contender wrote:
Very impressed by Ms. Jones; both on and off court.

Look North did a section on her today. Yorkshire lass!

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Peter too wrote:
Q1: BAINS, Naiktha (GBR) 242 lost to ANDRIANJAFITRIMO, Tessa (FRA) 254 1-6 2-6
Q1: JONES, Francesca (GBR) 241 def NICULESCU, Monica (ROM) 28 144 6-3 6-2
Q1: DART, Harriet (GBR) 150 lost to MIN, Grace (USA) 247 5-7 2-6

Q2: JONES, Francesca (GBR) 241 =CH v FETT, Jana (CRO) 209 (CH=97 2017)

[Istanbul 2020 Fran v Jana 0-6 7-6(5) 6-1]

Grace Min is another example of those players who won a junior singles slam but wasn't as successful at senior level. Unseeded she won the 2011 US Open Juniors beating top seed Caroline Garcia in the final. However she never reached higher than world 97 as a senior. She also won the junior doubles at Wimbledon in 2011 with Eugenie Bouchard.