Astra was a set and 4-1 *30-0 love up in her singles at about 11.20pm UK time and looked to be cruising - I was hoping she would have wrapped it up quickly to watch the 15 year olds match which followed, but she then lost 9 of the next 10 games out of nowhere, before eventually wrapping it up at around 12.45, so an extra 75 mins on court than what it was initially looking.

I watched the Linda match until 2ish (9pm local) where she was a set and 2-1* up, and the doubles was due to start just after that (Linda's match went about another 30 mins, caught up in the morning). So Astra would probably have had around 2 hours between her matches.

The singles field wasn't amazing, relatively, but the few players that I had an interest in have really stepped up. I've more interest in the QF line up than at the W500 event at the same venue last week.

Very promising CD. I'd only watched a couple of her matches before this tournament, both very recent, but there is a lot to like there. Really good groundstrokes, nice backhand, very quick around the court, composed and mature beyond her years, and she does seem to have a bit of an aura about her (despite her age and not used to being on that sort of stage), kind of like a Kenin strut between points. The serve, particularly the second, does need work though.

Her path hasn't been the toughest thus far. Cornet was visibly hampered in R1 for large parts of the match, and she did retire deep into the third set, still on serve, so it wasn't really a 'save face' type situation, and Navarro isn't a bad R2 match, but both were navigated well. Tonight's QF with Sharma should be a good test.

Ace Ventura wrote:

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Very promising CD. I'd only watched a couple of her matches before this tournament, both very recent, but there is a lot to like there. Really good groundstrokes, nice backhand, very quick around the court, composed and mature beyond her years, and she does seem to have a bit of an aura about her (despite her age and not used to being on that sort of stage), kind of like a Kenin strut between points. The serve, particularly the second, does need work though.

Her path hasn't been the toughest thus far. Cornet was visibly hampered in R1 for large parts of the match, and she did retire deep into the third set, still on serve, so it wasn't really a 'save face' type situation, and Navarro isn't a bad R2 match, but both were navigated well. Tonight's QF with Sharma should be a good test.

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 Thanks for that, Ace.

Interesting....

I've barely seen Linda hit two balls but am looking forward to doing so.