A long medical time out. Emma battling away but Wang staying strong. One match point saved. And a second. Here's a break point.
*5-5
There's a lot of wincing between points but she's moving ok during them. It's really impacting her serve though. She saves break point, can't take the game point, and broken again.
I didn't see what happened because I lost my connection but Emma seems to be playing her way through the strain to some extent. Emma now needs to break serve to take it to a final tie break.
Maybe if she'd snuck that 11th game she could have pulled it off. But Emma can't find the necessary magic a second time round, and Wang wins 7-5 in the third to go through on her third match point. A lot of wincing. If she had won I doubt she'd have played the quarter final.
I really thought Wang might fall away after Emma held to love in the opening game of the decider, but she absolutely stayed strong. Huge credit to her.
Shame how it ended, hopefully it's nothing serious. Should take heart from the way she stuck in and took that second set. She was really fighting hard. Nothing in that decider and it was high quality until Emma tweaked something at the start of the 9th game.
Hopefully she can have a break, heal up, and then have a great pre-season. What a year.
The most important thing is for Emma to be fit and well going into the close season and working with her new coach. I trust that she was getting good advice that she wasn't in danger of having a significant injury by carrying on to the end here. No need for that in a not too significant last tournament of the year.
It's so much more about 2022 and beyond rather than the backend of 2021.
And all in all 2021 turned out not bad !
-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 9th of November 2021 07:54:55 PM