R1: RADUCANU, Emma (GBR) 18 lost to KOVINIC, Danka (MNE) 98 4-6 6-4 3-6

Such a shame for Emma - would have really loved to see her fit playing Halep, esp with how that half is opening up. Cant help thinking that if shed managed to resign herself to the sliced forehands earlier whilst still ahead a break she could have won the first set too and this the match but that would really be asking a lot and from what I heard on the radio without watching Im super impressed that she did as well as she did

Heather our last woman standing then, in womens doubles, no one in singles or mixed.

Agree I would have been worried about her trying to play Halep. Im sure other players would have stopped after set 1, and certainly not tried so hard to work out a way to play differently - I thought it was really mature and clear headed of her. And she was still smiling away. I'm fairly confident she would have won quite easily fully fit, so that for me is another positive. The level is there in a way it wasn't really last Autumn, so hopefully as we come into the spring hard courts she can keep moving on.

I missed the last set as I had to go out but I guess in the end the pain just got too much for her. I was really impressed in the second set how she worked out a way to play by just trying to get the forehands safely in play and wait for a chance to get the winner on the backhand. I thought that showed great maturity. Such a shame that she got the injury but I felt her performance demonstrated great encouragement for her career going forwards.

Jan wrote:

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Just watched Emma's press conference. Very mature, as you would expect. Apparently some of her team didn't want her to play. Said she's not been hitting forehands or serves in practice, to try and save hand for matches.
Said she hit more sliced forehands today than in the past 2 or 3 years and said she learned that it's "not so bad"!!

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 Nicelescu has built a half decent career on it!!