After her struggles last month on clay (3 tournaments, 0 wins), its great to see Jodie continue to string some wins together now she is on grass (3 tournaments, 6wins and counting)...that makes her an surprise early contender for the winner of JonH's poll.
Maia and Naiktha sneak it 2-6 6-3 11-9 on their 5th match point. Probably just the right result, they were just marginally the better pair overall and wasted a heap of break points in the first set. Although Em and Ingrid should have struck at 3-3 30-0* in the second really to move ahead.
Draw here is quite open, could see an all British final.
-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 16th of June 2022 06:02:41 PM
Read on Twitter Lily didn't try to return the ball in the last game, did anyone see it? If so quite sporting to let Sonay win properly rather than retire.
Read on Twitter Lily didn't try to return the ball in the last game, did anyone see it? If so quite sporting to let Sonay win properly rather than retire.
Yes, it was clear she was unable to move and it looked as though Sonay paused slightly before each serve to see if Lily wanted to retire. I thought it was excellent she allowed Sonay to roll 4 serves in before receiving medical attention.
I was here from the QF stage onwards in 2018 and booked the same in 2020 before Covid put pay to that. I was debating coming again this year, but then completely forgot about it in the lead up. I wasn't too impressed with the line up initially - it's harder now with Birmingham being a 250 and probably attracting those 70-100 players that Ilkley might have previously got, not to mention that new 125k grass event providing more competition, but I think that QF is fairly decent, certainly relatively, and possibly one of the best it could have been. Mladenovic still there might have been OK for more familiarity since she is former top 10 and has been part of the top 100, or top 50 for years, but then of course, that would have meant no Lily vs Sonay in R2, so I'm pleased she's not there.
British interest in Jodie and Sonay, a few top seeds left, and some young players who might go on to have decent careers. I don't think there's a massive (teenage) prospect there who you think will be more likely than not to be in the top 20 in the coming years, like say Sabalenka and Yastresmka from 17 and 18 respectively, but 5 of the 8 are either 20 or 21, so could easily be solid top 30/40 players in the years to come, and it's nice to say you saw them when they were around 150 and not as known.
Jodie really has had a good grass season thus far. A little bit of fortune in Surbiton, but she's had some fab wins, and it would be great to see her break the top 200 for the first time this week, and of course, pretty much every grass win she has will be net gain with the period not going as well last year. Hopefully this swing can finally be a launchpad to kick on, and have the career many were hoping for pre Surbiton 2019.
Sonay and Jodie back to back on Centre Court will be nice for the crowd today.
And leads 4-1 in the second. Really good crowd there. Not a bad order of play for the centre court crowd - Jodie to follow on, and despite the lack of males in the singles, Sock vs Vesely later on looks quite interesting given the formers career high, and the latter's decent runs at Wimbledon.