The challenge Alisha has is keeping up the record of the Pole losing to every Brit she has played this year. In Juniors Ruby and Ranah have been victorious against her earlier in the year and Lissey beat her back in August. The Pole got lucky with the qualifying draw. She didn't enter here but 'qualified' with 2 byes, whereas a couple who were on the acceptance list had to qualify by playing the only 2 qualifying matches to be played.
I haven't been following the World Tennis Number (does anyone?) to see if it is the accurate reflection of a players ability relative to their opponent it is meant to be. But, FWIW, it doesn't suggest a massive gulf between the two, with the Pole having a slightly better WTN of 15.6 to Alisha's 16.1. I would expect a better WTN than that for a decent junior, so I don't think Xenia is someone for Alisha to fear.
Alisha and Xenia look pretty evenly matched trading points for large parts of the 1st set, but the Pole takes the 82min marathon on the tie-break. 25 mins into the 2nd and Alisha breaks 6-7(5) *3-1
114 ?
