I know there are some Sophie B fans on this board but I've never seen her play. And I'm quite a fan of Leticia, would like to know where she's at now
Also, would be curious to hear your opinion of Alisha Ndukwu
She's born 2009 and, on ranking, our third best 2009-born player.
But she's got nearly all her points from events in Africa with lower level entry lists (like Grace, our second-best 2009-er). Her dad is Nigerian and her mother Polish, I believe. Would be interesting to see what you thought
Isabelle Britton v Rosie Cho would be another match I'd go to - again, I like Britton but she's been absent for a while and would be curious to know how she's doing at the moment.
The boys did an absolutely excellent job in seeing off the peskies today
There were 16 GB v pesky matches
And we won 13 of them
Including, Seb Harrison who beat the second seed, (q) Harry Lumb who beat the 4th seed, (q) Louis Hull who beat the 8th seed, wins for (q) Martino and (wc) Lawlor, as well as wins for Alfie King, Sai Gandepalli, Luke Hooper, Sam Chadwick, Conor Brady, Jay Johnson-Hauldren, Max Carrier and Ilias Worthington
First match I watched was Edie Griffiths v Sirena Waas. Edie has a nice back of the court game and moved her opponent round well. Sirena has improved since I last saw her and outhit Evie and was the better player for most of the first set, but got punished when her levels dropped off. It was a tight match, but Evie was just a bit more consistent.
Elizabeth Evans was too good defensively for last week's winner. She got so many balls back in court that she frustrated her opponent. She faded a bit in the second set as she was out injured for most of the summer and she needs matches to get fully match fit.
Alisha Ndukwu was a bit disappointing. A tall girl who didn't really use her size and mainly pushed the ball back in court. She looked over ranked as her opponent was disappointing last week.
Of the othe girls, Lara was outclassed like last week. Aimee Knowles won comfortably. Mia Wainwright, who whenever I have seen her has struggled in the past, looks to have stepped up a bit. Still still lacks power, butpushes the ball round well and has cut out the errors.
No idea how Emila Julin is ranked so high, she was nowhere near good enough this week or last.
Sophia C is a big powerful girl with a huge serve and powerful game. She won through even though her serve wasn't firing. Serena Manca has lost in the first round twice in two weeks.
Tia was very disappointing. Didn't see too much of Tegan. Alice Haddad is continuing to improve and beat a bit tall Norwegian, who was quite decent.
Erin Pearce was involved in a weird game, where it looked like she tanked the second set.
Didn't see too much of Isabelle Walker, but she was too solid and powerful for Celine.
Allegra continued her fine form against the Turkish girl, who is definitely based at Bath.
Isabelle Britton had a real battle with Rodsie Cho, but just had a bit more knowhow than the youngster.
Didn't see too much of Sophie Becker's match, but she is tall and powerful and won comfortably.
I though the standard on the boys side was very high.
The stand out player was Max Carrier, who looks a real talent
Conor Brady was a set and 5-0 up and managed to lose the second set against a big lad with a huge serve and forehand when it went in - it was very inconsistent. Conor is tiny and lack power and used court craft when he could.
Rhys Lawlor came through in three sets. I think he is carrying a bit of an injury.
Harry Lumb is in great form and looks talented.
Another player that really impressed was Louis Hall, who won easily against a very good opponent.
Seb Harrison came from a set down against the second seed, who was a decent player, but Seb improved through the match and his opponents levels dropped.
Alfie King was another who went down an early break and then moved through the gears and hardly made a mistake for the rest of the first set and cruised through the second.
Luke Hoyland played a very long match and was unlucky to lose out in a real tight match.
Martino Colabella keeps impressing me everything I see him, his opponent was disappointing, but had a lot of variety in his game.
Interesting (and a little disappointing) that you mention several girls who just 'push' the ball
It's a common issue with our players, I feel - I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago about Tegan Bush - and I wonder if there is problem with coaches. Pushing the ball isn't really about playing defensively i.e. trying not to lose. It's a real technical problem that is difficult to correct later. Either you learn to cover the ball properly or you don't. And it basically comes from the coach.
(You confirmed what I feared about Alisha, although - unlike the boys - she, like a lot of the girls here, is a fair bit younger than the boys and there is more room for improvement, which at least is encouraging, I guess)
To be fair to Mia Wainwright, that may be a confidence thing, as today, she played at the same levels and hit through the ball andcwon comfortably against Alice Haddad.
Sophie Bekker is very aggressive on return of serve and was involved in two really tight sets against Teagan Bush, who ran away with the third.
Allegra Hodson (who apparently is half Brazilian) played lights out tennis to beat Elizabeth Evans. She hit some huge serves, her ground shots were solid and she came to the net regularly.
Sophia C had an easy win over the Irish girl.
Edie out her her opponent after a tight first set
Erin Pearce had a comfortable win over Aimee Knowles.
Isabelle Britton had a straight forward win against the other Irish girl
The top seed however looks the player to beat with a big serve and accurate deep groundshots.