British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

It's really interesting how weak the year-end junior events in the States are these days. The Orange Bowl used to be the unofficial world championship, and now many players don't care about year-end No. 1.

A very good win for Hollie, though her lower seeded third round opponent may well be tougher, based on recent results

R2

Hollie Smart d. (3) Luna Maria Cinalli (ARG) 6-3 7-5

R3

Hollie Smart v (15) Iva Marinkovic (SWE)

Wow , super

And Luna is happy on clay too

Colette Lewis giving a detailed rundown of Hollie's super win over the 3rd seed:

".....the biggest upsets were straight-sets contests, with Hollie Smart of Great Britain defeating No. 3 seed Luna Cinalli of Argentina 6-3, 7-5 ....

Smart got off to a good start against Cinalli and closed out the first set without much resistance, but Cinalli served for the second set at 5-3 and held a set point at 40-30. Smart saved it with her forehand forcing an error from Cinalli and two unforced Cinalli errors later, Smart was back on serve.

Smart held in a tight game to pull even, then took the lead when she converted her second break point by putting away a forehand on a short ball. Serving out the match proved difficult however, with her 30-0 lead disappearing, and a match point at 40-30 lost on a backhand error. She missed a forehand pass wide to give Cinalli a break point, and couldn't land a first serve. But Cinalli netted the second serve return and then netted two more forehands to hand the match to Smart.

Smart hadn't played on green clay before this week, but has reached the semifinals of a J300 on red clay in Europe and advanced to the quarterfinals at last week's J500 in Merida, and thinks the surface suits her game.

"Playing heavy balls and mixing it up with the low slice, it keeps my opponent moving," said the 16-year-old, who trains at the LTA's Academy at Loughborough. "I can get it in tough positions for them, get it out of their striking zone."

Smart used her slice, both forehand and backhand, to coax errors from Cinalli.

"She definitely struggled when it was lower, so I was trying to mix that in," Smart said. "Not too much, so she didn't get into a groove, but going heavy and then keeping it low definitely got me a lot of cheap points, or opportunities to be up in the point."

Cinalli is the rare junior girls with a one-handed backhand, with Smart unable to recall another opponent she has faced with that shot.

"It's definitely different," Smart said. "She's going to feel better on some shots and struggle on others, so just trying to find out what works, the first few games are a bit of problem solving. But as the match progresses, it was better to keep it high, she struggled with that, getting the one-hander up there."

Smart will face No. 15 seed Iva Marinkovic of Sweden, who won one of the three-setters at the Legacy Hotel courts, beating Zhang-Qian Wei of China 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Marinkovic is one of two seeds remaining in the top half, with No. 5 seed Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia beating qualifier Ana Avramovic 6-1, 6-3 in only other girls two-setter at the Legacy Courts.

Shes having a very good week!

Fab from Hollie!