Nantes 25K

johnnylad · Tennis legend

RE: Nantes 25K

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Excerpt from LTA.org.uk article

Smith beat world No.382 Violet Huck of France 6-3, 6-2 before fighting her way past Italian Adriana Serra Zanetti 0-6, 7-6(8), 6-1.

On Monday she beat fellow Briton O’Donoghue in a tight three-setter 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to take her place in the second round.

“My first match in qualifying was hard as my opponent was trying to hit winners off every shot but I played a solid match, didn't give her any free points and served well too,” said Smith, who is the new British No.15.

“In my second round match I was totally blown away in the first set but managed to get a foothold in the second and started to play better. It all clicked in the third set and I played really well.

“Against Jane today I played some really aggressive tennis in the first set but then I started sitting back and allowed her to dominate.

“The third was very edgy but I managed to take it after a few match points.”

There was more good news for British fans when Mel South and Rebecca Llewellyn teamed up to win their first round doubles match 6-2, 7-6 against French duo Celine Cattaneo and Claire de Gubernatis.

Third seed South begins her singles campaign on Tuesday against Belgian Caroline Maes.

Wednesday sees Amanda Keen take on unseeded French girl Julie Herve and Llewellyn go up against second seeded Czech Petra Cetkovska

johnnylad · Tennis legend

South vs Maes has appeared on the scoreboard recomended in the Mons Challenger link as its a Belgian scoreboard and maes is Belgian.

Not started yet but I'll keep an eye out...

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Unfortuantely Mel's poor form continues as she goes down to Belgian qualifier Caroline Maes, 61 75.

Sheddie · administrator

Superb win for Anna Smith, that's really great news, shame it had to be at Jane's expense though

I'd say that she has a really great chance of making the top 500 by the end of the year, hopefully she gets wildcards into Jersey and Edinburgh.

The stats from the match against O'Donoghue:

Jane 1st serve 54% - 66% Anna
Aces/double faults 8/12 - 2/9
Points won on 1st 42/63 - 38/65
Points won on 2nd 17/53 - 13/33
Break points won 6/10 - 7/20
Total points won 106 - 108
Match points 0 - 6

So, Jane saved 5 mps in game 10 of the 3rd set before Anna finally closed it out.

Really disappointing loss for Mel though, I was hoping that she'd be able to get a really confidence boosting win today as she was playing a much lower ranked player but unfortunately not. Since the US Open qualies her form has really tailed off. She's been doing well in doubles which makes the lapse of form in singles quite strange:

Match stats:

Total points won Caroline 72 - 43 Mel
First serve percentage 79% - 63%
Winning on 1st serve 32/48 - 17/34
Winning on 2nd serve 8/13 - 5/20
Break points won 5/9 - 2/4

It looks like Maes just returned really well today, Mel's first serve is one of her big weapons, yet she was only winning 50% of the points on it.

Sheddie · administrator

Rebecca and Amanda play on Wednesday

Sheddie · administrator

Some more info on Mel South's match:

South fought hard in the second set and held a set point but couldn’t avoid a 6-1, 7-5 defeat.

“Mel didn’t play a good first set but managed to get herself back in the match,” said her coach Lucie Ahl.

“But she didn't take her chance and then let it slip from there.”

Sheddie · administrator

A good win for Amanda and Rebecca played a great first set but wasn't able to maintain that level against the 2nd seed

Rd1 results:

A Keen [GB] bt J Herve [Fr][WC] 6-1, 6-3

P Cetkovska [Cze][2] bt R Llewellyn [GB] 2-6, 6-2, 6-2

Amanda hit 10 aces, served at 68%, won 25/27 pts on 1st serve and 7/13 on 2nd serve, she won 19/28 pts on her opponent's 1st serve and 14/20 pts on her opponent's 2nd serve. She took 4 out of 9 bps and wrapped up victory on her first match pt in just 50 min.

Unfortunately Anna's great win ended with a loss to the Italian 7th seed and world no 249 Giulia Gabba [former no 15 in juniors]. Gabba reached 25K final just a couple of weeks ago.

Rd2: G Gabba [It][7] bt A Smith [GB] 6-3, 6-2

-- Edited by UltimateBoggoFan at 17:09, 2006-10-04

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Amanda's R2 match is against Ekaterina Makarova who beat 4th seed Viginie Pichet of FRA in R1 62 16 61. From the look of that score shes probably capable of being very good but flashy.

Hopefully Amanda can remain consostent and beat her!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Llewelyn/South through to doubles semi finals!

Beat 3rd seeds Feys and Maes 62 46 61!

Up against Pichet and Brunel in semis. They're unseeded as well!

Sheddie · administrator

johnnylad wrote:

Amanda's R2 match is against Ekaterina Makarova who beat 4th seed Viginie Pichet of FRA in R1 62 16 61. From the look of that score shes probably capable of being very good but flashy.

Hopefully Amanda can remain consostent and beat her!

Makarova is 18, she reached a high of no 20 in the juniors in 2005 , doing very well in top level tournaments. She's ranked 268 in seniors, she's also a leftie. Her best results this year have been making the finals of two 25Ks, both on clay. She also whitewashed Britain's Kirsty Woolley. If Amanda can serve well I think she'll win as from her record, Makarova tends to play her best tennis on slow surfaces so she might struggle against Amanda's aggressive net-rushing game which is perfectly suited to indoor courts.

Sheddie · administrator

johnnylad wrote:

Llewelyn/South through to doubles semi finals!

Beat 3rd seeds Feys and Maes 62 46 61!

Up against Pichet and Brunel in semis. They're unseeded as well!

That's a great result. Mel's done really well in doubles over the last few weeks, just hasn't been able to bring that form onto the singles court.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

UltimateBoggoFan wrote:

johnnylad wrote:

Amanda's R2 match is against Ekaterina Makarova who beat 4th seed Viginie Pichet of FRA in R1 62 16 61. From the look of that score shes probably capable of being very good but flashy.

Hopefully Amanda can remain consostent and beat her!

Makarova is 18, she reached a high of no 20 in the juniors in 2005 , doing very well in top level tournaments. She's ranked 268 in seniors, she's also a leftie. Her best results this year have been making the finals of two 25Ks, both on clay. She also whitewashed Britain's Kirsty Woolley. If Amanda can serve well I think she'll win as from her record, Makarova tends to play her best tennis on slow surfaces so she might struggle against Amanda's aggressive net-rushing game which is perfectly suited to indoor courts.

Surprisingly Makarova won 62 61

Sheddie · administrator

From the stats, Amanda's serve was really misfiring yesterday. She hit 8 aces and 7 double faults. Her first serve % was 53 and she won just 51% of her 1st serve pts and about 40% of her 2nd serve pts.

Makarova served at 71%, losing just 5 pts on her 1st serve in the entire match. Amanda had 2 bps, missed both. Makarova had 16 bps !!!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

The doubles semi in this tournament, Boggo and the boys over in Tokyo are the only British interest left this week which isn't a dreadful showing. We've had weeks where everyones out by the monday!

But I'd like to see more Brits succeeding deeper into futures and challengers tournaments other wise there will always be this gap between Tim and Andy on one hand and the rest on the other