Danielle Brown is the 2nd seed in qualifying. She double-bagelled American Subbadharmi Sundaram in her opening match.
A report from a poster on Wtaworld:
Danielle looks like Kim Clijsters. Anyway, she didn't have to do much in this match and to be honest, she got down on her self quite a bit. All she really had to do to win this match was hit two balls back and forth against Sundaram and then eventually wait for Sundaram's chip shot in the net, moonball that goes 4 feet out, or a WAY LONG deep groundstroke.
Great couple of wins for Danielle, she's fallen several times at the final hurdle in North American challengers recently, so it's good to see her qualify for one.
She's drawn a tough rd1 opponent though, Gullickson is 20 and ranked 202. She's made a lot of progress in doubles where she's ranked 54. In singles this year, her best results have been making quarters of a 75K and a 50K, reaching a 25K final and semi-final. She's entered lots of qualies for WTAs and big money challengers.
Interesting match report on Danielle's rd2 qualifying match:
"This match was pretty good, it featured many good rallies. Danielle really overpowered Stefi in the first set. So, after carrying on a long conversation with someone else, I was shocked to look up and see Gjine leading in the second set 3-0. I paid more attention and found that Stefi was going for her shots, hitting more winners and moving Brown around the court (forcing her to make errors). Gjine went up 4-1 and then started struggling and making sloppy errors. Brown toughened up a bit and was more consistent and took advantage of some poor play from Gjine (second serves, sitters etc.). So a 6-1 6-4 win for Brown. A good match though."
Pretty much expected unfortunately I think that Danielle's not consistent enough yet with her aggressive play to be able to trouble top 250 players. Hopefully that will start to come in the new few years.
Danielle had a pretty scary experience in this tourney. Apparently everyone has been saying to her "has anyone ever told you, you look like Kim Cljisters ?" She's getting really fed up with it but it is true, the likeness is amazing, Danielle's probably just a bit more good-looking than Kim.
Anyway, she had an actual stalker in Toronto and the tournament referee and director had to get involved and never let her be on her own, walking her to her car etc !! Danielle thinks that the guy was a crazy Cljisters fan who thought she was Kim.
I think that Danielle's not consistent enough yet with her aggressive play to be able to trouble top 250 players. Hopefully that will start to come in the new few years.
