Week 41 - ITF 50K - Barnstaple, Great Britain

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

RE: Week 41 - ITF 50K - Barnstaple, Great Britain

RedCabbage · Club Coach

I'm amazed that Anna beat Bally. I've seen both play and Baltacha looked light years ahead of Smith in class.

That result is either bad news for us that Bally is struggling for form or great news that Anna Smith has really picked up her singles game in the last year.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Mervatron wrote:

Great stuff girls, keep it up.

BAlly hasn't really kicked on much since wimbledon except for the US open final round which she should have won.

She didn't do any thing at Wimbledon to suggest she'd kick on.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Lina Stanciute (Ltu) bt Anna Smith (Gbr) 6-2 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-1)

Heartbreaking loss after what seems like a great fightback in the 2nd set.

According to someone on TennisForum who phoned up Anne won in straight sets. Brianti took out Vinci so it's difficult to see Anne losing to remaining players. You never know though.

Anne should have made the Roland Garros main draw this week, and will probably be only about 60 points from making the Wimbledon main draw.

wolf · Tennis legend

Katie won the first set but is 2-0 down in the second. She beat Marosi at Shrewsbury so really should win. Come on, Katie, make it two Brits in the semis.

-- Edited by wolf at 20:41, 2008-10-10

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Keothavong def Larsson 6-3 6-4
O'Brien def Marosi 6-2 6-3

Kerber/Malek def Larsson/Smith 6-3 6-2

wolf · Tennis legend

SF: (1, WC) Anne Keothavong WR 82 v (6) Katie O'Brien WR 138

SF
ANDERSON (RSA) / LAINE (FIN) (3) Vs BORWELL (GBR) / NAGLE (USA) (2)

Anne really should take the title here.

wolf · Tennis legend

Katie's record v Anne.

2001 The Junior Championships, Wimbledon 64 Grass (O) A.KEOTHAVONG 1-6 3-6
2002 $10,000 Sunderland QF Hard (I) A.KEOTHAVONG 0-6 1-6
2005 $25,000 Lagos 1 QF Hard (O) A.KEOTHAVONG 7-5 2-6 2-6
2006 $25,000 Sunderland 1 SF Hard (I) A.KEOTHAVONG 2-6 4-6
2006 $25,000 Jersey 16 Hard (I) A.KEOTHAVONG 2-6 0-6

Ouch.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Well she can't do much worse tomorrow than that one-sided series (acknowledged by Katie below)! Congratulations to Katie on 3 wins in a row for the first time this year - the autumn is usually her best time period outside the grass court season.

Tough loss for Anna, but a great week, where she seems to have stepped up a level, which augurs well.

Extracts from the LTA site:

Keothavong secured her place in the last four of the womens $50k event by producing a flawless display to defeat Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-4. The British No 1 raced through the opening set and after dropping serve at 5-3 in the second she broke the Swede to clinch victory.

OBrien produced a similarly impressive performance in beating Hungarian Katalin Marosi 6-2 6-3. The match was almost perfect the 22 year-old said, I felt in the zone.

OBrien continued Anne and I are good friends and we train together. My track record against her isnt great but I have to change it one day so hopefully it will be tomorrow.

Nigel Sears, LTA Head Coach of Womens Tennis, said Annie played at a top 50 level and thats great to see. Katie produced her best performance since the Fed Cup in January. Its fantastic to see a guaranteed British finalist in Barnstaple.

wolf · Tennis legend

Alberta Brianti (Ita) bt Lina Stanciute (Lit) 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 4-0 rtd

That match started at 11:00 so Katie v Anne should be around an hour in I guess.

DavidC · Tennis legend

From BBC:

Anne Keothavong (Gbr) bt Katie OBrien (Gbr) 6-4 6-4

Marginally closer than previous encounters. Good luck in the final to Anne.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Nice one Anne. Really consolidating her new found top 100 status, and wondeful for Katie to win 3 matches in a week again!

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Well done Anne. Now for the title.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Doubles sf:

Kelly Anderson (Rsa) & Emma Laine (Fin) bt Sarah Borwell (Gbr) & Courtney Nagle (USA) 6-1 1-6 [10-7]

DavidC · Tennis legend

Comment from Nigel Sears on Anne v Katie: Both girls played a high quality match and can take a lot of positives from it. All credit to Anne for coming through a tough battle. I think the spectators really enjoyed an all-British semi-final.