British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Peter too · Tennis legend

Week 19 – ITF W75 - Kurume, Japan - Carpet

foobarbaz · Club Coach

Katie won the semifinal 6-1 6-1. Her opponent Yamaguchi, a busy player who likes to get on the front foot and play attacking tennis, just wasn't able to do enough of that against Swan who seems to be playing better with every match. Making very few errors, and defending resolutely whilst surprising Yamaguchi time and again with the depth and weight of her ground strokes, Katie put the squeeze on the Yamaguchi serve. Then Swan's serve was functioning well and picking up plenty of cheap points, and whilst her opponent did hit a fair few winners, Katie was just too strong in that department. Yamaguchi understandably became a little frustrated as the 2nd set began to go the same way as the 1st. The match was won without too much ado, and Swan looks to be in fine fettle ahead of the final.

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks again for the reporting. Certainly looks impressive stuff there from Katie.

Go win the final !

Live ranked 212 with a chance to get even closer to the top 200 with another title, which would be her first at W75 level.
.

RJH1962 · Strong Club Player

Its great to see Katie in this form.

the addict · Tennis legend

For the record

SF:- Katie Swan (GBR) WR269 [1] def Mei Yamaguchi (JPN) WR 293 [4] 6-1 6-1

*****

F:- Katie Swan (GBR) WR269 [1] v Kyoka Okamura (JPN) WR 285 [3]

B00thy · County player

More great news to wake up to. It seems like now that Katie is able to string a number of matches together, she is finally getting match practice, so it naturally follows her tennis would get stronger and stronger. I'll watch the re-run later today for any signs (although for the first time I'm not actually expecting to see much) biggrin

B00thy · County player

Watched the re-run and apart from a gentle stretch of the hams and a loosening stretch of the neck, i.e. routine stuff, nothing physical-wise to speak of. Ditto to foobarbaz report but I'd add one thing and that is in the 2nd set she started to hit stronger serves. With mixed results, but really encouraging to see her serving with a little more power. Both from the point of view of demonstrating how she's feeling about her fitness, and because she'll need a stronger service game against better players.

Keep this run going Katie! smile

Peter too · Tennis legend

Katie

foobarbaz · Club Coach

Katie won the final 7-5 6-1. A topsy-turvy 1st set, started with four games won against serve. Swan then won three games fairly easily to go 5-2. At that point something seemed to be awry, and the zip disappeared from Katie's play, Back to 5-5, and Swan crucially held serve, then Okamura didn't. At the break, Swan called for the physio, and a leg was being moved around to all points of the compass. The 2nd set began, and to me it seemed Swan was playing very conservatively. Katie nevertheless accumulated points and then games, though truth be told Okamura's level had also dropped considerably and she made a string of errors. At 5-0 up I was thinking how on earth did Katie manage to be winning the set so comfortably on the scoreboard. A hold for Okamura, and then Swan served it out for the title. Well deserved tournament victory, for some sparkling and assured play to battle to a 2nd final in a fortnight. We'll have to see whether Swan will play next week now.

JonH · Tennis legend

Katies biggest title of her career? Well done Katie, back to back titles to boot!

Whether she plays next week or not, keen to see if she can take this run of form into the British grass courts. Would enjoy seeing her at Ilkley if she gets a wildcard for it.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yippety-skippety ! Well done, Katie

Now live ranked at about WR 203

A very good argument, I feel, for skipping next week

emmsie69 · Masters Series Champion

Still under 8 hrs total match time. It's a W100 next week so I think she should play if she feels good. With most of the top 200 otherwise engaged, it's an opportunity to move further up the rankings.

Jan · Hall of fame

Brilliant!!
What a great couple of weeks for Katie! Thank you for brightening up our mornings!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
Still under 8 hrs total match time. It's a W100 next week so I think she should play if she feels good. With most of the top 200 otherwise engaged, it's an opportunity to move further up the rankings.

Yes, that's important

And she'll be 4th seed, I think, so should get easier matches at the start

BUT, from what I understand, she's been having physio and MTOs during the last few matches so obviously is putting her body under strain

And she doesn't really need to go up the rankings now, as in, the grass season - for her (and other brits) - isn't really based off rankings

I guess we'll find out soon

DF · Tennis legend

Congratulations to Katie and her team. I agree with CD and emmsie, We shall see soon whether sh will be in

next week's tournament. However there will be a lot of tennis to be played on the grass if all goes well. smile