British Ladies Watch - 13th-18th June

12 - 18 JUNE 2011 TOURNAMENTS
WTA AEGON International Qualifiers Eastbourne
British interest includes Anne Keothavong and four others.
Apart from Anne the other British ladies get knocked out in the first round. Anne progresses to the third and final qualifying round where she loses. Considering her ranking she progressed further than expected beating higher ranked players Alize CORNET(66) and Sorana Cirstea (81) in the first two rounds (12pts). http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2011/710/QS.pdf

$618k WTA Premier: AEGON International Eastbourne (Grass)
Elena Baltacha and Heather Watson received wildcards directly into the main draw:
Heather WATSON loses in 1st Rnd(1pt):
R32 Heather WATSON loses to Vera Zvonereva(3) 3-6 3-6

Elena BALTACHA loses in 2nd Rnd(60pts):
R32 Elena BALTACHA beats Aravane Rezai(52) 6-2 6-1
R16 Elena BALTACHA loses to Victoria Azarenka(5) 1-6 6(0)-7
http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2011/710/MDS.pdf


$220k WTA Int: Unicef Open s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (GRASS)
Laura Robson loses in 1st Rnd (1pt):
WC Laura Robson loses to Arantxa PARRA SANTONJA(106) 5-7 3-6
http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2011/822/MDS.pdf
BBC Report


WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON WIMBLEDON
LTA PLAYOFF TOURNAMENT FOR WILDCARD INTO THE WIMBLEDON QUALIFIERS
Sixteen British Girls in knockout tournament for two wildcards: Samantha Murray and Francesca Stephenson win through.
http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/Wimbledon/News/2011/Ward-Smethurst-Murray--Stephenson-win-wild-cards/

WIMBLEDON LADIES QUALIFIERS
British Ladies in First Round (2pts)
WC Samantha Murray loses 1-6 3-6
WC Francesca Stephenson loses 0-6 1-6
WC Tara Moore loses 2-6 2-6
WC Anna Fitzpatrick loses 1-6 1-6
WC Melanie South beats Liana Ungur(186) 6-4 6-4
WC Jade Windley loses 1-6 4-6
Since all GB players needed a wildcard to get into the qualifier draw, the expectation is that they would all go out in the first round

British Ladies in Second Round (40pts)
WC Melanie South loses to Misaki Doi(133) 5-7 3-6
http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/draws/us/r2s2.html


Britons in top 300 (13th June)
Rank..... Players Name (age)
61 (up13).... Elena Baltacha (27)
93 (unc).... Heather Watson (19)
104: ============Direct Entry to Slams
113 (dn3)... Anne Keothavong (27)
216 (up15).. Naomi Broady (21)
218 (dn2)... Katie O'Brien (25)
247 (unc)... Emily Webley-Smith (26)
250: ============WildCard Slams eligibility
257 (dn23).. Laura Robson (17)
294 (dn1).... Melanie South (25)[i]

Been a good week for Ladies tennis too Nore Stat.

Baltacha and Watson certainly on good form of late.

What do you think of Laura Robson, wonder if she'll use her SW19 wildcard well - 2011 has been blighted by injury for her so far...

Think Robson is unlucky with the injuries. She has a new coach too, which people think will bring her game on even more. She just needs some matches under her belt, not sure if SW19 will provide that.

legendkillar wrote:Been a good week for Ladies tennis too Nore Stat.

Baltacha and Watson certainly on good form of late.

Naomi Broady has been doing very well too - next week she will overtake Katie O'Brien in the rankings - becoming Britains fourth ranked player.

According to Laura's new coach she will need another two years to build up her physical strength to cope with the women's game. He mentioned that her previous coaching regime might have wasted two years of her development by not working adequately on her physical strength/conditioning and blames this for her injuries. Considering that we might expect Laura to have a professional career lasting into her thirties I'm sure we won't get impatient if it takes a few more years for her to make an impression at the highest level.

Anne had quite a poor Clay season (she lost all her matches) and she might have hoped to have done better at Nottingham. In her interviews she seems unsure how long she will stay in the game - I hope someone can get her motivated and re-energised as I fear she is considering retirement. We have already "lost" Naomi Cavaday to retirement aged only 22.

Elena has made it through to the final of the $100k ITF Aegon Challenge at Nottingham.

Really? What a week for British tennis. Good girl

She is actually the higher ranked player in the final (Bally is the fifth seed while Petra is the sixth seed) - so fingers crossed. Bally beat the 2nd seed in the quarters while Petra beat the no 1 seed at the same stage. Both players have been playing well so it might be a tight match.

Certainly sounds like it will be a tight match. Any idea what the H2H record is?

This will be the first time they have met at senior level:

http://www.wtatennis.com/headtohead/petra-cetkovska_2255881_1687/0,,12781~1687~932,00.html

Congratulations to Elena Baltacha for winning the highest ranked tournament of her career - a $100k+H ITF tournament event

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wtatour/8571188/British-No-1-Elena-Baltacha-wins-biggest-title-on-home-soil-in-Nottingham.html

Great win for Baltacha Nore. 7-5 6-3. What a way to prepare for a slam

Elena and Heather have wildcards for next weeks grass tournament at Eastbourne:
http://www.lta.org.uk/3G/Tournaments/AEGONInternational/Draws/womenssinglesdraw.pdf

However that is a WTA Premier tournament ($618k) and they won't be expected to get through to the second round:
First Round:
Heather WATSON vs Vera Zvonereva (World No 3)
Elena BALTACHA vs Aravane Rezai (World No 52 but was world No 15 in Oct 2010).

It's rotten luck for Heather to draw Zvonareva - she'll lose quite a few points if Zvonareva beats her becasue she reached the 2nd round as a qualifier last year.
I hope Keothavong continues - she's only 27 and to me if she could get some confidence and some wins together she could enjoy another few years. Robson has had fairly rotten draws at Wimbledon in the last 2 years, hopefully she'll have better luck this time.
I watched Naomi Broady at Edgbaston on Tuesday, when she beat Garcia. Her serve certainly impressed but I'm not sure her forehand is a potent enough weapon to take her beyond the Challenger circuit. However, should certainly be interesting to see how they all fare at SW19.

I'll be rolling material off the main article onto comments rather than starting new articles.

Britons in top 300 (6th June):
Rank..... Players Name (age)
74 (up9).... Elena Baltacha (27)
93 (up24)... Heather Watson (19)
104: ============Direct Entry to Slams
110 (dn2)... Anne Keothavong (27)
216 (up5)... Katie O'Brien (25)
231 (up22).. Naomi Broady (21)
234 (up3)... Laura Robson (17)
247 (dn6)... Emily Webley-Smith (26)
250: ============WildCard Slams eligibility
293 (up3)... Melanie South (25)
294 (dn4)... Naomi Cavaday (22) [retired from sport]

Previous Ladies Watch (23-28 May)

i like watching british women

pauline1981 wrote:i like watching british women

There's more of them in the top 300 than in the men's game and there is a good balance of young players coming through as well as juniors in the wings. However there is no equivalent to Murray although Laura seems to be a potential top 20 given time (maybe four years), whilst Heather seems to be a potential top 50/40 player. Time will tell.

Rolled off from main article

6 - 11 JUNE 2011 TOURNAMENTS
Nottingham GBR 100Kh ITF (Grass)
Ranking Pts W:150 F:110 SF:80 QF:40 R16:20 R32:1
Elena Baltacha(GBR) WINS TOURNAMENT (150pts):
R32 Elena Baltacha beats Tetiana LUZHANSKA 6-3 6-4
R16 Elena Baltacha beats Anne KREMER 6-3 6-1
QF Elena Baltacha beats Lucie Hradecka(41) 6-1 6-3
SF Elena Baltacha beats Stephanie Dubois 6-2 6-2
Final: Elena Baltacha beats Petra CETKOVSKA 7-5 6-3
Bally should move up to about 61 in the WTA world rankings next week: BBC Report

Anne Keothavong(GBR) loses in 2nd Rnd (20pts):
R32 Anne Keothavong beats Regina KULIKOVA 6-0 7-6(2)
R16 Anne Keothavong loses to Stephanie DUBOIS 3-6 4-6

WC Katie O'Brien(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd
WC Anna Fitzpatrick(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd
WC Jade Windley(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd
WC Lucy BROWN(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd
Laura Robson(GBR) fails to qualify(Q3) (4pts)



Birmingham GBR Intl 220K WTA (Grass)
Ranking Pts W:280 F:200 SF:130 QF:70 R16:30 R32:15 R64:1
Heather Watson(GBR) loses in 3rd Rnd (30pts):
R64 H Watson beats Chanelle SCHEEPERS (seed-15) 6-3 7-5
R32 H Watson beats Misaki DOI 6-2 6-4
R16 H Watson loses to Shuai PENG(20) 6(1)-7 1-6

Q Naomi Broady(GBR) loses in 2nd Rnd(15+10pts):
R64 Naomi Broady beats Caroline GARCIA 6-2 6-7(5) 6-4
R32 Broady(231) loses to Shuai PENG(20) 2-6 7-6 6-7
Excellent performance from Naomi narrowly losing to world No 20 Peng. Naomi also came through two qualifying rounds picking up an extra ten points.

WC Emily Webley-Smith(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd (1pt)
WC Melanie Smith(GBR) loses in 1st Rnd (1pt)

As expected the British Ladies were rather "massacred" in the first round of the Wimbledon qualifiers ...

... but Melanie South got through to the second round

Melanie South got through????

Indeed!!

Bally beat Rezai 6-2 6-1 and is through to second round at Eastbourne and picks up 60 ranking points
.... she will meet Victoria Azarenka in the second round (world no 5)


Heather lost 3-6 3-6 to Zvonareva.

Still I think Heather can take a lot from that.

Bally is certainly peaking with her form

I agree with regard to Heather - that's a very credible scoreline against last years Wimbledon finalist.

Azarenka should be too much for Bally - but hopefully Bally can have "fun" and give Azarenka a competitive match.

I think Bally can. I think if she can hold her concentration levels up, she could run her for 3 sets for sure.

Heather is predicted to drop out of the top 100 next week (to about 105) with this loss ... however her overall trajectory is upwards

Indeed. I think it's the only way up for Heather. I am hoping Keothavong can regain some form soon too.

British Ladies interest is over for this week with Bally losing to Azarenka after a strong performance in the second set and Melanie South goes out in the second round of the Wimbledon qualifiers. Melanie South picks up 40 ranking points for her first round win which will be added after Wimbledon. Next week Melanie is expected to drop out of the top 300 but should move back in after Wimbledon.