

At W60 Berkeley, California, USA (Hard)
[R1] Sahaja Yamlapalli (IND,408) 0-6 2-6 (1) Madison Brengle (USA,99)
Moderator: Moderators
I watched for some stretches, and Sahaja was actually playing quite well. Her main problem was that she made a lot of mistakes in shot selection at the BPs. Four against her (all 4 were converted) and 6 she had (she converted only the first one). Basically she went 1 in 10 at those key points. One time at 3-4 in the first set, down a break, she pummeled Kessler into submission with forehands and had a 15-40 (those were some of the hardest forehands I have ever seen; boy, she is hitting the ball even harder than she was hitting before! That is scary). Kessler was yelling to herself, "I can't hit a shot to save my life" - all upset at herself. But Sahaja hit a return too hard and too long, and then made a shot location mistake at the next point, and lost the chance to get back in it. She had similar chances to go ahead in the second set too, but again missed a BP. The pattern continued. One of those days...