$10K UK Womens ITF events - August 05

[Florian Buechting]

Hi my dear friends,

as Samarth alread posted in the forum, I had a short day reporting from the London tourney today. I will need some time to do some other things I wanted to do in London, so I will do them today.

Surprisingly, just one match today, as they posponed the ladies main draw to tomorrow.

(SQ2) Radhika Tulpule lost to (1) Julie Coin (FRA, 455) 16 16

It was the first match on court 3 today, and - just let me tell this in advance - it was a very fast one: Radhika could just stay in the match for 50 minutes against WTA#455 from France (very bad luck for her - for example second qualy seeded Lucy Fletcher(GBR) is some 400 ranks behind Coin!).

The match started quite unlucky for our girl with two double faults forcing her to loose her first serving game. Nevertheless, the French girl was too strong anyway. For example, Radhika did not have a single break point int he whole match. In a tight third game, Radhika held her serve, but lost all other games. Nothing really more to report about, as Radhika did not manage to win more than one point at own serve. The French girl just did what she needed to do to give Radhika no chance.

The beginning of second set started more hopeful for our girl. She was 0-30 in front in the first game when JC served (but to be honest, she did not have a chance to take advantage of that...) and had no problems to win her own serve afterwards. At least, Radhika got broken in the fourth game when JC hit a net chord to give her double break point and converted the first one. Until the end of the match, Radhika just scored three more points, one of those by a JC's double fault.

Nothing really to worry about, this French girl was just very, very strong. Unfortunately, I did not find a chance to talk to the girls as they sat and talked together all the time after the match and I did not want to disturb their in their "privacy". Will do it tomorrow or so.

When I post the pictures on my website, there will be a detailed statistic of the game containg dfs, bps, first and second serve conversion. I tried to do this for the first time now. Of course, as taking pictures, writing notes and doing the stats parallely might cause some mistakes, but the stats should be quite correct at least...

As they just played the ladies' second round qualies today (8 qualifier spots in this tournament), they will very likely play the first round main draw tomorrow with three more Indian girls to compete. I will take some time and relax today in London doing some off-court things.

Yours,
Florian

[jaydeep]

Thanks for update Florian ... And score wasn't surprising one .. Becoz Radhika was playing against top 500 after a long time .. She must be rusty playing after such long break ... And as Florian mentioned in his report that her own service was troubling her ... Truely speaking Radhika's service was created all problems with her in the past also ... I m really waiting for inside info from Florian regarding Radhika's future plan.

Jaydeep.

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
I just posted today's and yesterdays pictures and today's match stats on my website:

www.sport-live.net or www.tennis-foto.de

My day is over now. Wish you all the best!

[insideout]

Great pictures.....as usual!!!

Thanks Florian

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
the LTA is very fast, they already have published all drawsheets and the order of play for today:

http://www.lta.org.uk/SeeTheAction/Resu ... Womens.htm

Rushmi will start today with the first match on court 6 (which is an all-around-fence one, some sort of "tennis cage", very bad to take pictures...), Sanaa and Ankita might play parallely, as Sanaa is playing the fourth match on court 7 (another cage ), while Ankita is having her match als fourth match on court 6 (at least, they are side-by-side...). After Ankitas match, Radhika will play the doubles, partnering her first round of qualies - "victim" Ritschka from Austria, which seems to be a good choice to me. Oormila is partnering Lena Keothavong from the UK, her doubles court will be announced. The Bhambri sisters and Rushmi (partnering Svenja Weidemann from Germany) are seeded first and second and have first round byes in doubles.

So, these are today's matches:
Rushmi - Katherine Baker (GBR)
Ankita - Irina Pavlovic (FRA)
Sanaa - Melissa Berry (GBR)
Radhika / Ritschka (AUT) - Bone/Stoop (GBR)
Oormila / Keothavong (GBR) - Llewellyn /Smith (GBR)

Looks like much work for me today

Yours,
Florian

[jaydeep]

Good snaps ... So Florian hoping very exciting day for u ...

Jaydeep.

[S_K_S]

Update from Florian - Rushmi just won her 1st round match against Baker - easy job after a bad first set: 26, 62, 60.

Wow, great come back Rushmi.

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
here is the rest of today's results:

Sanaa beats Berry 64 46 61
Ankita beats Pavlovic 62 64
Both Indian/xxx doubles got walkovers due to injuries in the first round, so all Indian girls are in second round doubles without playing a point. I will start now writing the Sanaa match report. There will just be some notes on Ankitas match, as it was at the same time like Sanaa's.

In order to give you something to read, here is the report about Rushmi's match, which I already wrote at the venue:

(R1) Rushmi Chakravathi def. Katharine Baker (GBR) 26 62 60

The match started quite bad for our girl, loosing the second game at own serve without winning a single point - so the score was 0-2. Rushmi was able to recover from that, re-breaking Baker in the next game (again, no point for the server...), but she got broken again after she was 40-15 in front in the next one. Baker tried to avoid Rushmi's great forehand topspins and found a weak spot in Rushmi's double-handed backhand, which could not give any pressure at the beginning of the match. In the fourth game, Baker won by scoring her first ace of the game. Though Rushmi was able to win the sixth game to change the scoreboard to 2-4, she just seemed to have no chance to come back in this one - and lost her serve again (and the set) in the eigth game at 2-5. To be honst,
Baker was not that strong in the first set, but just too strong for a disappointing Rushmi, who looked highly concentrated all over
the match.

Rushmi made a clever decision and took a toilet break that meant eight minutes interruption to the match (as the court is far, far away from the club house...). Baker completely lost her game and started with three double faults in a row in the first game of second set. Rushmi converted the first one, had no serious problems to increase the lead to 2-0 and was able to take profit of three more doubl faults in the next game, which made her take the third break point opportunity in the game. What a bad start by baker: 6 double faults in two games, just 3 of 12 first serves succeeded, one of eight second serve points won - 3:0 for Rushmi. Though Baker seemed to be able to recover slightly, Rushmi played highly concentrated on her own serve, which gave her an incredible
streak of 17 points in a row at own serve - meanwhile, the score was 1-0 for Rushmi at own serve after another break in the first game of third set. I think, that Baker looked a bit better now, but there was no chance for her to come back - Rushmi just made a donut scoreboard out of third set, winning the match with style by an ace at her fourth match point.

After a bad start, Rushmi really did great in that match and advanced to second round. A really pleasing performance by her and a great fight to come back in the match. Baker lost her match because of her own mistakes and as she just was not able to stay in her game just because of a toilet break.

[BSharma]

Thanks Florian for keeping us posted with match reports and results of Indian tennis players.

It is good to see the Indian players moving into the second round.

[Florian Buechting]

Here is my report/my notes on Sanaa's and Ankita's matches:

(7)Sanaa Bhambri def. Melissa Berry (GBR, 645) 64 46 61

I was very happy to see Sanaa again two years after we met in Halle at a ITF Juniors last time. As her match started earlier, I decided to cover her match completely including statistics and so on and just write some notes
about Ankita's match afterwards. Of course, if possible, I will do this vice versa tomorrow.

Nothing really important happened during the first four games of the match. MB served first and had no problems to win her serve games as well as Sanaa did. More surprisingly, MB lost three points in a row after leading 15-0 in the fifth game at own serve. First break point - Sanaa said "thanks" and took it. Again, both servers had no problems with their serves, so Sanaa was 4-3 in front at own serve in the eigth game. MB turned a 15-0 to a 15-40 and Sanaa gifted her the second break point by commiting a double fault - 4:4 now. But the new-earned confidence was not enough for MB against a fantastic-fighting Sanaa. Some MB's first serve problems gave her another break point in the next game - and she took it. So Sanaa was serving for the set and had no problems to win it. Both players played at about the same level, but Sanaa looked mentally stronger and comitted quite few unforced errors in a match with several long rallies - some sort of claycourt tennis on hard courts.

Great start for Sanaa in the second set: after giving away a break point at 30-40, she converted a second one at Ad out in the first game. Both players had no problems at own serve in the following two games, but so did Sanaa in in the fourth game: after loosing the first two points, she just could score one and was 15-40 behind. MB converted the first break point and levelled the score again - 2:2. What's the best answer after you got broken? Exactly, break that opponent again - and that's what Sanaa did in the fifth game. The score was 40-30, but Sanaa took profit of a MB's double fault and two nice points to be back in the lead. Unfortunately, MB knew this kind of answer, too, and broke Sanaa again in the next game, so the score was 3:3. After two easy wins for the server, MB was in serious trouble at 4:4: Sanaa had two break points (one at 30-40, another one at Ad out), before MB was able to tip in the game. Bad luck, Sanaa could have done it here, but to be honest, MB was just too strong in that two bps. It looked like Sanaa was able to recover from that easily leading 40-15 at own serve afterwards. There was no real need to worry after MB deuced Sanaa, especially as out girl was able to score two Ad ins afterwards - but she could not convert any of those four chances to set the scoreboard to 5:5. When you don't take the chance, your opponent might do - and that's what MB did: Ad out, Break and Set Melissa Baker, who had her best game at that time.

To name it in British English, Sanaa was "not amused" about this overtime shift - and she declared it her way. Sanaa played really great now starting with breaking MB twice in the third set and leading 4:0 when she allowed MB to win one game at own serve. Maybe she just needed a small relax to sprint to the finish line: though she got deuced, she did not have serious problems to win her serve in the sixth match - but so did Melissa facing two break and match points at 5:1 for Sanaa, MB to serve. Sanaa converted the second one and reached second round singles.

I was very impressed by Sanaa's powerful fight. You know, I love this Indian-style of playing tennis with heart. Sanaa showed nice strokes, too, but her main advantage was today that she never gave up until she beat her opponent. Though this match was no high-class one throughout all the time, it was very enjoyable. Btw: it was funny to see Sanaa watching her sister playing on the adjacent court. Sometimes MB just needed to wait for some seconds as her opponent thought another match was worth a look at



(8)Ankita Bhambri def. Irina Pavlovic (FRA, 664) 62 64

When I reached Ankita's court after Sanaa's match, our girl already won the first set and the score of the second set was 1:1. I decided not to make statistics of this one and just concentrated on pictures and some impression. Though second set seemed to be quite even-strengthed regarding the score, Ankita controlled it and just committed some too
many errors to win this one with a higher score. So it was perfect timing for a break when IP served in the tenth game when Ankita lead 5-4: 15-40, double break and match point, Ankita converted the second match point to advance to second round.


I was not able to talk to Radhika about her future plan just because I did not meet her today because of her doubles first round walkover. I had a longer chat to Oormila and her father during Rushmi's match - they did not know our fanclub so it was time to introduce them to it Shruti was at the grounds today, too. She said her shoulder is getting better and looked quite confident - but to be honest, though I met her just twice so far, I cannot imagine how she looks like without smiling and without looking confident. Forgot to ask her to take some pictures for you, so that you know how this girl looks like - but Shruti said she will be there tomorrow, hope I won't forget it then.

The order of play for tomorrow is already released - and it looks to some multi-tasking activity for me tomorrow: Rushmi, Ankita and Sanaa will all have first match of the court-matches tomorrow, Rushmi will face Laura Peterzan (GBR, 1046) on court 2, Sanaa faces Biance Acquistapace (AUS, 836) on court 6, Ankita plays against Elizabeth Thomas (GBR, 1056) on court 7. I will concentrate on Ankitas match as I did not cover her match properly today - which means I will hardly see any point of Rushmi's match, as court 2 is some 150 to 200 metres walk away from court 6 and 7. Same problem in doubles: all our players will play at about the same time. At least they have the third match on courts 6 to 8, which are next to each other, so maybe I will skip statistics there and do some support-hopping. Of course, I will mainly report from court 6, where our very own Bhambri-sisters face Radhika and Birgit Ritschka (AUT). Court 7 will host Oormila's match (against Coles/Thomas (GBR)), Rushmi is on court 8 (against de Bruyn(RSA)/Savic(AUS)), which might be quite interesting for me as she is partnering German Svenja Weidemann, so I can do some bilingual support

Will post a reply later when pictures and stats are ready.

All the best to you,
Florian

[amr090]

cant wait for more pics florian!

[Red_Indian]

You're the man Florian! I'm sure you've heard this way too many times, but one more time won't hurt - great work! Good to see everyone win as well.

[nata]

Simply great job Florian!

What a day so far! Let's hope it continues like this to be a perfect day for Indians!

[Florian Buechting]

Pictures and statistics (from Rushmi's and Sanaa's matches) are online on my website now:

www.sport-live.net or www.tennis-foto.de

Bad luck, I still have major technical problems with my camera, so there are some quality problems (hope the pictures serve you fine anyway...)

I won't be able to post tomorrow's pictures and reports before Saturday quite likely, I'm sorry (I have a job interview on Friday...).

Yours,
Florian

[jayakris]

Fabulous work, Florian .. How do you do all of this stuff? - take pictures, note down the details of the match, get the official stats, and then put up a nice website .. I try to do some of these things too, but I can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time, and so I never try to do things like photography work!

Jay