$10K UK Womens ITF events - August 05

[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

[jaydeep]

Superb work Florian ... Very nice match reports ... And doesn't have proper words to comment on ur great work of pics and match stats on site ... :noworthy:

If u get chance surely speak with Radhika ... U must be enjoying seeing our gals r winning their respective matches.

Tomorrow Rushmi having very tough match ...

Jaydeep.

[XYZ]

Florian
Good job ! Keep it up !
All the best for your job interview

[insideout]

Great day for Indians,

Great job Florian!!

Thanks!!!

[sameerph]

(1) Rushmi Chakravarthi IND d. Q Laura Peterzan GBR 6-3 , 7-6.

Good win for Rushmi over last week's winner.

[jayakris]

And finally Rushmi picks up two good wins .. Man, it seems like it has been years since she even picked up 2 wins in a row abroad. Great to see that.

To be fair though, she probably got surprised by an unknown Laura last week. Even that was only a 57 57 loss and she was not totally outplayed or anything - better than how others did against her ..

Also, a very large number of losses abroad recently have come with Rushmi being injured with some nagging little things all the time. I hope she is now healthy. Would be good if Florian can have a chat with her about it.

Go Rushmi, Go Rushmi!!!!

Jay

[jayakris]

Sanaa and Ankita withdrew last week from next week's Nottingham $10K. I wonder why??

Rushmi and Shruti are there as the top seed and the 3rd seed at Nottingham.

Jay

[sameerph]

Saana & Ankita are in the list for next week's Helsinki $ 25K.

They are 3rd & 4th out from the main draw.

[jayakris]

No wonder! ... I didn't check Helsinki ..cool .. smart work entering that challenger.

Jay