LINDA: STILL SO THREATENING…

Rachael Grinham and Linda Elriani offered the spectators a good show today. Long rallies, lots of lobs and volley drops, a rather controlled and slow pace, and very few decisions (I counted 11 for the whole match…).

The two ladies moved very well, and the outcome was always uncertain. Rachael was not about to underestimate her opponent, especially on a cold glass court, where the English seems to flourish, and it gave the match a good suspenseful atmosphere…

Linda started well in the first, 3/0. Rachael corrected the scoreline 3/3. Great drives glued to the wall, a few good lobs from both players... We stuck for a good while at 4/4, but several wrong footing shots and mistakes from English National Champion allowed the Mini-Champion to seize the game 9/4 in 13 minutes.

The next game was sooo close, 3/3, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7. This time, it was Rachael that find the tin instead of the backhand low drive, then who got wrong footed, to finally return serve into the tin… In 14 minutes, Linda had equalised 9/7.

The third started pretty well for Linda, 3/1. Rachael came back, 4/4. The two girls were both making mistakes, but overall, the Australian was slightly more in control of the rallies, stepping in front of the English quite a lot, forcing her to cover a lot of ground, allowing her to get to 7/4. Linda came back 7/7, but Rachael suddenly quickened the pace to take the game in the same score, 9/7 in 13 minutes.

Linda will think about the fourth in the weeks to come I’m sure, to try and avoid reproducing it… She was so in control, dominating the T so well that she quickly got herself to 5/0, then 6/1…. But a few mistakes crept in, Rachael cutting off the ball so superbly once again, reading and anticipating Linda’s attacks very well, putting so much pressure on her that the Australian clawed back to 6/6, and never looked back. Although she saved a match ball, Linda had lost the momentum, and Rachael won 9/6 in the longest game of the match, 18 minutes…

"I made a few errors, partly because I went too short too soon. But I went short because Linda was volleying a lot, and she scored several points with her backhand volley kills. "In the TOC, she won because she did everything right, all her shots were perfect. "Today, I think we were scoring more on each other’s errors than on our own winners. "I was very wary of her, especially on that glass court. In Kuwait I was lucky, because it was very hot, and it didn’t suit her at all. Today, on that court, I knew that she was going to be comfortable. So I tried to keep the ball on her backhand, to prevent her from lobbing on her forehand, and I tried to be as confident as I could with my shots…" Rachael Grinham

INJURED MADELINE…

It’s never fun to watch when a player cannot defend her true chances, and that’s what happened today to Irish Madeline Perry in her match against Malaysian Nicol David. A sore knee prevented Madeline from moving freely.

It resulted in a pleasant but short game, in the two senses of the word: short as in time, only 24 minutes, and short as in style of play, Madeline firing all her winners and kills to try and win the rallies quickly. But Nicol was able to pick up the lightning speed shots, and placed a few of her own.

The third was the most contested, Madeline trying very hard to stay in the match, but there was nothing she could do, impaired by her injury.

And I feel it’s a shame, as she’s played so well this week, she deserved to play at her best…

THE NATALIES: TENSE…

A very VERY close match, played at an astonishing pace, Natalie Grainger firing from all stations, and Natalie Grinham defending superbly, using her cross court lob in a superb fashion to get herself out of trouble time and time again.

Just going to give you an idea of the scoring in PAR.

The official score was 10/8, 7/9, 10/9, 9/2.

In PAR, it was 15/12, 17/19, 24/23, 12/3.

That shows you how close those two were during the whole match…

In the third, Grinham got what she considered a bad call, and it seemed to affect her a lot, making the rest of the match very tense, both girls refusing to give away any point..

Suspense, drama, we had it all, and today it was seed number 6 that walked away with the match…

MARATHON LADIES…

76 minutes for only four games, the last one being 9/0… surprising isn’t it???

It was a completely different match from the previous one between the Natalies. Whereas that one was tense, extremely high paced, with adrenalin running high, the Tania Bailey / Vicky Botwright encounter was intense but “relaxed”, with a lot of service changes, a lot of lets, the two girls appearing to get in the way of each other a lot, especially in the front left corner…

But still a lot of running, especially for Super Fit Vicky, and so many great attacks from Comeback Tania, in particular during the first two games.

The first game was all Tania’s, who led 5/0 then 8/3. She needed five game balls to overcome fighting Vicky.

The second was much more balanced, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4. Tania once again took a comfortable lead, 7/4. And again, Vicky wouldn’t let go, stepped up a gear, equalised at 8/8, and attacked her way to 10/8 in 19 minutes, the exact same length as the first game…

The third was going to be the longest, 21 minutes, where Tania was more or less controlling the rallies, firmly planted on the T, distributing length and short at will, keeping Vicky under pressure. Still Tania will need three game points to close the game 9/5.

In the fourth, yes 9/0 but still 14 minutes, Vicky had a few discussions with the referee, and lost her concentration. Shame, as the match was so balanced, she probably deserve to play a fifth game.

But in all honesty, Tania had that much more thirst for victory today. A bit like Ricketts in the TOC. When you’ve been away from the courts by force, when you have worked very hard to come back into the game, you want it. You want it bad. And Tanya wants it. Calmly. But Firmly.
 

"We train together day in day out when we are on a tournament. So, maybe we in each other's way a lot, because we were both trying to get to the ball early, and that we know each other’s game rather well. "I felt good, I was really moving well, and I was also volleying ok. "I wanted to try to get in front of her, and because she is so quick to move forward, you really have to push her so far back in the court … I also knew that I had to be patient, because she is so fit, and she runs forever, and gets everything back. "I’m really glad with my fitness, I’ve put a lot of work into it, but it’s been a long time since I played three games in a row and really felt fine. That’s a great feeling." Tania Bailey