TENNIS: Eastbourne (women’s singles)
Jun. 26th, 2022 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllMonday’s play was up on the iPlayer by Tuesday night, (it hadn’t been up when I checked on Monday evening) so I got to see Heather Watson lose the first set tiebreak and quickly learn thereafter that she’d lost the second set. Claire Balding and Naomi Broady fangirled Serena Williams, and when they were courtside I got to enjoy the height difference between them.
I watched some of Alison Riske against Magda Linette, with both players playing the same style of tennis well, and momentum quickly switching between them. I particularly fast-forwarded through the last set and a half – the match was over three hours! But Linette won it in the third set tiebreaker. Riske had been made a seed because Coco Gauff had pulled out, so has Gauff had any grass-court play?
Day 2, and I learned the top players had had a bye in the first round, as I watched Karolina Pliskova versus Katie Boulter, who I assumed would be a Plucky Brit and no more. But apparently, both were coming back from injuries, so despite her grass-court pedigree and the fact that she’d mostly been uninjured until this point in her career and a reliable top 10 player, Pliskova wasn’t that confident, while it sounded as though all of Boulter’s career had been blighted by illness and injury, meaning that she’d only briefly been in the top 100.
The feature of much of the match was Pliskova’s response every time she faced break point, and she faced a ton of them, even in the first set, which she won 6-1. Boulter only managed to keep her serve toward the end, making Plisokva serve it out. But suddenly Boulter had settled and got the knack of keeping her own serve. Their games were close, although there were intermittent signs of Pliskova’s quality, but Boulter earned the second set!
The third set was more back and forth, with Boulter’s breaks followed by a breakback. But again, the scoreboard and momentum favoured her. Best win of her career.
What a weird asymmetric dress she wore, though.
Day 3, and Boulter was back against another Czech player, Petra Kvitova, in the third round, and at first it was harder to root for the Brit, because Kvitova! But Kvitova was doing fine on her own ad had got up a big lead in the start of the first set, but Boulter dug in, fought back and brought the match to level terms, with her game improving and Kvitova’s dropping slightly. It was engaging tennis, first strike play, and after facing set points to save, Boulter had some of her own and won the first set.
There were some worrying bits in that Kvitova seemed to be worrying about her left hand (which had infamously got damaged in a home invasion) and Boulter seemed to be worrying about her right arm and how it pertained to her serve.
However, Kvitova regrouped and started the second set by adding some serve and volley to her play and finding her first serve. It worked to the extent that she bagelled Boulter in the second. It was a match of massive momentum shifts.
Boulter battled and kept her serve in her first game of the third set, and it was a closer run thing (er, I napped in the middle of it) but Kvitova serving first became a real advantage at the end of the set. Although Boulter fought her off at 5-4, she then failed to break Kvitova in the next game and this time couldn’t halt Kvitova at two points away from the match.
After all that, despite the build-up, and because of how it went, the second match aired couldn’t live up to the first. We heard how Jodie Burridge had lost in the final at Ilkley, driven down to play here because she’d been awarded a wildcard (the LTA does seem to be issuing more to Brits this season, though, granted, three women made it through to this round) and had just beaten the no. 1 seed and world no. 4. (My response to that was ‘Badosa is the world no. 4?’) So, she was now facing Beatriz Haddad Maia, and the Brazilian soon showed that she was THE in-form grass-court player this month. She’s improved since Nottingham. Well, winning that and Edgbaston will do that for you.
She was on it in nearly all points, and only in a very few was Burridge able to produce good tennis. Oh well, she’s young, she must take this as a learning experience, and she must be tired. Although isn’t Haddad Maia? But she’s now inside the top 30 and nobody will want to face her at Wimbledon.
Naomi Broady joined Sam Smith in the commentary box for that match and made Sam feel old.
The result of Harriet Dart’s second match of the day hadn’t come through by the time the coverage ended, but I was able to start watching Thursday’s coverage on the day itself, and learn that yes, she’d come through that in three sets too and would be facing Kvitova. The beginning of the match was promising, last Brit standing Dart was playing better than I’ve ever seen from her, and she did seem to be using her keenest weapon, namely her intelligence, to hold her first service game.
But soon enough, the fact that Kvitova’s tennis weapons were so much stronger told. She was winning her serves easily, and soon broke Dart. There were interesting rallies, but without so much to trouble her on the other side (as had happened against Boulter), Kvitova was getting through smoothly, proving that she’s a different player on the grass. More was made in the commentary of this match of her being 32 years old and that this would be the first semi-final she’d been in in 2022 and so her ranking hadn’t been that high, by her standards, at the start of this week. Dart did manage to make the final game competitive, but ultimately Kvitova won.
They had a pregnant Jo Konta as a talking head and commentator for the second quarter final match they showed, which was defending champion Ostapenko vs. Kalinina, a Ukrainian who’d had a good tennis year and was now in the top 40. (I’d never heard of her.) She started better, but Ostapenko was soon turning into a juggernaut. It was fairly evident that she and Konta had been total opposites when they played, but Konta was able to be philosophical about it. Ostapenko bulldozed her way through, and I learned that Haddad Maia would be the fourth semi-finalist, having had a walkover because her opponent was injured – that must be a nice day off! Georgi had been the first to win her quarter finals.
As for outfits, Kvitova had changed from the perfectly sane outfit she’d worn against Boulter to that weird Frankenstein’s asymmetric dress Boulter had worn, while Ostapenko’s top was just too much. If it had been just the vertical frills or the frills around the sleeves, that would have been fine, but both together?
Eek!
Semis - I learned that Ostapenko designed that herself and the busy top she was wearing for the semis. We were informed that Giorgi had had to retire from the semis last year, and so had unfinished business here, and despite being shorter, was just as big a hitter as Ostapenko. But Ostapenko bulldozed her. (But the Italian’s clothes line, which is a collaboration between her and her mother, seems much more sophisticated.)
They then showed the other semi, which had started much earlier – the reason for this must be that it is also a men’s event, but the BBC haven’t got the rights to that, so apart from mentioning British men’s progress – Jack Draper did well - they’ve played that bit down.
I wasn’t sure who I wanted to win, despite rooting for Kvitova in general for all these years. It was an intriguing prospect, the in-form grass court player against a Grand Slam champion on grass returning to her best form; both tall lefties who hit the ball big and clean. And the twist was that the only time they’d played was the previous week when Haddad Maia had had the better of it, but Kvitova was a different player at the end of this tournament than at the start of Edgbaston.
And it lived up to the build-up. The first five or six games were well contested, with both players playing at a high level, holding their serves despite being pushed. Those service holds became easier as the set went on, and it felt right that it went to a tiebreak. The only possible hint as to who was the better player was the stat that Kvitova was doing better on her second serve. That edge translated into a win of the tie break and first set.
She built well on that, breaking her opponent immediately, and though Haddad Maia regrouped, she never quite looked like she could threaten Kvitova’s dominance. She made her serve it out, but by then Kvitova had played so well that she took her second match point easily.
The shine had slightly come off Haddad Maia when I learned during the match that she’d been banned for testing positive for a banned substance – the official record was a contaminated vitamin pill. That plus lockdown after injuries in her youth may help explain why it’s all coming together for her now in her mid 20s in 2022 rather than earlier in her career.
Anyway, tantalising final, which I’d have to watch on catch up on iPlayer (in the middle of several thunderclaps.)
Kvitova had come to play and broke early, leading 3-0. Anne Keothavong pointed out that Ostapenko was then furious and possibly not helping herself, but she seemed to recognise – how could she not? – that Kvitova was playing somewhere near her best and there wasn’t much Ostapenko could do about it. The first set felt like a foregone conclusion.
But Ostapenko had mastered herself enough to be playing better in the second set, until Kvitova broke her. The pivotal game was the next one, where Kvitova came under pressure on her serve for the first time all match, facing about five break points, when she’d previously been earning them. The longer the game went on, the more important it became and, thanks to her serving game, the Czech player finally won it – her rare roar again showing how important she knew it was. The door had been shut. Ostapenko had good points, but from Kvitova’s racquet came serve after serve, winner after winner, especially the returns. She had to serve it out, but did so with aplomb.
It wasn’t clear to me when she’d last won a tournament, but eleven years after losing the final at Eastbourne, Kvitova had won it. In the last two matches, she outplayed two women who were playing excellent grass-court tennis, Ostapenko hadn’t lost a set all week, but had been pushed back from ‘her’ baseline. If Kvitova recreates that from again, I can think of only a few players who’d have to play at their best to withstand it.
It looks like the winner’s second interview on the court is now a thing the LTA is promoting. But perhaps not at Wimbledon.
[Edited for typos 26/2/25.]
I watched some of Alison Riske against Magda Linette, with both players playing the same style of tennis well, and momentum quickly switching between them. I particularly fast-forwarded through the last set and a half – the match was over three hours! But Linette won it in the third set tiebreaker. Riske had been made a seed because Coco Gauff had pulled out, so has Gauff had any grass-court play?
Day 2, and I learned the top players had had a bye in the first round, as I watched Karolina Pliskova versus Katie Boulter, who I assumed would be a Plucky Brit and no more. But apparently, both were coming back from injuries, so despite her grass-court pedigree and the fact that she’d mostly been uninjured until this point in her career and a reliable top 10 player, Pliskova wasn’t that confident, while it sounded as though all of Boulter’s career had been blighted by illness and injury, meaning that she’d only briefly been in the top 100.
The feature of much of the match was Pliskova’s response every time she faced break point, and she faced a ton of them, even in the first set, which she won 6-1. Boulter only managed to keep her serve toward the end, making Plisokva serve it out. But suddenly Boulter had settled and got the knack of keeping her own serve. Their games were close, although there were intermittent signs of Pliskova’s quality, but Boulter earned the second set!
The third set was more back and forth, with Boulter’s breaks followed by a breakback. But again, the scoreboard and momentum favoured her. Best win of her career.
What a weird asymmetric dress she wore, though.
Day 3, and Boulter was back against another Czech player, Petra Kvitova, in the third round, and at first it was harder to root for the Brit, because Kvitova! But Kvitova was doing fine on her own ad had got up a big lead in the start of the first set, but Boulter dug in, fought back and brought the match to level terms, with her game improving and Kvitova’s dropping slightly. It was engaging tennis, first strike play, and after facing set points to save, Boulter had some of her own and won the first set.
There were some worrying bits in that Kvitova seemed to be worrying about her left hand (which had infamously got damaged in a home invasion) and Boulter seemed to be worrying about her right arm and how it pertained to her serve.
However, Kvitova regrouped and started the second set by adding some serve and volley to her play and finding her first serve. It worked to the extent that she bagelled Boulter in the second. It was a match of massive momentum shifts.
Boulter battled and kept her serve in her first game of the third set, and it was a closer run thing (er, I napped in the middle of it) but Kvitova serving first became a real advantage at the end of the set. Although Boulter fought her off at 5-4, she then failed to break Kvitova in the next game and this time couldn’t halt Kvitova at two points away from the match.
After all that, despite the build-up, and because of how it went, the second match aired couldn’t live up to the first. We heard how Jodie Burridge had lost in the final at Ilkley, driven down to play here because she’d been awarded a wildcard (the LTA does seem to be issuing more to Brits this season, though, granted, three women made it through to this round) and had just beaten the no. 1 seed and world no. 4. (My response to that was ‘Badosa is the world no. 4?’) So, she was now facing Beatriz Haddad Maia, and the Brazilian soon showed that she was THE in-form grass-court player this month. She’s improved since Nottingham. Well, winning that and Edgbaston will do that for you.
She was on it in nearly all points, and only in a very few was Burridge able to produce good tennis. Oh well, she’s young, she must take this as a learning experience, and she must be tired. Although isn’t Haddad Maia? But she’s now inside the top 30 and nobody will want to face her at Wimbledon.
Naomi Broady joined Sam Smith in the commentary box for that match and made Sam feel old.
The result of Harriet Dart’s second match of the day hadn’t come through by the time the coverage ended, but I was able to start watching Thursday’s coverage on the day itself, and learn that yes, she’d come through that in three sets too and would be facing Kvitova. The beginning of the match was promising, last Brit standing Dart was playing better than I’ve ever seen from her, and she did seem to be using her keenest weapon, namely her intelligence, to hold her first service game.
But soon enough, the fact that Kvitova’s tennis weapons were so much stronger told. She was winning her serves easily, and soon broke Dart. There were interesting rallies, but without so much to trouble her on the other side (as had happened against Boulter), Kvitova was getting through smoothly, proving that she’s a different player on the grass. More was made in the commentary of this match of her being 32 years old and that this would be the first semi-final she’d been in in 2022 and so her ranking hadn’t been that high, by her standards, at the start of this week. Dart did manage to make the final game competitive, but ultimately Kvitova won.
They had a pregnant Jo Konta as a talking head and commentator for the second quarter final match they showed, which was defending champion Ostapenko vs. Kalinina, a Ukrainian who’d had a good tennis year and was now in the top 40. (I’d never heard of her.) She started better, but Ostapenko was soon turning into a juggernaut. It was fairly evident that she and Konta had been total opposites when they played, but Konta was able to be philosophical about it. Ostapenko bulldozed her way through, and I learned that Haddad Maia would be the fourth semi-finalist, having had a walkover because her opponent was injured – that must be a nice day off! Georgi had been the first to win her quarter finals.
As for outfits, Kvitova had changed from the perfectly sane outfit she’d worn against Boulter to that weird Frankenstein’s asymmetric dress Boulter had worn, while Ostapenko’s top was just too much. If it had been just the vertical frills or the frills around the sleeves, that would have been fine, but both together?
Eek!
Semis - I learned that Ostapenko designed that herself and the busy top she was wearing for the semis. We were informed that Giorgi had had to retire from the semis last year, and so had unfinished business here, and despite being shorter, was just as big a hitter as Ostapenko. But Ostapenko bulldozed her. (But the Italian’s clothes line, which is a collaboration between her and her mother, seems much more sophisticated.)
They then showed the other semi, which had started much earlier – the reason for this must be that it is also a men’s event, but the BBC haven’t got the rights to that, so apart from mentioning British men’s progress – Jack Draper did well - they’ve played that bit down.
I wasn’t sure who I wanted to win, despite rooting for Kvitova in general for all these years. It was an intriguing prospect, the in-form grass court player against a Grand Slam champion on grass returning to her best form; both tall lefties who hit the ball big and clean. And the twist was that the only time they’d played was the previous week when Haddad Maia had had the better of it, but Kvitova was a different player at the end of this tournament than at the start of Edgbaston.
And it lived up to the build-up. The first five or six games were well contested, with both players playing at a high level, holding their serves despite being pushed. Those service holds became easier as the set went on, and it felt right that it went to a tiebreak. The only possible hint as to who was the better player was the stat that Kvitova was doing better on her second serve. That edge translated into a win of the tie break and first set.
She built well on that, breaking her opponent immediately, and though Haddad Maia regrouped, she never quite looked like she could threaten Kvitova’s dominance. She made her serve it out, but by then Kvitova had played so well that she took her second match point easily.
The shine had slightly come off Haddad Maia when I learned during the match that she’d been banned for testing positive for a banned substance – the official record was a contaminated vitamin pill. That plus lockdown after injuries in her youth may help explain why it’s all coming together for her now in her mid 20s in 2022 rather than earlier in her career.
Anyway, tantalising final, which I’d have to watch on catch up on iPlayer (in the middle of several thunderclaps.)
Kvitova had come to play and broke early, leading 3-0. Anne Keothavong pointed out that Ostapenko was then furious and possibly not helping herself, but she seemed to recognise – how could she not? – that Kvitova was playing somewhere near her best and there wasn’t much Ostapenko could do about it. The first set felt like a foregone conclusion.
But Ostapenko had mastered herself enough to be playing better in the second set, until Kvitova broke her. The pivotal game was the next one, where Kvitova came under pressure on her serve for the first time all match, facing about five break points, when she’d previously been earning them. The longer the game went on, the more important it became and, thanks to her serving game, the Czech player finally won it – her rare roar again showing how important she knew it was. The door had been shut. Ostapenko had good points, but from Kvitova’s racquet came serve after serve, winner after winner, especially the returns. She had to serve it out, but did so with aplomb.
It wasn’t clear to me when she’d last won a tournament, but eleven years after losing the final at Eastbourne, Kvitova had won it. In the last two matches, she outplayed two women who were playing excellent grass-court tennis, Ostapenko hadn’t lost a set all week, but had been pushed back from ‘her’ baseline. If Kvitova recreates that from again, I can think of only a few players who’d have to play at their best to withstand it.
It looks like the winner’s second interview on the court is now a thing the LTA is promoting. But perhaps not at Wimbledon.
[Edited for typos 26/2/25.]
