Heather!! Ending was messy from both but until 7-5, 5-2, Heather was glorious. Serving so well today, close to 70% first serves in at 105mph+ and really being aggressive, coming forward and nailing her volleys, moving well as usual, defending brilliantly, was just so so good. Her best match of 2017, and for me her best in terms of level since march 2016, at least. I hope it's not a random peak and she can gather this momentum forward, but that really was a very fun watch.
Dominika is quite beatable at the moment but credit to Watson for playing her best for the majority of this match.
I agree. Heather was far better today then she has been in nearly a year. Watson actually looked aggressive, energetic and interested even though Cibulkova wasn't in form, Watson played a millions times better then she has in so long. Heather looked like she wanted to play and fight for it rather then looking like she didn't want to be there, which has been a feather of her tour far to often these past 3 years or so. Also her grass court style was spot on and obviously love the crowd being behind her.
Hopefully this is the start of something of a rise in Heather's form.
Great serving from Heather until the choke serving for the match at 5*-3. Luckily Domi was in full 2017 mode and acquiesced her subsequent service game.
Would love to see Heather build on this win, but I won't hold my breath.
Packed crowd - nice to see. Heartily cheering Domi's UEs? Not nice to hear.
Shame to see Domi go into a slump - hopefully she can still do well at Wimbly.
Great win for our British girl - she really needed a confidence boost and this is great timing heading into the most prestigious tournament of the year.
Cibulkova's tennis needs to be always at the limit to be effective, given her physical characteristics. When she starts to lack of physical form, motivation or confidence, it's always hard to play her risky offensive game with so little margin plus this year she's struggling too much with her serve and every match turn to be a long breakfest.
It's a real shame in a tour so open at every results as this year. The level shown last year but also in the previous was so different than what we are seeing now by Domi and could have guaranteed her the chance to win another big title. Season is not over and there's still time to reverse the trend but not seeing the fire and the hunger in her eyes is a bit worrying.
Great serving today from Hev, bar that wobble at the end. Outrageous netcord winner the get the key break in the 1st set - probably the decisive point of the match.
Cibulkova is always so hot and cold at series. She could be reaching back-to-back big finals and losing back-to-back matches to out of top 100s players in a span of a few months time. :lol: I guess it is always a struggle for longer-lasting focus and motivation.
I think this result is much more telling about her than about Heather's current game.
If you look purely at the result, but for those of us who watched it, it is obvious Watson is playing much better then she has for a year which was evident in her last 2 games as well.