she could be really something. 13 y.o. and already in an IMG London Academy, made it to slam junior qualies in just a few months on the circuit etc. Hope she's a future star.
too bad she slipped there a bit in the end to get broken twice, but i still think this was a positive showing for her! she just needs some more of these matches against top players, and she'll figure out how to break them, and how to win.
Overall a very nice tournament, although I'm sure this will sting for a day or two. She did have her chances, but was never really in a position to get herself close enough to winning a set. Of course, an excellent showing and a valuable experience, playing a top 30 player in a Premier Mandatory event. Looking forward to her next one.
Excellent result for first premier event in Donna's career
I expected closer score against Vesnina, but it doesn't matter, Elena is 10 years older and she obviously knows how to handle younger inexperienced players.
Nice 80 points for Donna, new CH ranking and she is our number one player, really fantastic for 16 years old kid
Interesting how people never read any of the previous posts. First Bluetrees asks the same question, gets an answer 9 posts ago, then Svizac two posts later tells Bluetrees that he doesn't know the answer, and now another poster comes up with the same question :lol:
So for those who'll wonder the same in the following days:
She'll have a really good chance to move up in the rankings until mid-September (Tashkent). She defends 35 points in April, 64 in May, 8 in June, 68 in July and 50 in August. That's only 225 points (30% of her total) in the next five months.
quick run down guys--vesnina was just too good. donna fought well, but vesnina was very solid. donna served pretty well (hit some very nice slice second serves on the duece side). i would have liked to see a bit more variety from her. vesnina's drop shots were killer. elena also had net cord winners at key moments (twice on bp for donna, on ad-in at 3*-2 in the second and a few other instances). donna did get robbed by a call the first time she got to 0-30, but it was the far line and the ump wouldn't overrule. all in all, a good experience from donna. i wouldn't be surprised if elena challenged sharapova in the next round.