16 yr old Katya won her 2nd $10k of 2004 over the weekend
doing a Romanian clean sweep in last 3 rds including both Niculescu sisters and then beating top seed Matei 61 61 in final
lets hear it for lefty Katya
not many Russian south-paws players about
Only seems to play the one warm up tournament these days which I agree is unfortunate. OK I could maybe understand not entering the first tournament of the grasscourt season as Lena and Kate are hoping to get to the final at RG in doubles.
But don't think Kate has played Birmingham since 2012 possibly?
Then again might not make much difference - even in form Katya only really turns up for The Slams (and Eastbourne).
Yes, she was terrible during some of her service games, missing easy net balls and routine ground strokes. She was starting to play better, until after she beat Kerber in Paris.
Now she has to regroup because her lefty game is very good on grass and Wimbledon is and should be an important part of her year
A bit of good news in doubles at least, Kate looked happy and relaxed as they strolled through 6-1 6-0. The polite silence that greeted any rare good shot by Jurak/Rodionova was quite amusing. Even if things aren't going well Kate still has honorary citizenship in this part of the world......
Its quite a stacked draw but would be nice if they could make a bit of a run here. Think it would be good for Kate too....
I dont understand why her singles game is in so much turmoil.
Sveta/Lena was the IW final. Kasatkina won Charleston, Pavlyuchenkova won Monterrey and Rabat
Kate was in the top 8 in singles, making slam semis. This is a very prolonged slump and her last 2 matches, are 2 of her worst
Has a new coach now for the first time in about 100 years. Can't blame them entirely as the slump goes back further than that. But things seem to be getting worse under their watch not better....
I dont know what happened to Kate's singles game. She broke thru early with an eastbourne title. I thought she was a contender at Wimbledon 2013, and by her SF at US Open 2014, I thought her game had developed to top 10 regular.
But she's gone way backwards and this grass loss to Navarro was terrible. She was being broken at love on grass
Katya played well. You suspect her confidence is still very brittle (even more so than usual) but van Uytvanck was way too erratic and totally failed to apply any sort of pressure.
Looks like Sveta next who will be favourite in current form. But IIRC only win against Sveta came on grass?
What's going on in her lovely head? I swear she has the talent to be a regular YEC contender, but watching her implode in that first set was heartbreaking.
If only that dropshot hadn't clipped the tape she could have gone on and won. But ifs and ands and all that.
Kate and Lena will play the Ash and Casey in the QF. Suppose it's too much too ask that the Aussies fall asleep again in the second set like they did in their match this evening.