[AwonderfulKiwi]

I'm glad she won today! She seems like such a nightmare to play against with all the variety

Bjorklund just kept running out of patience. There were only three rallies (out of 13) which were longer than 10 shots that she actually won.

 

[AwonderfulKiwi]

Heaps of great rallies, and heaps of great shots, but that was still a pretty poor effort in the doubles by everyone except Ponchet, who was by far the best player on show. I wasn't impressed by Cascino standing in the middle on serves going to Ponchet, and then jumping out of the way when Maja or Stevanovic started their service motion. I thought that was against the rules? Mind you, it was really funny when Maja did it for a couple of points as well.

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

Maja and Natalija lost 7-6, 7-6 to the French 2nd seeds.
Stevanovic seems like a fun doubles partner, full of energy and very encouraging. I thought her and Maja made an adorable team. I didn't even mind the the grunting, which sounds like Vika's old hooting that's come roaring back to life with a vengeance.

On the scheduling front, Maja's choice of entry for June 27 is the 25k in Den Haag, a moot point as she'll be busy making her way to the Wimby final that week
And post Wimbleon, Maja is an the Alt lists for both 125k events in Bastad and Contrexeville

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

Heaps of great rallies, and heaps of great shots, but that was still a pretty poor effort in the doubles by everyone except Ponchet, who was by far the best player on show. I wasn't impressed by Cascino standing in the middle on serves going to Ponchet, and then jumping out of the way when Maja or Stevanovic started their service motion. I thought that was against the rules? Mind you, it was really funny when Maja did it for a couple of points as well.

Either receiving partner can stand wherever they want to receive serve. And moving position while the server is tossing the ball is also allowed

 

[AwonderfulKiwi]

Either receiving partner can stand wherever they want to receive serve. And moving position while the server is tossing the ball is also allowed

I'm not talking about the receiving player. I'm talking about the non-receiving partner (in this case Cascino when the ball was being served to Ponchet).

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

I'm not talking about the receiving player. I'm talking about the non-receiving partner (in this case Cascino when the ball was being served to Ponchet).

That’s what I meant by “either receiving partner” - either player on the team who is receiving the ball is free to stand wherever they want on court, and moving position while the server is tossing the ball is fair play

 

[AwonderfulKiwi]

What an incredible match against Hon! That last rally was an almost unbelievable 41 shots!!!!! The longest before that had been "only" 21.

Fantastic result!

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

6-3, 7-5 win over Hon in a wonderfully patient performance. Man, that MP was what you call death by slice.
Maja's chip returns were frustrating Hon throughout the match, and Priscilla began pressing on her first serve and her percentage went way down. And full credit to Maja for saving 3 set points in the 2nd. There was never any panic in her game today.
Maja is now at 169 in live rankings. Next opponent in the QF is Volynets. Keep it going, Maja!

 

[evija87]

Match point was quite something, war of slices through most of it. Finally Hon cave in!
Well done

 

[spolem]

Volynets is no grasscourter, my brain says Maja is a very slight favourite, like 55:45, my heart says she is gonna win it.

Love that ridicilous levels of coldbloodedness Maja has been displaying at the end of sets lately, I still feel she should have won that second set against Masarova too.

 

[y0nex]

Fantastic result and a new record for Maja, I keep my fingers crossed, maybe she will be able to beat Volynets

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

From what little I’ve seen of Volynets, she seems like a prototype US hardcourt grinder. Katie definitely won’t be hitting anyone off the court, but she moves well and is good at handling pace and angles. She seems hesitant to come to net, ironically. I think Maja can really take Volynets out of her comfort zone.
The match is scheduled 2nd on Court 2. There are no other matches concurrently scheduled on the surrounding courts, so it should be a more pleasant viewing experience.
Along with the two 125k events, Maja is on the EL for Versmold 100k and Amstelveen 60k the week of July 4

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

Well that was a horrible set for Maja. Volynets was on the front foot the entire set, her short angled BHCC are really hurting Maja. And Katie's definitely handling these windy conditions better.
Toilet break after a 30 min set ... will Maja come back regrouped?

 

[spolem]

I wouldn't necessarily call the second set a choke, Volynets was giving Maja absolutely nothing, retrieving everything, hitting halfvolleys at ankle level rarely seen at ITFs. I think that second set was one of the best Maja played this year and she still lost

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

😭😭😭 from 5-1 up in the 2nd to eating a hidden bagel and losing in straights, 6-1, 7-5 Volynets.
Maja held one set point while Katie was serving at 4-5.
Katie handled Maja's slice perfectly; she was firing it back deep and with good pace time after time. And when Maja tried putting more air under her topspin shots to neutralize points, Katie stepped in and hit winners off the rise.
Maja managed to get the double break lead by breaking points open with more fhdtl, but that shot abandoned her for the rest of the match.
There were some good rallies in the match, it just sucks to end with such a punch in the gut.

Still a good week! New career high! Onwards to Roehampton!

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

I wouldn't necessarily call the second set a choke, Volynets was giving Maja absolutely nothing, retrieving everything, hitting halfvolleys at ankle level rarely seen at ITFs. I think that second set was one of the best Maja played this year and she still lost

Let's be real. Broken to love serving 5-2, managed one point when serving at 5-4, and then DF on MP... that was a choke.
Full credit to Katie for playing super defense from all parts of the court, but that match should have gone 3 sets.

 

[spolem]

For me a choke is a situation when someone is so nervous that their level dips visibly and they start playing poorly and starting missing easy shots etc. I felt like Maja was OK, she didn't stop playing the kind of tennis that gave her a 5:1 lead but Volynets was excellent in both offence and defence, she made only a handful of errors.

 

[AwonderfulKiwi]

That wind was horrendous! I really thought the camera was going to take off at one point in the first set. There were 10 rallies of 10 or more shots in the first set, and another 17 in the second. The longest was 24, when Volynets hit a nice cross-court forehand volley to win the third point of the game on the way to levelling at 5-5. The rally on the last point of that game was another 21 shots.

The longest game was the ninth in the second set, at 8 minutes and 36 seconds. 12 points in the game - and 8 winners! The shot of the match, though, must surely have been that unreal backhand slice from Maja in the fifth game of the second set which hit the ground and simply slid underneath Volynets' racquet. You see shots skid off the baseline, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in the middle of a court.

Whatever we might think of the choke, you still have to remember that Volynets is the third seed, and that she's ranked more than 60 places above Maja. She's also played several more matches than Maja on the grass (she qualified for Wimbledon last year). The bookies had her as a fairly firm favourite for a reason.

Stats for the match:

[3] Katie Volynets	6-1, 7-5 (1 hour 37 minutes)​	Maja Chwalinska
42 / 58 (72%)	First serves in play​	39 / 56 (70%)
25 / 42 (60%)	First serve points won​	18 / 39 (46%)
11 / 16 (69%)	Second serve points won​	6 / 17 (35%)
3	Aces​	0
1	Double faults​	1
31 (18 / 13)	Winners (forehand / backhand)​	11 (10 / 1)
11 (4 / 7)	Forced errors (forehand / backhand)​	11 (8 / 3)
24 (18 / 6)	Unforced errors (forehand / backhand)​	26 (14 / 12)
6 / 11 (55%)	Break points won​	2 / 6 (33%)
68	TOTAL POINTS WON​	46

 

[JoyLuckScrub]

Maja will play Aliona Bolsova in R1 of Wimbledon qualies.
Winner plays Cadantu-Ignatik(24) or Dinu in R2.
Coco Vandeweghe(2) is the top seed in the section.

First career meeting for Maja and Aliona. Bolsova made a 25k final this past week on clay, this will be her first grass event this season.

 

[spolem]

We all know what year Bolsova is having, Maja should win this and then we'll see what happens.