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Khan finds Meusburger a step too far

Natasha Khan's run in the Biberach 25K ended today with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Austrian second seed Yvonne Meusburger in the semis. It was a good effort from Natasha given that Meusburger is ranked 370 places higher !

Natasha's ranking will now increase by 81 places to 429. 

Her next tournament will be a 10K in Germany in a couple of weeks time. 

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Pauffley takes title in Scandinavia

16 year old Neil Pauffley is the first British junior to win a title in 2007 winning the HRT Cup in Scandinavia, a G4 event. Pauffley defeated Holland's Xander Spong 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 in the final, an excellent win as Spong had yet to drop a set. Pauffley's big first serve was extremely effective on the fast  indoor carpet courts and it was the difference in a lot of his matches.

Pauffley's ranking will now increase by approximately 66 places to 181. He and Marcus Willis now head to Holland for a G4 event this week. Lewis Barnes will also be competing there.  

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Murray battles back to set up semi-final showdown with Roddick

British no 1 Andy Murray came through a tough 3 set encounter with Hyung-Taik Lee, winning 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 to keep his hopes of defending his San Jose title alive.

Andy did not look at all comfortable early on and was broken to 30 in the 5th game. He broke straight back with some great returns but then made an ill-fated attempt to mix things up by serve-volleying in the next game. Lee's passing shots were just too good and Andy was broken to 15 to trail 3-4.

That was all the Korean needed and he served out the set with ease, using the body serve well to nullify Andy's returning ability.

Andy upped his level in the second set, finding more first serves and breaking in the second game to lead 2-0. Lee's concentration appeared to dip and he threw in some sloppy errors, basically handing Andy the break. Lee didn't come close to breaking back until the 8th game with Andy serving for the set at 5-3. He went 15-30 down but came up with a great reflex volley and then two errors from Lee took the match into a decider.

The 3rd set was very close, Andy had a half-chance at 30-30 in the opening game but missed a makeable lob. In the 11th game, he came back from 40-0 down on the Lee serve to break and serve for the match at 6-5 but the Korean saved a match point and broke back with a stunning backhand winner to force a tiebreak. Andy got an early minibreak but Lee kept pegging him back, volleying superbly and hitting some amazing backhands. However, Andy got a crucial minibreak to lead 5-4 and then found two first serves to seal his place in the semis.

It wasn't one of Andy's best performances, he showed very little rhythm off the ground throughout the match and his normally reliable returning game let him down a lot of the time on the Lee 2nd serve. Both players interspersed some amazing points with fairly sloppy errors, particularly in the 3rd set.

Speaking afterwards he said "It was a great match and Lee played really well. You have to give him a lot of credit for coming back and breaking me at 6-5 in the third. I felt pretty tired towards the end so it was great that the crowd got behind me so much."

Forum member scoobsuk: "Andy's a big match player and maybe he didn't think this was a big match - it certainly was flat intensity-wise at the start - that rose gradually throughout the match when he realised Lee wasn't going to roll over. I'm sure he'll come out much sharper against Roddick. I certainly hope so. I'd love to see the same result as last year and stamp his authority back on the American."

Jamie Baker's run in the Joplin 50K challenger was ended in the semis by top seed Michael Russell.

As in their match in the final of the Waikoloa challenger a few weeks ago, Russell raced through the first set, taking it 6-1.

The second set was a lot tighter, going to a tiebreak which Russell took 7-4 to reach the final.

Speaking afterwards to britishtennis.net, Jamie said "I'm very pleased with the way I played in the second set. I went down a break early on but got it back and it was pretty close from the on. I felt that if I was going to lose then I wanted it to be on my terms not Russell's. Both of us were very solid off the ground in the second and it all came down to a few key points in the breaker. "

"I haven't got any regrets about the match and my coach Keith and I are happy with the week. We feel that I've improved a lot in the past month and hopefully it won't be long before I'm in the top 200. I'm now heading to Memphis and then back to Europe for the rest of the indoor challenger circuit there."   

Jamie's results this week will mean that he now moves up to a career high ranking of 234.

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Bogdanovic opens against Capdeville in Memphis qualies

Alex faces fiery Chilean 6th seed Paul Capdeville in the first qualfying round for ATP Memphis. Having missed the cut for the San Jose main draw by just 1 place last week, Alex will aiming for a good run here. However, Capdeville will be tough to beat. The Chilean clay-court specialist is ranked 135 and has a career high of 102 which he reached last April. He's started 2007 well, qualifying for the Australian Open and beating Julien Benneteau in 5 sets before losing to Stanislas Wawrinka. In 2006, he made two challenger finals, qualified for several ATPs and beat Greg Rusedski and Jamie Baker. In Memphis he qualified for the main draw and beat Robredo and Karlovic to reach the quarters.

Alan Mackin and Jamie Baker both missed the qualies cut here    

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Keothavong reaches semis in St Paul

Anne Keothavong reached her first 50K semi-final with a 6-2, 7-6(8) win over American teenager Madison Brengle.

Both players have contrasting game styles with Anne's game based around big hitting off both wings while Brengle is predominantly a counter-puncher, she uses her speed to retrieve as many balls as possibly and frustrate opponents into errors. In this match Anne simply had too much power for Brengle, in particular she returned extremely well.

Anne now faces second seed Sofia Arvidsson in the semis. They've played 6 times before and Arvidsson leads the head-to-head 4-2. Anne's two wins came in British 25Ks on indoor hard. She won 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in Glasgow in 2002 and 6-4, 3-1 ret in Redbridge in 2003. Arvidsson won their last match 6-3, 6-1 in rd2 of WTA Quebec in 2005.

Arvidsson is currently ranked 86 but she has a career high of 29 which she reached last May.  In 2006 she reached the 3rd round of the Aussie Open and won a WTA title in Memphis before a lean run saw her slip back. This week she's dropped 1 set en route to the semis, against Czech clay-court specialist Michaela Pastikova in the second round. She's a tall, powerful player and has a similar game style to Anne, very aggressive from the back. However, she's been very patchy in her matches this week, struggling to close them out and throwing in a lot of errors aswell as big winners.

 

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British no 5, Sarah Borwell lost a close match in the Saguenay 50K quarter-finals to Canada's Sabine Lisicki. Both sets could have easily gone either way but it was Lisicki who held her nerve on the big points to win 7-5, 6-4.

This week's results mean that Sarah will rise about 10 places to 215 and overtake Amanda Keen to become British no 4    

Natasha Khan has made her first 25K semi-final in Germany, beating Romanian 7th seed Magda Mihalace 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals. It's been an excellent week for the Brighton 19 year old who's converted the form and promise she's showed so far this year, into ranking points. She's guaranteed to rise to a career high ranking of 429.

Speaking after the match she said “I’m very happy with my game this week. I played an unbelievable first round and my confidence has grown from there. ’m serving really well and if I can keep playing as aggressively as I have been, I know I have a good shot of winning this tournament."

In Saturday's semis she faces Austrian 2nd seed Yvonne Meusburger who knocked out talented teenager Urzsula Radwanska in the quarters. Meusburger has a career high of 112 reached earlier this month. She had a successful 2006, qualifying for the Aussie Open and making three 25K finals, a 50K final and a 75K semi. She's continued that form this year, qualified for WTA Auckland and beat world no 88 Ekaterina Bychkova in rd1 before losing to Camille Pin in 3 sets and at the beginning of February she made a 75K quarter-final.

To read more about Natasha's progress in Biberach check out this thread

Paterson loses thriller in Montechoro

Karen Paterson's run in the Montechoro 10K was ended today by 3rd seed Mandy Minella from Luxembourg. Minella won a marathon encounter 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 to edge through to the semis.

It's frustrating for Karen as she was so close and if she'd managed to come through that 3rd set tiebreak she would have got double the amount of ranking points for this week.

"I've spent most of the week in bed," Henman told his website. "I had no choice but to pull out."

The world number 38 added: "My knee was progressing nicely, I was enjoying myself in practice and I was just starting to think about competing next week when I started to get a sore throat.

"The next thing I knew I started feeling lousy, my temperature went way up and I was spending most of my time in a cold sweat.

"Hopefully by next week I'll be over the worst of it but obviously it's going to be impossible to play in Rotterdam."

Baker takes out Ram in straights to make Joplin semis
Jamie Baker is into the semis of the Joplin 50K challenger, defeating America's Rajeev Ram 6-4, 6-4 in the quarters.

Speaking afterwards to britishtennis.net, Jamie said "I played a very clean match today, didn't get broken at all and broke him once in each set. Rajeev tried to attack the net a lot early on but I used my lob very effectively to keep him from closing in and it worked very well."

"I was too strong off the ground for him and didn't give him a chance to hit his favourite shot, the cross-court forehand. I now play top seed Michael Russell in the semis, he beat me in the final of Hawaii. I was 4-1 up in the 2nd set of that match and had a point for 5-1 but Russell played well, forced   
a few errors and came back to win it 7-5. "

Jamie's run this week will mean that he'll move up to a career high ranking of 234 whatever the result of his match against Russell.

Forum member stevemcqueen: "Whatever the result of the semi final, Jamie can be very pleased with his weeks work.  If he can maintain this kind of level,  won't be long before he breaks into the top 200!  Plus he will now get direct entry to most challengers."

Murray to face Lee in San Jose quarters

Evans and Rice into last four

Schultz-McCarthy has too much firepower for O'Brien but Borwell goes through

South slips up in Stockholm

Andy Murray was made to work hard against Denmark's Kristian Pless in round two of the SAP Open in San Jose.

Murray and Butorac cruise into San Jose quarters

Jamie Murray and Eric Butorac joined Auckland and Huss in the San Jose quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kristian Pless and Danai Udomchoke. 1 break was enough for the British-American pairing to take the first set and the match looked done and dusted when they got an early break in the second. Pless and Udomchoke produced a late rally, earning two break back points at 6-3, 4-3 down but Murray and Butorac came back to hold for 5-3 and then held to 15 when serving for it at 6-3, 5-4.

Next up is a really tough match against 3rd seeds Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas who won a thriller against James Blake and Mardy Fish 6-3, 1-6, (10-4) in the first round. 30 year old Goldstein is top 100 in singles and doubles, he's currently at a career high doubles ranking of 40. Thomas is a doubles specialist with a ranking of 32. Last year they made 3 ATP finals (San Jose, Indianapolis and Tokyo) and made the US Open quarters. They played the Murray brothers in the Tokyo quarters last autumn, winning 7-6, 6-1.

Auckland  and Huss are also in action in the quarters tonight, they face American wildcards Scott Lipsky and David Martin who won their rd1 match 11-9 in a champions tiebreak. Both Lipsky and Martin are ranked just outside the top 100, they compete mainly on the challenger tour and in January they made a 50K final in Waikoloa. In 2006, they made no less than 8 challenger finals ! 

5 Brits through in Copa Milo
Dan Evans and David Rice (pictured) continued their progress to reach the quarters in the boys event. Evans has barely broken sweat in reaching the last eight, in rd3 he dispatched unranked Argentinian Joaquin Cohen 6-2, 6-0. As in his rd2 match, Rice again battled back from dropping the opening set to defeat Argentina's Agustin Picco 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.

Evans will now take on Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner. Demoliner is ranked 446 but knocked out the 8th seed in rd1.  Rice will be up against Swiss Ary Porat, a 16 year old who's ranked only 843. Both players have very good chance of making the semis.

Khan shocks 3rd seed in Biberach

Natasha has made the most of her lucky loser place, knocking out Romanian 3rd seed Madalina Gojnea 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; an extremely impressive result against a player ranked over 300 places higher.

She now faces 16 year old German wildcard Syna Kayser in rd2. Kayser is only ranked 1072 and beat an unranked Swiss wildcard in rd1 so it's a great chance for Natasha to make the quarters.

Unfortunately Georgie Stoop was unable to take her chances in the deciding set against 7th seed Magda Mihalace and lost by the bizarre scoreline of 6-4, 0-6, 7-6(3).

Forum member RedCabbage: "Fantastic result for Natasha ! Several Brits have made pretty unauspicious starts to the year, but Natasha Khan is showing early signs that she may be one of the stand-out players of 07."

National U18 champion Anna Smith (pictured) lost a marathon rd1 encounter in the Montechoro 10K against Portuguese clay-court specialist Neuza Silva . Anna blew Silva off the court in the first set with her powerful hitting winning it 6-2 but wasn't able to keep that level up and she made two many errors in the second which she lost 6-1. Momentum swung back and forth in the decider and both players has several matchpoints in the resulting tiebreak but it was Silva who eventually took it 14-12.

6th seed Karen Paterson had a very easy round 1 win, handing out a bagel and a breadstick to a Portuguese wildcard. Karen now faces Dutch qualifier Danielle Harmsen for a place in the quarters, Harsem is ranked about 200 places lower at 607 and had to come through a gruelling 4 rounds of qualifying to make the main draw.

Baker hands "Bozo" a bashing in Joplin
Jamie's superb run of form on the US hard courts continues with a highly impressive 6-2, 6-3 second round win over Serbian 3rd seed Ilja Bozoljac who's ranked about 150 places higher at 117. It's undoubtedly one of the best wins over Jamie's career. Bozoljac has one of the biggest serves on tour but Jamie was just too solid for him today, his consistency from the baseline frustrated the Serb who lost the plot and made too many errors.

Jamie now faces 8th seed Rajeev Ram in the quarters. Ram is 6ft4 and a serve-volleyer, he's played Jamie once before, winning 6-4, 6-3 in the Aptos challenger last July. Ram was regarded as one of the big hopes for American tennis when he stormed up the rankings in 2005, reaching several challenger finals in the process. However, he's plateaued since making the top 200 and hasn't been any higher than 184. Last week in Dallas, he reached the quarters, defeating Alan Mackin in 3 sets along the way. So far this week, he dropped a set against a South African lucky loser in rd1 but defeated American Phillip Simmonds 6-3, 7-5 in rd2.      

Forum member steven: "It's a stunning win to beat a player just outside the top 100 so convincingly. 
A lot of us here have had a lot of faith in Jamie and his work ethic, and it's great to see him beginning to reap the rewards this year."

Borwell knocks out 7th seed in Canada
Sarah Borwell (pictured) had a fine win in round 1 of the Saguenay 50K, defeating Canadian 7th seed Valerie Tetreault 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Katie O'Brien also went through, outplaying wildcard Nina Pantic 6-4, 6-1.

As expected, Elizabeth Thomas lost to 3rd seed Mathilde Johansson but for a long while it was very close. However, after winning the first set, Johansson gained in confidence and pulled away for a 7-5, 6-1 win.

Sarah now has a great chance to make the quarters, she'll be up against Canada's Heidi El Tabakh in rd2, a player ranked 200 places lower at 435.  Katie has a much harder draw, she plays South African veteran Brenda Schultz-McCarthy. Brenda was in the world's top 10 a decade ago before being forced to prematurely retire due to shoulder problems. However, a couple of years ago she decided to give tennis a go again and returned to the tour. She's currently made her way up to 276 and still has one of the biggest serves in the game, last year she regularly hit serves at over 120mph.

Keothavong through in St Paul
British no1 Anne Keothavong is through to the second round of the St Paul 50K in Boston with a 6-4, 7-6(2) win over Turkish qualifier Ipek Senoglu. Anne wasn't at her best but she didn't need to be against an opponent ranked 400 places lower and it's her first tournament on outdoor hard for about a month.

She now plays 30 year old Indonesian veteran Romana Tedjaksuma (ranked 296) who won in 3 sets. Tedjaksuma has never been higher than 242 but she's a dangerous player on US hard courts, making two 25K quarters and a semi in 2006 aswell as winning a 25K title in Indonesia. She beat both Mel South and Katie O'Brien in straight sets last year. 

Pichet outplays Coles in Stockholm
British no 8 Sarah Coles was outplayed by 4th seed Virginie Pichet in round 1 of the Stockholm 25K, the Frenchwoman winning 6-3, 6-1.

British interest in the tournament now rests with 3rd seed Mel South who plays France's Irina Pavlovic. Pavlovic is a tall, heavy-hitting player with a big serve. In particular, her single-handed backhand is a very effective weapon. She's of the Lindsay Davenport style build and isn't the best of movers around the court so Mel needs to keep her on the run. If she gets drawn into a hitting match she's going to get blasted off the court..

Pauffley and Willis make quarters in Scandinavia

Neil Pauffley and Marcus Willis (pictured) have reached the quarters of the HRT Winter Cup, a G4 junior event. Both enjoyed easy straight sets wins in rd1 against Swedish players, Pauffley winning 6-3, 7-6 and Willis coming through 6-2, 6-4. Pauffley was made to work a lot harder in his second round match against France's Jeremy Touil, coming through a marathon encounter 7-6(10), 4-6, 7-5. Willis wasn't really troubled by Sweden's Marcus Eriksson (who'd beaten Hertfordshire's George Coupland  in rd1), cruising to a 6-4, 6-2 win.

In the quarter-finals, Pauffley will be up against Danish top seed Christoffer Konigsfeldt (ranked 111). Konigsfelt looked rather shaky in his opening match against a Finnish player but he breezed past British qualifier Alex Bull 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

Willis plays Dutch 5th seed Xander Spong. Spong is ranked 52 places lower at 223 and is also yet to drop a set.  

In the girls event, Jade Windley continued her recent fine form, reaching the quarters with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of German qualifier Sina Haas. She now faces Danish top seed Karen Barbat who's yet to drop more than 3 games in total in this tournament. Barbat is 14 and has a junior ranking of 150 , she reached the final of a G3 at the start of 2007. However, Jade has taken a set off a top 200 player (on the womens tour) this year and made a 10K semi-final so if she plays at that level she should have a decent chance.

Evans and Rice into round 3 in Chile
4th and 5th seeds Daniel Evans and David Rice (pictured), progressed through to the 3rd round of the Copa Milo G2 event in Chile in contrasting fashion. Evans was in fine form again, dispatching Switzerland's Roger Muri 6-1, 6-2 while Rice struggled to find his range in the first set against Chilean Matias Bobadilla (ranked 988) before coming through 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.  Rice's next opponent isn't yet known but Evans will play Argentina's Joaquin Cohen. Cohen is unranked and this is his first ITF junior tournament but in round 2 he knocked out the Belgian 15th seed Alexandre Folile.

Josh Milton was surprisingly defeated in round 1 by Macedonia's Tomislav Jotovski in a match full of gruelling baseline rallies. Jotovski outlasted the Welshman to win 7-5, 7-5.

Murray makes light work of Kim

Andy Murray made the perfect start to his title defence at the SAP Open in San Jose.

In a match lasting less than an hour, the British number one dismissed American Kevin Kim 6-3 6-1 to move into the second round.

The third seed, who is ranked 13 in the world, had a very straight-forward match against Kim, who is ranked 125 in the world. He broke the American twice in the first set to cruise to a 5-1 lead. There was a slight hiccup when Kim broke back as Murray attempted to serve out for the set, but he served it out on the next attempt and broke three more times as Kim began to fall apart after losing the opening game of the second set .

Murray's serve was on top form throughout the match. He served 11 aces and and one serve even reached 145mph - the fastest serve of his career.

He now meets Dane Kristian Pless for a place in the quarter-finals.

Speaking afterwards Murray said "My serve-and-volley game is much stronger," …. "I hadn't been hitting the ball that well in practice because I'd been doing a lot of fitness work, but I think I played well.

Murray's coach Brad Gilbert added: "Right now we're thinking how to get into single digits in the rankings. All I know is Andy is getting better."

Andy needs to defend his title this week in order to maintain his ranking position. He is seeded to meet Andy Roddick in the repeat of last years semi.

The organisers of the event pulled Jamie Murray out of the crowd at the post-match interview to highlight his 21st birthday with some chicken wings and a cake !!!

British Doubles Players advance in Joplin

The all British pair of Josh Goodall and Ross Hutchins won 1-6 7-6(5) 10-6 against fellow Brit Alan Mackin and his Argentine partner Leon Mayer. A much less energetic performance was required by Jamie Baker and Michael Ryderstedt as they had a walkover when Jones / Torres pulled out.

Josh and Ross now face the number 1 seeds Ram and Reynolds who Murray and Butorac beat last week in the Dallas final. Jamie Baker and partner have an equally difficult task of playing the second seeds Dragicevic and Pehar..

Curtis outclassed in Melbourne
Jade Curtis was outplayed today by Aussie 7th seed Christina Wheeler who won 6-1, 6-1. Wheeler is ranked over 600 places higher at the moment and has been a top 150 player and the gulf in experience between the two players was fully evident in this match. Jade's next tournament will be a 10K in New Zealand in two weeks time, she'll be attempting to qualify there.

Unfortunately Madelaine Brooks was unable to take advantage of a good draw against fellow qualifier Cassandra Chan going down 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match which could have quite easily gone either way.

Jade is through to the doubles semis here, she's partnering New Zealand's Ellen Barry and they got a walkover in the quarters when the 2nd seeds pulled out

Brewer and Smith keep British interest going in Barnstaple

Keothavong competing in St Paul 50K
Anne Keothavong has headed to the USA for a 50K event this week. She's seeded 3rd and plays a qualifier in round 1.

Anne has never previously been past the quarter-finals of a 50K. She's reached the quarters 4 times so far, losing to American veteran Jill Craybas in this tournament in 2004 and to France's Camille Pin in Lexington last year.

South through in Stockholm but Keen crashes out

Posted 13 Feb at 08:15

South seeded 3rd in Stockholm
The main draw has been released for the Stockholm 25K. Melanie South is the 3rd seed and is up against Swedish wildcard Aleksandra Srndovic in round 1. Srndovic is ranked 410 and has only played 1 match in 2007, losing in the qualifying for the Sutton 25K two weeks ago.

Amanda Keen will be looking for a good run here after a couple of disappointing performances in Sutton and Tipton. The fast indoor carpet should suit her aggressive serve-volley game perfectly. She's seeded 5th and plays Germany's Korina Perkovic (ranked 386) in round 1.

Khan through in Biberach
Natasha Khan is just one win away from reaching the main draw of the Biberach 25K this week. She outplayed Germany's Julia Trunk 6-2, 6-3 today and now faces 11th seed Franziska Enzel. The 23 year old German is currently ranked 650 but has a career high of 376 which she reached in 2005. She slipped down the rankings due to a poor 2006 season, two 10K semis were her sole highpoints. She's most at home on clay but she seems to have found form on the indoor hard in Biberach, beating a Polish player 6-0, 6-0 in rd1.
  

Posted 13 Feb at 09:10

Posted 12 Feb at 15:30

Posted 12 Feb at 14:55

Joplin 50K challenger: main draw

Rd1:
Alan Mackin WR 238 v Michael Lammer (SUI) WR 297
Jamie Baker WR 252 v Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) WR 243
Josh Goodall WR 210 v Michael Ryderstedt (SWE) WR 340

Fresh from losing a doubles semi to Butorac and Murray in Dallas, Gonzalez has a career high of 155 reached in May 2006 but has since dropped a fair bit. Jamie has never played him before. Gonzalez's recent record against Brits has included wins over Parmar and Lee Childs and losses to Boggo and Lee Childs.

Murray and Butorac take Dallas challenger title

Baltacha plans to begin season in mid-March  

Below-par Auckland goes out in San Jose qualies

Dallas 50K challenger, doubles final preview:

Keothavong forced to retire against Ani

Rae and Elliott reach the semis in Bolivia

Favourable qualifying draw for Auckland in San Jose

British contingent move on to Joplin