Eliz Upsets the Odds to Defy Doi
Pictured: Eliz Maloney is through to the last eight of the ITF World Tennis Tour event at The Shrewsbury Club after beating seventh seed Misaki Doi. Picture: Richard Dawson Photography.
Eliz Maloney impressively booked a place in the last eight of the ITF World Tennis Tour event at The Shrewsbury Club by beating seventh seed Misaki Doi from Japan - a result she described as the “biggest win” of her career. Maloney, one of seven British players to feature in today’s second round of the Budgen Motors W100 tournament, responded well to losing the opening set to eventually win 4-6, 6-0, 7-6. Maloney, 22, currently a career-high 500 in the world rankings, will now face top seed Anhelina Kalinina in tomorrow’s quarter-finals.
"It’s definitely the biggest win of my career,” said Maloney, from Hertfordshire. "It’s up there with when I played Junior Wimbledon, so I would say those two are my two proudest moments so far.”
Maloney, who reached the semi-finals of a W25 event in Loughborough last week, held her nerve to win a third-set tie-break against Doi, a player currently ranked 150 in the world having been as high as 30.
It was Maloney's fourth win since arriving in Shrewsbury after emerging from the qualifying rounds.
She added: "It was actually good to play qualifying looking back, get used to the courts, get some matches in, so happy with the week so far. I just hope to keep it going.
"It’s just a nice confidence boost because I’ve only played two 100K tournaments so far, so it’s just giving me a bit more belief that actually I can come here and compete at this level too.”
Katie Boulter joined Maloney in the last eight after overcoming the strong challenge of Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, a US Open semi-finalist in 2009, in straight sets.
Boulter, currently fifth in the British women’s rankings, won through 7-5, 7-5 and will now face Ana Konjuh tomorrow.
Lily Miyazaki, the current British number eight, is also through to the quarter-finals after German star Tatjana Maria, a Wimbledon ladies’ singles semi-finalist earlier this year, had to retire owing to injury during the second set of their second round match.
Maria had won the first set 7-5 and Miyazaki was leading the second 4-3 when Maria was unable to continue. Miyazaki will now meet Eva Lys tomorrow.
Freya Christie and Sonay Kartal both came close to reaching the quarter-finals before losing narrowly.
Christie took the first set against Kalinina from Ukraine, currently in the world’s top 50, and impressed against a player more than 420 places higher in the rankings. Christie pushed Kalinina all the way before the top seed sealed a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 triumph.
Kartal, the UK Pro League women’s champion in Shrewsbury last November, also won the opening set of her match against Konjuh, but the Croatian, currently ranked 155, with a career-high of 20, hit back to win 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.
Jodie Burrage, having climbed to a current career-high of 128 in the world rankings, was knocked out in three sets by Lys from Germany, ranked just two places higher. Burrage started well and took the first set in style before Lys responded positively to win 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Maia Lumsden, the winner of a $25,000 title in Shrewsbury in 2018, also saw her hopes of further progress end as she was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Marketa Vondrousova, a silver medallist for the Czech Republic at last year’s Olympics.
Eighth seed Vondrousova will now face another Czech player, teenage qualifier Barbora Palicova, after she successfully came through another all-Czech clash against Karolina Muchova.
Palicova emerged a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Muchova, a semi-finalist at last year’s Australian Open, and also twice a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2019 and 2021.
Tomorrow's matches at The Shrewsbury Club start at 10.30am.