Heather Watson in First Round Showdown with Olympic Star
Pictured: Emily Appleton, the British number 10, was one of yesterday’s winners at The Shrewsbury Club. Picture: James Baylis.
Emily Appleton continued her run with a great win against Italian Deborah Chiesa in a tightly contested match in front of a large crowd for a Monday Qualifying day at The Shrewsbury Club. Appleton's reward is first round match on the stadium court against fellow qualifier, Czech player Aneta Laboutkova, with a number of other Brits playing their first round singles matches at The Shrewsbury Club tomorrow.
The stand out match of the day is the first match on the DMOS People Arena between British star Heather Watson and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who recently impressed at the Olympics in Paris. Watson is a regular member of Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team, while Schmiedlova, from Slovakia, is this week’s fifth seed and lost to world number one Iga Swiatek in the bronze medal match at Roland Garros.
Three more British players also play in the first round tomorrow, with Ella McDonald and Amelia Rajecki, who have both received wild cards, drawn against Daria Snigur, the sixth seed from Ukraine, and Chloe Paquet, the French fourth seed, respectively. This week’s number one seed, Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, from Spain, currently ranked 80 in the world, will face Swiss player Simona Waltert tomorrow.
Ranah Akua Stoiber impressed earlier today as she booked a place in the main draw - with two more British players, Appleton and Beth Grey, also winning their second qualifying round matches. Grey beat fellow Brit Ava Williamson 6-3, 6-3.
Stoiber, 19, who reached the semi-finals of the girls’ singles at the Junior Australian Open last year, beat Austrian player Tamira Paszek 6-1, 6-2.
Paszek, 33, twice reached the Wimbledon singles quarter-finals earlier in her career, but Stoiber delivered a fine display to get the better of her higher ranked opponent.
Stoiber, from London, said: "It was a really good atmosphere out there - I really enjoyed playing in front of the crowd.
"I feel like I played a very good game. I was pretty focused and I really enjoyed myself.”
Reflecting on beating a player who has been ranked as high as 26 in the world, Stoiber added: “I think it was a really good win for me to play against someone very experienced like that, so, yes, I’m glad I got the job done.”
Stoiber, currently ranked just outside the world’s top 600, is now looking forward to taking her place in the main draw.
“This is my first time playing in the main draw here, so I’m very excited for it,” she said.
Of the other British players involved in the second qualifying round, Alice Gillan lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 against Croatian Iva Primorac, Emma Wilson was edged out 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 by Laboutkova, while 16-year-old Hephzibah Oluwadare lost 6-0, 6-1 against Croatian Petra Marcinko, the top seed in qualifying, who was ranked 132 in the world last October. There was better news for the British youngster though as she received a lucky loser slot in the main draw and will play again on Wednesday.
The other second qualifying round winners were German Nastasja Schunk and Estonian Elena Malygina.
This is the first time the Lexus W100 Shrewsbury has been held since David Lloyd Clubs, Europe’s largest health, fitness and wellness group, recently acquired The Shrewsbury Club.