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Robson loses early in latest stage of her comeback

Jake Davies
Tennis

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By Jake Davies

  • Early losses for Laura Robson and Naomi Broady in Nottingham
  • World No. 280 Tara Moore wins her 1st WTA main draw match in four years.
  • British No.2 Aljaz Bedene features in s-Hertogenbosch on Wednesday
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND- Laura Robson experiences another setback in her return to the top of the women’s game

Britwatch Tennis:

Michelle Larcher De Brito [Q] def. Laura Robson [WC] 6-3 7-5

Robson continues to find it considerably difficult to build momentum in her return from wrist surgery as she loses another straight sets match – this time against Portugal’s Larcher De Brito. Like Robson, Larcher De Brito also suffered a heartbreaking wrist injury that kept her out of the game for the best part of a year.  The Portuguese tennis prodigy has struggled to maintain a high level after standout results, but this is not a bad loss for Robson.

Larcher De Brito has pedigree on the luscious grass court surface – boasting that shock win over World No.3 Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon 2013 and also beating a Top 10 player in Ana Ivanovic last year at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham. In the coming weeks Robson will strive to produce some positive results on a surface she’s been successful on in the past and can continue to look for a string of wins in Birmingham next week.

Su-Wei Hsieh def. Naomi Broady 6-2 6-1

Broady’s grass season did not get to the best of starts as she lost comfortably to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh. She is a tricky customer that plays two-handed on both sides. Broady struggled to handle the amount of variety that Hsieh can utilize, especially on her backhand. The variety of shots that Hsieh employs ultimately proved problematic for a player like Broady, who struggles with their movement. Another reason that a player like Hsieh can get under the skin of their opponents is that there are not many players like her on the WTA Tour, which makes her considerably difficult to prepare for.

Now sitting comfortably inside the World’s Top 100 in the rankings, Broady will be looking to consolidate the results that originally put her at a career high of World No 76 in March this year.

Tara Moore [Q] def. Donna Vekic 6-2 7-5

Moore, a British player that continues to fly under the radar, beat Vekic in back-to-back weeks having beaten the Croatian on the grass courts of Eastbourne last week. Despite most of her success taking place in the lower levels of professional tennis, Moore is building good match wins on a number of different surfaces, which is impressive in itself.

Last week in Eastbourne, Moore pushed a competent grass court specialist Alison Riske to three sets in the Eastbourne $50k final and also accumulated some good wins over hard-hitting Oceane Dodin and Vekic as well. Moore may not achieve the kind of success that Robson and Konta have at Grand Slam level, but it’s commendable to see a British player persistently plugging away at the lower levels of professional tennis.

Aljaz Bedene vs Bernard Tomic [2]  – First meeting

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Bedene and Tomic will compete in their first match on Wednesday in s’Hertogenbosch. A confident Bedene moves forward from a positive experience at Grand Slam level, losing to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round. The most impressive of wins was the five setter with experienced clay court specialist Pablo Carreno-Busta in the second round – a match that felt like a coming of age for Bedene at the highest level of professional tennis.

Bedene’s opponent in the second round has not had the greatest of performances or results on the clay, but Tomic is a very crafty and knowledgable player on a grass court – a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, who adopts the slice backhand to great effect on the slick grass courts. Since Tomic’s lacklustre performances since his final run in Acapulco, he will be looking to be the pantomime villain by beating Bedene in front of his home crowd.

Prediction: Tomic in two sets.