Top ladies dig deep to reach final stages of qualifying

Seeds Misaki Doi, Sesil Karatantcheva and Karolina Pliskova all survived three set scares to book their final round places in the qualifying event this afternoon.

Japan's Doi (No.4) recently beat top-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy in the second round of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham and her wonderful spell on the turf continued today when she ousted Madison Keys 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

The world No.209 American likes to give the ball a fair old whack and came out firing on all cylinders. Strong serving and consistently deep, low balls enabled her to sneak the first set and break her opponent in the opening game of the second. Doi wasn’t playing badly – Keys just possessed incredible form and, put simply, failed to miss. The question was how long could she keep this up?

The fourth seed’s chance came midway through the second set when Keys' service games began to falter. Doi capitalised on weak second serves, enabling her to break back and eventually claim the second set and the match.

The Japanese 21-year-old, who began working with Australian coach Simon Walsh in February, is enjoying an incredible run on the green stuff. She reached the quarter-finals of Birmingham – her furthest outing in a tour level event.

Speaking to Wimbledon.com off court Doi praised her opponent’s performance: “It was a very tough match because she has a very big serve so it wasn’t easy. Her ball is very deep and fast and low.”

Walsh added: “Misaki’s had stand out weeks, she qualified in Miami; she beat Schiavone and made the quarters in Birmingham. All these things for belief and confidence are huge. She’s in a good place.”

On the neighbouring court home-grown Lisa Whybourn was giving Sesil Karatantcheva a run for her money. The fifth seed cruised to a 5-2 lead in the opening set when the British wild card decided enough was enough. Aggressive tactics followed, as did a remarkable come back – she won five games in a row to take the set 7-5.

But Whybourn, who yesterday thanked organisers for the wild card opportunity, was unable to keep up the momentum. Incredible ten-stroke rallies proved to be the order of the final set but it was clear she was running out of puff – and her yelps of frustration indicated that she also knew her time was up. By the final set Karatantcheva had relaxed into the game and wasted no time racing to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 victory.

After the match the No.5 seed, whose favourite surface is clay, admitted she lost concentration in the opening set.
“I think she started playing better and I lost a little concentration because I broke her,” she said. “The moment I broke her I kind of lost focus and once she started picking up pace it was hard for me to come back. I knew it was going to be hard obviously all the support was for her and I swear I had some really bad line calls.

“I knew I was going to have to stay in it. Once I got to the third set I was much more comfortable because I felt like I had more experience. I am pleased because she gets to play on grass much more than I do and for me it’s a good win because we played some really good tennis.”

Elsewhere eighth seed Stefanie Voegele was involved in a three set contest with Kristyna Pliskova but eventually fell 6-4, 4-6, 3-6. Karolina Pliskova emerged victorious from her 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 battle with Michelle Larcher de Brito. Earlier in the day Mirjana Lucic, the Croatian twelfth seed disposed of Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-2.