Aegon Classic 2015 Day 4: Halep doubles up

By Alex Macpherson

Wimbledon.com's highlights from the fourth day of the WTA Aegon Classic at Edgbaston Priory Club...

Smooth sailing for remaining favourites

The first two rounds of the Aegon Classic had featured a number of dramatic three-set rollercoasters. By contrast, every one of Day Three's third round matches was a straight-set affair.

Leading the way was No.1 seed Simona Halep, who encountered much less resistance from Czech qualifier Klara Koukalova than she had against Britain's Naomi Broady in her opener. Koukalova slapped 14 errors in an 18-minute opening set, setting Halep up for a 6-1, 6-3 win.

Following the match, Halep revealed that she is approaching the grass season with a different mindset to the clay season. "I had a lot of pressure at the French Open, and that's why I lost [early]," said Halep, who returned home to Constanta, Romania for a "mini-vacation" to get over her disappointment. For the next month, Halep has changed her mentality: "I have no expectations from myself this grass season, I don't feel pressure - I just want to enjoy the tennis here on grass."

Mladenovic's game is maturing

Halep may find a sterner test in the quarter-finals: France's Kristina Mladenovic backed up her upset of No.5 seed Eugenie Bouchard by an impressively composed 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over last year's Aegon Classic finalist, the Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova.

Time was that Mladenovic would have been undone by a canny hustler such as Strycova, whose propensity to scurry for every point and throw the kitchen sink at her opponent has often paid dividends on grass. But in a captivating opening set between two contrasting styles, Mladenovic's power held firm - and she displayed a fine touch of her own, including on a wonderful point that included lobs, volleys and a Mladenovic tweener.

Also evidence that Mladenovic is finally coming into her own is her newfound consistency: this showing is her third quarter-final or better in her last four tournaments (with the other result being a third-round showing at Roland Garros). She will thus return to the top 40 when the new rankings are published on Monday.

Miss Consistency

As the on-court interviewer joked after her beautifully controlled 6-3, 6-4 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, the No.3 seed should perhaps be nicknamed Carla "Consistency" Suárez Navarro. This result makes the Aegon Classic her 11th quarter-final or better of the year - indeed, the only tournaments in which she has not reached the last eight are the two Slams of the year, something she'll be seeking to rectify at Wimbledon.

In the meantime, she's doing a sterling job of saving the single-handed backhand's presence on the WTA Tour: the free-flowing winners it brought her belied her reputation as a slow-court specialist. 26-year-old Suárez Navarro is the youngest woman with a one-hander in the Top 100 - the others are Italian veterans Francesca Schiavone and Roberta Vinci, and Germany's Tatjana Maria. Connoisseurs of the shot may welcome 20-year-old Russian Margarita Gasparyan's presence in next week's Wimbledon qualifying draw, though.

Czech youngsters rising

The only deciding set in play was the conclusion of yesterday's second round between No.6 seed Karolina Pliskova and the last remaining British hope in singles, wild card Johanna Konta. Resuming with Pliskova up a break at 4-3, the final three games went with serve and the Czech player emerged a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victor.

It proved a perfect warm-up for Pliskova's third round match against Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas - who, by contrast, had not played since Tuesday owing to Victoria Azarenka's withdrawal. Pliskova was razor-sharp, and each time the talented Diyas seemed to have found a foothold in the match, Pliskova snuffed it out with a thunderous serve or winner.

The 23-year-old Pliskova is ranked No.12 and heading towards the Top 10 at speed - and also rising is her 19-year-old compatriot Katerina Siniakova. The world No.75 backed up her upset of No.7 seed Andrea Petkovic with another win over a higher-ranked opponent - this time an emphatic 6-4, 6-0 thumping of American Christina McHale, whom she outsmarted with a perfectly balanced mixture of offensive and defensive tennis.

Former champions to meet again

On her way to the 2011 Aegon Classic title, Germany's Sabine Lisicki scored a 7-6(4), 6-4 quarter-final win over 2009 champion Magdalena Rybarikova, of Slovakia. After replicating that victory almost exactly today - the only difference was in the tie-break score, 9-7 - Lisicki might be tempted to think it an omen.

After hitting a record-setting 27 aces in the previous round, Lisicki could muster only eight against Rybarikova, who was doing a superb job of reading the Lisicki serve. But the Slovak was unable to take advantage of discomfiting her powerful opponent, blowing three set points in the first set tie-break, and thereafter came out second best in a match that turned, unexpectedly, into a battle of slices and dropshots in the second set.

Lisicki was happy to be stretched, though: "It actually helps you," she pointed out afterwards. "It's good preparation to be pushed and win those tight matches, it helps the confidence."

Next for her is another former Birmingham champion - and, by coincidence, the woman she beat in the 2011 final. Rybarikova's compatriot Daniela Hantuchova has extricated herself from a three-month slump on her beloved grass courts this week. Today, she quelled the feisty Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito 6-4, 7-5 in a match ultimately decided by Hantuchova's cool head on big points - not something the Slovak has always been able to rely on.

Kerber comes through another tough draw

On paper, No.4 seed Angelique Kerber's last 16 encounter with No.15 seed and 2007 Aegon Classic champion Jelena Jankovic was today's popcorn match - and indeed, most of the first set was of top quality, with Jankovic proving the more aggressive in rallies.

Inexplicably, though, Jankovic's game fell apart somewhat at the close of the set as she lost 15 of the last 16 points, while Kerber went from strength to strength - impressing not just with the counterpunching that is the foundation of her game, but with her deft touch as well. The German is yet to win a grass-court title, despite two finalist showings in Eastbourne (losing to Tamira Paszek in 2012 and Madison Keys last year) and a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2012. On her form today, she's well on course to change that this week.

Halep and Watson team up to win

Though an elite singles player, Simona Halep is not known for her doubles prowess: she has competed in the discipline just four times in the past year, and those four outings - each with a different partner - have resulted in just two match wins. She garnered a third win today alongside British No.1 Heather Watson: the wild card duo beat Spanish veterans Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja 1-6, 6-3, [10-7].

The pairing makes sense for both: with an elbow injury disrupting her Wimbledon preparation, Watson is in need of court time in any form, while Halep's need to improve her forecourt game is often spoken of as the key to taking her singles game to the next level.

The much-improved British duo Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith also put up a good showing, losing 4-6, 1-6 to two-time Slam champions (and the 2012 Wimbledon runners-up) Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. The unseeded Czechs have only reunited on Tour this year after spending 2014 apart.

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