LRTA: French Open Singles & Doubles 2008

Venue & Order of Play

Held at Jeu de Paume & Squash de Bordeaux

Singles Friday 19th September 2008:


13:00	Claire Vigrass	v	Karen Hird
15:00	Charlotte Cornwallis	v	Fredericka Adam
Sunday 21st September 2008:
12:00	Final: Charlotte Cornwallis	v	Karen Hird

Doubles Saturday 20th September 2008:

10:30	Iddles & Adam	v	Vigrass & Greenwood


16:00	Final: Cornwallis & Hird	v	Winner of previous match

Singles Draw


Charlotte Cornwallis

	Charlotte Cornwallis
	6-0 6-1
Fredericka Adam


		Charlotte Cornwallis
		5-6 6-2 6-2
Karen Hird

	Karen Hird
	6-0 6-5
Claire Vigrass

Doubles Draw




	Cornwallis & Hird



		Cornwallis & Hird
		6-4 6-4
Iddles & Adam

	Vigrass & Greenwood
	5-6 6-5 6-4
Vigrass & Greenwood

Match Report - The Singles Championship

The first semi final of the Open consisted of the number 2 seed, Claire Vigrass and 4th seed Karen Hird. Claire went in as favourite but it wasn`t long before Karen made her intentions clear and started to dominate the match with some impressive serving and retrieving. Claire looked out of sorts and very nervous, maybe she is beginning to feel the pressure that comes with expectations?

Karen romped through the first set only making 2 errors, while Claire was struggling to find the strings. 6-0 to Karen. Claire began to hit the ball better at the beginning of the second set and didn`t allow Karen the time to pick her spot. There was never more than a game between them throughout this set, both fighting hard to assert their authority. At 4-4, the 9th game looked to be crucial as the players were exchanging impressive cut shots into the corners. After a series of deuces Claire took this game and looked to be on the ascendency, but Karen had other ideas. The match levelled up at 5-5 with Karen at the service end. Serving her trusty railroad throughout the match she relied on it again and was not disappointed by hitting 3 close nicks in succession putting Claire under a huge amount of pressure on her return which she is already renowned for. Karen took this game and the match in fine style, but it has to be said, Claire will surely be looking for revenge?

In the second semi final, Charlotte took on Freddy. Freddy was definitely not on her best form and made life relatively simple for Charlotte. With Charlotte restricting Freddy`s return with some tight serving she quickly accumulated games to take the first set to love. Freddy did pick up her game in the second set but the accuracy and pace of Cornwallis was too much to contend with in the end and Charlotte took the match 6-1 in the second set.

The Final

What most people expected to be a walk in the park for Charlotte was anything but that! Karen Hird, who has been devoting a lot of time and energy to her tennis over her summer break, was most definitely out to take a scalp!

In the first set Charlotte could not find the strings when her opponent sent a series of impressive cut shots into her backhand corner. Karen was hitting the ball to a superb length and not relenting giving Charlotte little opportunity to find her feet or her rhythm. Karen went 3-0 very quickly, not what was on the cards at all! However, Charlotte pulled back with some gutsy retrieving and strategic placement to level the match at 3-3. (Was Karen going to crumble at the loss of such a substantial lead?) From this point on there was little to split the players, never more than one game in it, and when Karen took the 9th game to go 5-4 up it looked as if the first set was going to go to the under-dog. Charlotte had other ideas and levelled up a 5-5 with relative ease. The final game of the first set saw Karen assert her authority over the shaky World Champion and she took it only losing one point in the game, first set to the surprise finalist!

With the dedans in shock and clearly routing for the youngster to topple the old timer, Charlotte looked more determined and more focused at the start of the second, quickly taking a 2-0 lead with consumate ease. Karen fought back and dug deep to try to stop Cornwallis rampaging through the set and levelled it at 2-2 in some tense deuces and several game points toing and froing. However, Charlotte managed to find her rhythm and proved too strong and tactically more efficient at the crucial times, forcing more errors out of Karen than she had made in the first set. Charlotte took this set 6-2 and looked to be cruising.

Now the match was on - could the youngster believe she can win, can she go the distance or is Charlotte going to maintain a more consistent level of tennis to take another French Open title......

Again Charlotte took an early lead at 3-1, forcing errors from her opponent and increasingly finding her targets. Normally at this point you would see Karen's head drop and all momentum vanish, but to her credit she dug deep and fought for every point as if her life depended on it. This time however, Charlotte was just too strong, too wise and quite lucky too! The difference between them was most definitely that Charlotte payed the crucial points well while perhaps Karen squandered some opportunities. Having said that, Karen demonstrated not only in her semi final but also in the final that she is a real contender in the top flight and when she works hard at all areas of her game she is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Karen has one of the best all round games out there right now, and it will only be a matter of time before she realises her own potential. But at this moment, hats off to Charlotte for "pulling one out of the bag" as was quoted to her on more than one occasion at the completion of the match. She certainly wasn't at her clinical best but the champion inside still burns bright and that experience was vital in this enthralling match.

FrenchOpen

The Final

French
Open