American left-hander Taylor Gruber served first when she played Jade Otway in the final round of qualifying at the ITF tournament in Austin this morning, and being broken to love wasn’t a good start. The game had a good finish for Otway, however, when she won a good 18 shot rally with a nice cross-court forehand. A double fault and an overhit forehand from Otway gave away break points in the next game, but she was able to save both when Gruber’s returns did not land in court. Another overhit forehand from Otway gave away the advantage, which she saved by forcing Gruber into an error to lose a great rally. The American’s next return went long, and what I though looked like a great lob from her just drifted over the baseline.
Gruber then held comfortably to get on the board before taking Otway to 0-40 when she forced the New Zealander to hit a backhand over the baseline at the end of a 13 shot rally. A string of unforced errors from Gruber not only let Otway off the hook, but gave her the game five points later. Gruber then lost her serve again when she finished the next game with a cross-court backhand into the tramlines. They each hit beautiful forehand drop shots in the next game, Gruber’s getting her to deuce, but she missed both returns of serve to allow Otway to consolidate the double break.
Gruber did hold serve next up, but the stream died after the first point and wouldn’t return for 22 minutes. In the meantime, Gruber broke Otway’s serve when the latter was trying to finish the first set, but she was able to save only the first of two set points when she was broken again to end the set after 39 minutes.
Otway’s only lost point in the opening game of the second set was a double fault, and she broke Gruber again to jump out to an early lead. She then got broken by the same score that she had been in the first set, but I was able to see her break again when the stream went live again at the beginning of the next game. Gruber gave away a break point when she was forced into an error to lose a good rally, but she was hard done by on the good rally that followed. Otway hit a cross-court forehand which spat away off the edge of Gruber’s racquet, but the ball had clearly landed over the baseline, and Gruber was very annoyed that the umpire hadn’t called it so.
The next two games went with serve, but Gruber then broke back when Otway followed a double fault by hitting a backhand over the baseline. Gruber gave away a deuce with a double fault in the next game, but she hit a beautiful inside-out forehand drop shot to get the advantage after a second deuce. She forced Otway to hit her next forehand into the net, and that ended the game after just over six minutes. Otway lost just one point in the next game, but it was to a nice cross-court forehand winner from Gruber which ended a good 18 shot rally.
The best of those that I saw, though, was the first of the five which comprised the entire next game, lasting 22 shots before Otway was forced to hit a forehand volley long. The same fate befell Gruber at the end of the great rally on the next point, and she lost the shortest rally in the game with a forehand into the net. There were still two good rallies to go, and the best shot that I saw in the match was Gruber’s fabulous forehand lob onto the baseline to end the first of those after 13 shots. The last of the five went for 12 shots, with Otway losing it by hitting a cross-court forehand into the tramlines. She did hold to love in the next game, and that put all the pressure back on Gruber to hold to stay in the match.
That pressure proved too much, as she followed an inside-out forehand into the tramlines with a double fault, and she lost another great rally after 17 shots when she swung a cross-court forehand way wide. That gave up three match points, and another forehand into the tramlines completed a rather underwhelming performance. The final score was 6-3, 7-5, and the match lasted for an hour and 33 minutes.