It was exhausting watching Lulu Sun and Katherine Sebov go head to head in so many terrific rallies in their first round match at the WTA 125 tournament in Midland this morning, the two being amongst the hardest hitters at this level, and it was pretty much a case of who would blink first when the shot count got into double figures. There were some fabulous individual winners as well, but it wasn’t surprising that they would dry up to some extent as the match wore on, with so many of the later points ending in forced errors. The biggest problem for me was that, just as during the qualifying rounds, no high-definition feed was allowed by the anti-virus in my computer, and the stream that I was forced to use had too many hiccups for my liking, especially towards the end of the second set.
Sebov started with what I thought was an ace down the middle, but it wasn’t recorded as such in the stats, so maybe Sun got a faint touch with her racquet. Sun hit two fabulous forehand winners, the second one getting her to deuce, but Sebov responded with one of her own to get the advantage, and Sun dumped a backhand into the net to lose the game. Sun also got taken to deuce, but she had to save a break point after two gorgeous forehand winners from Sebov, and errors from the Canadian let Sun hold serve as well.
Sebov ended the next game with a fantastic backhand winner down the line, and continued to paint the chalk with a fabulous forehand return down the line when Sun served again. She forced Sun into an error to go to deuce, where the left-hander hit a fabulous inside-out forehand winner, but she lost the next three points to give away the first break of serve. They each hit beautiful forehand winners as Sebov also worked her way through two deuces, the difference being that she held serve. There were two deuces again in the next game, the highlights here being a fabulous forehand return down the line from Sebov to win the first point, and a stunning cross-court backhand winner from Sun to save the fourth break point after she had come back from 0-40.
Sebov hit another beautiful forehand winner down the line on the way to a comfortable hold, and Sun hit a fabulous backhand winner down the line as she fought to stay in the set. She lost a fantastic rally when she swung a cross-court backhand into the tramlines, and that gave away a set point. A mishit from Sebov saved that, and Sun followed the deuce with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner and an unreturnable serve. Sebov lost another fabulous rally with a backhand into the net, and she followed that with a double fault, but a nice backhand volley and an unreturnable serve were enough to see her clinch the set after 44 minutes.
Sun started the second set with another beautiful forehand winner down the line, but she lost the game with two unforced errors after having to save a break point. She got the break straight back, hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand winner to end another good rally before thumping away a great cross-court forehand volley.
The next game had something for everyone, and lots of it, because it went on…and on…and on…for more than ten minutes, with Sun having to save a break point to get to the first of six deuces, and facing more break points after all but the fifth of those. The first highlight was a fantastic rally on the third point, which Sun won with a beautiful cross-court forehand volley, and she saved the first break point with a wonderful overhead volley that was one of the shots of the match. A fabulous forehand winner down the right sideline to end a great rally saved the break point after the third deuce, but Sebov won the fantastic 16 shot rally on the next point with a beautiful inside-out forehand volley. Sun saved that break point with a wonderful cross-court forehand volley of her own.
She finally got a game point after that deuce, but Sebov kept them going with a fantastic inside-out forehand return which landed on the sideline. There was another good rally on the next point, but Sun lost that with a cross-court backhand into the tramlines, and she disappointingly gave away the game with a backhand into the net. She got that break straight back as well, her highlight being a fabulous inside-out forehand winner into the corner, but that came after Sebov won another fantastic rally with a beautiful cross-court backhand winner.
Sun finally held serve at the third time of asking, hitting beautiful forehand and backhand winners along the way, and Sebov followed suit after saving a break point with an ace. The next two games went to deuce as well, but the difference was that Sun held her serve. Sebov had to save two break points first off, but she was forced into an error on a backhand volley to lose the game. She did hit a couple of beautiful winners in the next game, but Sun went on to serve out the set after 46 minutes.
The quality went down with a bump as they started the final set, both players losing their opening service games. There were several great rallies when Sebov served again, and she went on to hold after two deuces, as did Sun in the next game. From there on, though, it was a comedy of (mostly unforced) errors as the next six games went to the receivers. There was still the occasional great rally, but the individual highlights dried up to such an extent that the only ones I thought worth noting were a beautiful forehand return down the line by Sebov to start the sixth game, and a beautiful cross-court backhand winner by her to end a great rally in the tenth.
Sebov finally broke the sequence by holding serve in the eleventh game, but it was unfortunately another of those where most of the points were buffered out of existence. Sun was then taken to deuce when she hit a ball into the net, and a shot that ended over the baseline gave away a first match point. She saved that by forcing Sebov into a return error, but was then forced to hit forehands into the net to lose the last two points of the match. The final score was 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, and they had been on court for two hours and 32 minutes.