Bryant seals British Open qualification with three set win over Oldham
Didizian volleys to victory over Garside
Alexandra Bryant and Sabrina Didizian have booked their tickets to the main draw of the British Open at the Queen’s Club, following definitive victories in their qualifying matches at Holyport on Saturday.
The women’s qualifying kicked off in earnest with a match between Alex Garside and Sabrina Didizian. The experience gap couldn’t have been more stark: Garside was a veteran of the sport, having won the British Open in 1994, while Didizian was playing in her first competitive tournament. Didizian controlled the match from the start, leaping at any forehand volley she could reach and taking time out of her opponent. Garside attempted to counter Didizian’s serving with a series of lob volleys, trying to get short chases over the head of Didizian. But Didizian’s read of the play and control of the ball, keeping it as much as possible below the height of the bandeau, gave her the ability to the find areas of the court where Garside was not. She took the first set largely untroubled, dropping just a single game.
Garside’s only recourse in the second set was to try and get her serve as tight to the back wall as possible, then follow up as quickly as possible with a ball onto the tambour. Her serve hit a purple patch at the start of the second set, enough to earn her a tidy 3/1 lead, the staccato nature of the play messing with Didizian’s rhythm. Though she recovered back to 4-all, the time spent at the hazard end was perilous for Didizian, with the infamous Holyport ski slope penthouse proving difficult to read for the volley. Didizian recovered the 4/5 game with some excellent forehand pressure at the grille. By the time Didizian was 40-0 up in the deciding game, her victory was assured, moving on to a main draw matchup with World Champion Claire Fahey.
The other qualification match saw doubles partners Alexandra Bryant and Araminta “Minty” Oldham square off for a place in the singles main draw. The crowd was engaged and vocal from the start, groaning at hazard half-a-yard calls and cheering and applauding loudly for every good shot. The match was a battle of serving — Bryant with backhand corner serves: railroads, drags and side-walls; and Oldham with her round arm technique. The goal: prevent the return coming to the backhand side, primarily seeking to get the ball to bounce before the back wall. Whoever was getting on top of that battle was having the easier time later in the rally. Initially, it favoured Bryant, who scored a 2/0 early lead. But more and more, Oldham was able to trouble Bryant’s return, then patiently waited to turn a slight advantage in the rally into a big one. She won five of the next six games to post a 5/3 lead. Bryant wasn’t going to let things go easily, hitting an excellent length and bringing the match back to a decider, eliciting a big whooping from the crowd. After the first four points were resolved as four chases, Oldham found a main-wall tambour to take the set.
The contest did not let up going into the second set. Oldham increasingly brought out her power game: hard and flat drives that, if well directed, proved tricky to deal with, but if poorly executed gave Bryant an opportunity to strike back. Increasingly, Bryant brought out the pace as well to test Oldham’s volley, mixed in with some softer shots into the corners. The games were long and close, with the eighth proving particularly critical. Bryant took it after seven deuces, before winning the following two games in quick succession to win the set and send the match to a decider.
Bryant was increasingly in control of proceedings at the start of the third set, consistently able to put the ball into good areas and put Oldham under significant pressure, both in the court and on the scoreboard. She took the first four games of the set unanswered as Oldham struggled to exploit any weaknesses in her play. By the end, she had well and truly proven she deserved her spot in the main draw, where she is due to play Tara Lumley.
The women’s singles competition resumes on Wednesday with the matches moving to Queen’s for the main draw. The women’s doubles qualifying continues at Holyport on Sunday, with just one match following the withdrawal of Karla Popovic from the doubles. Meanwhile at Queen’s, Sunday sees the first round of the Open main draw matches, with action across both courts all day.
Match results:
Holyport
2:00 PM: Alex Garside (1) lost to Sabrina Didizian 1/6 5/6
3:30 PM: Alexandra Bryant (2) def Araminta Oldham 5/6 6/2 6/1
Order of play for Sunday (all times GMT):
Queen’s East:
11:00 AM: Josh Dodgson vs Josh Smith
1:00 PM: Vaughan Hamilton vs Bertie Vallat
3:00 PM: Neil Mackenzie vs John Woods-Casey
5:00 PM: Claire Fahey vs Zak Eadle
Queen’s West:
11:00 AM: James Medlow vs Levi Gale
1:00 PM: Darren Long vs Will Flynn
3:00 PM: Nino Merola vs Henry Henman
5:00 PM: Tony Hollins vs Ned Batstone
Holyport:
1:00 PM: Elvira Campione & Alex Garside vs Alexandra Bryant & Araminta Oldham