Ladies World Championship kicks off with first round qualifying at Newport
Ranger overcomes stiff challenge from Meldrum; Confident Garside and clinical Tan register dominant victories
Xanthe Ranger fought a tough battle against Kadi Meldrum to move through the first round of qualifying at the Ladies World Championships in Newport on Saturday, while Jess Garside registered a comfortable victory over Claire Voegele and Jo See Tan defeated debutant Margaux Randjbar.
The long summer of court tennis at the International Tennis Hall of Fame got underway with the first qualifying match of the Ladies World Championship, played between Tuxedo’s Xanthe Ranger and Aiken’s Kadi Meldrum. The match was a battle over the service end, with both players making good scoreboard progress when serving while struggling to build points from the hazard end. Ranger was able to hold her serve for longer stretches of the first set, with Meldrum only able to get chases after working Ranger back and forth across both sides of the court. When Meldrum did earn the serve, she made it count, hitting clean, low volleys for winners.
Despite dropping the first game of the match, Ranger was clearly on top throughout the first set. But Meldrum played her way into the match in the second set, earning and maintaining a narrow lead as her insistence on volleying took time out of Ranger’s response. Ranger couldn’t find any effective way to break Meldrum’s refusal to let the ball hit the back wall. Although Ranger levelled the set at 3-all, Meldrum pushed through three straight games to take the set.
At the start of the third set, Ranger tidied up her stroke, putting more balls in play and cutting out any unforced errors and extending a three game lead. Even if her more defensive style resulted in more balls going onto the penthouse, Meldrum was unable to punish it and Ranger was once again able to work the ball into the corners. Meldrum fought hard, unperturbed by the state of the scoreboard, but Ranger would ultimately walk away as the winner: her reward being a matchup against Nicola Doble in the second round.
The second qualifier saw battle between Briton Jess Garside and American Claire Voegele. Garside’s railroad was quick and tight, putting Voegele under immediate pressure and eliciting an easy ball on the forehand in response. Garside led the first set from start to finish, dropping just the sixth game having conceded two short chases. By the second set, Garside was getting more aggressive, playing balls cross court over the low part of the net and earning plenty of rewards for it. She was never under pressure in the second set, winning it to love.
The final match of the first round of qualifying was between Australian Jo See Tan and the Frenchwoman Margaux Randjbar — the latter making her competitive real tennis debut. Tan was focussed and compact, aiming to extract as much cut as possible from the back wall and looking to play as many balls as possible towards the tambour and grille corner. Randjbar was playing high on the court and with an extremely short grip, looking to volley at every opportunity. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a read on Tan’s left-handed railroads, too often spooning it back ceding the advantage to Tan. The Australian was accurate in targeting the grille, and hardly conceded a short chase in the match as she dominated the service end. The longer the rallies went on the more it favoured Tan due to her extensive experience on the real tennis court, while Randjbar needed to finish the rallies quickly to earn points. Despite a couple of opportunities, she couldn’t earn herself a game as Tan won both sets to love.
Play will continue on Sunday with the remaining qualifying matches, before the main draw starts on Monday. Nicola Doble will start her tournament against Ranger, while Garside and Tan will play in a match-up that is likely to be one of the closest on handicap in the tournament.
Match results:
Saturday 24 May:
10:00 AM: Kadi Meldrum lost to Xanthe Ranger 2/6 6/3 2/6
11:30 AM: Jess Garside def Claire Voegele 6/1 6/0
1:00 PM: Margaux Randjbar lost to Jo See Tan 0/6 0/6
Upcoming Matches (all times EDT):
Sunday 25 May:
10:00 AM (Qualifier 1): Nicola Doble vs Xanthe Ranger
11:30 AM (Qualifier 2): Jess Garside vs Jo See Tan
Monday 26 May:
10:00 AM: Saskia Bollerman vs Qualifier 1
11:30 AM: Tara Lumley vs Qualifier 2
Tuesday 27 May:
4:00 PM: Winner 26 May 10:00 AM vs Winner 26 May 11:30 AM
Wednesday 28 May:
5:00 PM: Lea Van Der Zwalmen vs Winner 27 May 4:00 PM
Thursday 29 May:
2:00 PM (Doubles Semi Final 1): Claire Fahey & Tara Lumley vs Jo See Tan & Jess Garside
3:30 PM (Doubles Semi Final 2): Nicola Doble & Saskia Bollerman vs Lea Van Der Zwalmen & Margaux Randjbar
Friday 30 May:
5:00 PM (World Championship Challenge): Claire Fahey vs Challenger TBD
Saturday 31 May:
2:00 PM (World Doubles Championship Final): Winner Semi Final 1 vs Winner Semi Final 2