| In her group
Angie's first match was against Catherine Eakin, normally a very awkward
opponent, but not today. Angie overcame Cath comfortably in three sets.
The second match saw Angie suffer an unexpected defeat to Laura Rumgay of
Scotland going down in 5 sets. This meant that Angie was then put into the
more difficult half of the draw having originally been seeded 4th!! The first round match was against Judy Morley, with the previous encounters going one a piece it was always going to be a tricky task against the veteran campaigner. On this occasion Angie's forhand proved to strong and she ran out the victory winning in 3 sets, despite the interference of the tournament referee (but we won't go into that now, for once not Angie's fault!) The quarter final saw Angie face another Scot, this time it was Gillian Edwards. What should have been a tough contest with Gillian ranked above Angie, proved very simple with Angie's no-spin backhand topspin causing all sorts of problems for the scot. Angie won the match without conceding a set and never looked in trouble. The semi-final saw the rematch with Cherith Graham which Angie was dreading most. Those of you at wbl will know why! The match was of high quality with many long rallies and lots of variety shown by the players. Proving that women can do more than just push! Angie came out victorious snatching the final set in deuce. Luckily a fifth set wasn't required as Angie's nerves probably wouldn't have held, especially against Cheriths never say die fighting spirit. As the draw got mixed up with most of the seeds losing in their groups, Angie faced Laura Rumgay in the final. Angie lost the first set very easily and all looked lost. But with the support of fellow Byng players and of Cherith and her coaches Ang took the next two sets and it looked like victory would be a formality. But the scot didn't give in and took the fourth set to set up a second five set match between the two in a matter of hours. Angie got off to a horrific start going 6-1 down, but after a foul serve and dispute by the scot , Ang never looked back and came level. At 6-6 Laura made the fatal mistake of serving to Ang's hip where Ang dually dispatched a forhand slap straight past the hapless scot. With the help of the net and the Scot's "braveheart" fading Ang took the final set 11-6 and took the Band 1 title. Good one Ang, just don't spend all that money at once! |
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