[7] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt [9] Tesni Evans (WAL) 11-7, 11-6, 11-5 (38m)
If last time they played in Manchester, either of them could have taken the match, today, there was no contest. SJ never gave a sniff to her friend and never really let her get into the match. Not sure why, but Tesni looked extremely flat.
She tried at times to fire herself up, in particular against the ref but even that didn’t work. SJ was controlling the match, and when the Welsh was managing to attack, be positive and call the shots, she find herself at the back of very long rallies, and nothing to show for….
First game 5/1 to SJ, Tesni coming back 5/5, 6/6, after that, all about SJ 11/7 in 11m.
The second, again a good start for SJ, 3/0, again Tes catching up 4/4, but unable to put pressure on her opponent, and it’s the English on top again, 8/4, 9/5, 11/6 in 10m.
The third is completely dominated by SJ 7/0. At 9/3, a bit of pride kicking in, a big push from Tes but it’s still SarahJane, 11/5….
SJP
“She has beaten me three out of the last four times.
“The last time we played was in Manchester and we both had match ball, but she won. Today, I just wanted to play how I wanted to play and stamp my authority on the game and hopefully that was good enough, so I’m really pleased with that.
“Beating any player in this draw 3-0 is a really good achievement and especially someone like Tesni – I looked at that draw and was like ‘not again!’. She was the highest ranked player that I could face in this round and I tried to apply myself and just get through each round and try to do everything right, control everything that I had the ability to control.
“I’ve got memories of playing here from last time and I think it was a lot windier and hotter, so the conditions were fine I thought – it was swirling around a bit in practice this morning, but I just thought you have to deal with whatever is in front of you tonight.”
