🥎 ATP/WTA Viking International Eastbourne 🥎
Yesterday saw the conclusion of Eastbourne's tennis with Alex De Minaur winning the men's title and Jelena Ostapenko winning the ladies. I was fortunate enough to get a ticket for Thursday's Quarter Finals and as is often the case when I go to watch live tennis, I get to watch the eventual tournament winners.
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated
I knew that I was going on Quarter Finals day and when the initial list of players was announced, I was particularly looking forward to seeing Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet. Sadly, Monfils got knocked out in the 2nd round (he got a bye through the 1st) and Gasquet pulled out before the tournament began 😥
I got to watch 4 matches on the day:
ATP: Lorenzo Sonego (Ita) v. Alexander Bublik (Kaz)
WTA: Aryna Sabalanka (Bel) v. Camila Giorgi (Ita)
WTA: Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) v. Daria Kasatkina (Rus)
ATP: Vasek Pospisil (Can) v. Alex De Minaur (Aus)
There was a women's doubles after this but it was getting late, I was cold and I wanted to go home 🙂
Social distancing measures meant that the tournament was running at about 20% capacity. People were seated on alternate rows with at least 2 seats gap which subdued the atmosphere somewhat but the extra space was certainly welcome.
Match 1: L. Sonego beat A. Bublik 6-1, 7-5
This was the most one sided match of the day. I had high hopes for Bublik but when a 6'5 server does this on his 1st serve, you know he's in trouble:
When I played tennis at school and I couldn't get my underarm serves in, I had no chance.
Bublik played as though he had somewhere he needed to be and deservedly lost. It was as sunny day, the beach is about 5 minutes away and I'm pretty sure that's where he hurried off to. Sonego on the other hand was focussed, ignoring Bublik's antics and booked himself a place in the semi-finals.
Match Highlights
Match highlights are in the same video as the Pospisil v. De Minaur highlights.
Match 2: C. Giorgi beat A. Sabalenka 7-6, 0-6, 6-4
This was a good match and a hard fought win for Giorgi. Giorgi played well in the 1st set whereas Sabalenka didn't but she still managed to grind out a tie break which Giorgi ultimately won. The 2nd set was as one-sided as the score suggests. Sabalenka really upped her game and absolutely battered the Italian. She was aggressive, didn't take too many risks and won comfortably - I expected the 3rd set to go the same way. But it didn't. Giorgi dug deep and played some exceptional tennis to beat the number 1 seed.
Match Highlights
Match 3: J. Ostapenko beat D. Kasatikina 1-6, 7-5, 6-2
This was the game of the day for me. Kasatkina was playing superbly until 5-5 in the 2nd set. It was at this point that Ostapenko lost a service game, had a tantrum, got a warning from the umpire and had the beast inside of her unleashed (4:20 in the highlights below). From this point on, you could certainly understand why she went on to win the tournament. Whether the tantrum affected Kasatkina or not is difficult to say - I think it affected her game and she ended up being no match for an angry Ostapenko.
Match Highlights
Match 4: A. De Minaur beat V. Pospisil 6-4, 6-4
In my final match of the day, I finally got to see Vasek Pospisil. I came to the tennis a few years ago (2017) and the 1st match of the day was Djokovic v. Pospisil. 3 points in, the rain started and didn't stop.
This time though, I got a day of sunshine so there was little risk of this happening again (although it did rain on my walk home).
It was also starting to get late (and a little bit chilly) so I got myself some grub.
Not the best fish and chips in the world, probably what you'd expect from a van but it filled a hole. I wondered if the smell was a bit distracting to the players as I doubt they'd had their dinner yet. This wasn't covered in the post-match interview so I've got no way of knowing for certain.
This was a fairly one-sided match. Pospisil's big serve won him just one game very comfortably but De Minaur seemed to read the serve well and worked incredibly hard for every point. De Minaur is somebody I've never really seen before - he looked to be a well-rounded player worthy of his top 20 rank but doesn't have a stand-out attribute that I can see pushing him higher up the rankings. He's only 22 though and I'm no expert so time will tell.
