Spirited Chloe is smash hit as stars serve up tennis treat

Jun 11 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S outstanding tennis prospect Chloe Murphy made a spirited debut in at Calderstone’s yesterday and gave a fine impression of her potential despite losing.

At 15 she was far less experienced than her Ukrainian opponent Olga Savchuk, and took a little time to settle in her first senior tournament.

In the first set she struggled to hold her own but as she settled she began to show glimpses of the undoubted talent that makes her Merseyside’s finest prospect.

She claimed three games in the second set having managed just one in the opening set.

“I enjoyed it very much,” she said afterwards. “She was obviously a good player but the longer we went the more comfortable I felt and hopefully I will have learned quite a lot from the match.”

It will be interesting to see how she fares today against the holder of the women’s Calderstones singles title, Ashley Harkleroad from the United States.

Neither Ashley, nor her great rival, 18-year-old Caroline Woznicaki were in action yesterday, but Caroline was practising on and off for most of the day and again looked in brilliant shape.

The other big match of local interest involved Ken Skupski, who shot up several hundred places in the international rankings during the last 12 months.

During this period he has sharpened up his singles game considerably but encountered a really tough opponent yesterday in the shape of Robert Kendrick of the US, and was unable to claim the victory he obviously hoped for.

Kendrick took the first set 6-3 and then broke Skupski’s serve in the second set to gain a vital advantage.

There was genuinely little between the two with Skupski hitting some tremendous serves and both players striking the ball true and hard, but it was the American who managed to claim the key points.

Frederick Sletting-Johnsen of Norway hit some huge serves against Paul Capdeville of Chile but still went down 6-1, 6-3 as he reminded us that his baseline shots don’t match up to his serve and volleys.

Veteran star Goran Ivanesevic once again showed everyone how good an all-round player he is beating another veteran Mikael Pernfors in the Legends’ Singles, and between them they put on a colourful display that Ivanesevic finally won 6-4, 7-6.

Today sees Chloe Murphy face holder Harkleroad while Kendrick faces Seb Jackson and in the afternoon Woznickai comes up against Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal. Veteran Pat Cash takes on Pernfors in the Legends while Skupski meets 15-year-old Australian Open Junior winner Bernard Tomic.

GORAN’S SWIPE AT ENGLISH GAME – SEE PAGE 8