Liverpool International Tennis 2008: Katie O’Brien shaping up for Wimbledon

Jun 12 2008 Ian Laybourn

BRITISH number two Katie O’Brien believes she is in tip-top shape for Wimbledon – but admits she needs to work on her big-match temperament.

The 22-year-old from Yorkshire squandered a glorious opportunity to join Surrey’s Mel South in the third round of the DFS Classic in Birmingham when she lost a gruelling centre-court battle with Russian qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova.

Kent teenager Naomi Cavaday also lost in three sets to a qualifier, Florida-based Indian Sunitha Rao, leaving South to fly the flag for Britain in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament, while top seed Marion Bartoli suffered a shock defeat in her first match of the year on grass.

O’Brien, who is on the brink of a place in the world’s top 100, had to hold back the tears after going down 5-7 6-1 5-7 in an absorbing two-hour duel in the sun.

"Obviously I’m bitterly disappointed because I didn’t play a bad match," she said.

"I did a lot of things well. I created quite a few opportunities but I wasn’t quite able to take them. I might have frozen at the big points. I was a bit pensive and I wasn’t swinging the way I am capable. "It wasn’t the tennis that let me down, it was probably just my nerve at crucial stages."

O’Brien’s defeat cost her the chance to join Anne Keothavong in the world’s top 100. and she has had to rely on a wild card to enter Wimbledon but she believes she is well placed to build on her first-round win at the All England Club last year.

O’Brien thinks her game has improved out of sight over the last 12 months and she is now fitter than ever following public criticism from controversial LTA chief executive Roger Draper.

"Last year British women were given a bit of stick because of a lack of fitness and I was one of those," she said.

"I actually addressed the issue straight after Wimbledon and I’ve been in good shape ever since.

"It has really helped my tennis. I’m not the tallest of players so I have to be in the best shape possible."

Cavaday, the 19-year-old British number five, won the first set against world number 160 Rao but subsided to a 4-6 6-3 6-1 defeat.

"I’m very disappointed but I fought hard," she said.

"The basics of my game just weren’t there today but she played some great tennis."

Rao’s reward will be to open proceedings on centre court tomorrow against eighth seed Alona Bondarenko.

South is next up against Japan’s Aiko Nakamura, the 17th seed, as she seeks to become only the second British player, behind Sue Barker, to reach the quarter-finals.

Nakamura, the 5ft 4in world number 78, beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea in three sets today.

There was also a defeat for sixth seed Sania Mirza, who went down 6-3 6-0 to Marina Erakovic, of New Zealand, but the biggest upset came on centre court, where Bartoli succumbed 5-7 6-4 6-0 to Petra Cetkovska, of the Czech Republic.

The world number ten, who was runner-up to Venus Williams at Wimbledon last year, won a difficult first set and then began to complain about a recurrence of the wrist injury that affected her in the French Open.

Instead of retiring, Bartoli continued in the match but clearly had little appetite and, from 4-4 in the second set, she lost eight games in a row to crash out of the tournament and is now a doubt for Wimbledon.