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Fitzpatrick Rues Missed Opportunity
 Anna
Fitzpatrick suffered a frustrating
second round exit in the $25,000 ITF
tournament in Nottingham on Thursday
after going down in two
closely-fought sets to Austria’s
highly-rated Nikola Hofmanova.
The 18-year-old from Sheffield, who
recorded an emphatic 6-0, 6-1
victory over Nadege Vergos of France
in the first round, went down 7-5,
6-4 to Hofmanova, the reigning
Orange Bowl champion.
“I’m annoyed because I had chances
in each set and I wasn’t even
playing great tennis,” said Anna.
“It showed me that I can still
nearly beat a pretty good player
when I’m not playing that well.
Today was more mental than tennis –
it was a case of who could make the
extra ball and force the other
person to win, not lose it with
errors.”
Anna, who reached the semifinals of
the $10,000 tournament at the
Nottingham Tennis Centre last week,
demonstrated once again that she is
ready to step up to the next level.
After gaining an early break in the
first set, Anna had chances to for a
3-1 lead but failed to capitalise on
her momentum as the World Junior No.
7 fought back and was then handed
the opener as the British No. 9
produced three unforced errors at
5-6.
“I had an opportunity on my serve at
2-1 in the first set after breaking
her, and if I could have won that
game, I would have given myself a
chance of winning the first set
comfortably,” said Anna.
Coach David Sammel added: “Anna
feels she is ready to make a move
and almost did today. A couple of
points where she overplayed was the
difference but she will eliminate
this as her comfort level about her
ability grows.”
Earlier in the tournament, Anna’s
fellow Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy
star Ana Veselinovic lost her
opening match to No. 8 seed Sabine
Lisicki of Germany.
The duo now turn their attention to
the doubles, where they are through
to the quarterfinals.
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