At the London P1, Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova play Claudia Fernández and Martina Calvo for a place in the quarter-finals. The round-of-16 match is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in London on court 2. The French-Russian pair already have one match behind them, while the Spanish fourth seeds enter the draw at this stage.
A first-round win in two phases
Collombon and Sharifova defeated British wild cards Catherine Rose and Aimee Gibson 6-1, 7-6(5). They controlled the opening set quickly, before the second required greater accuracy and was decided in a tiebreak.
That pressured finish gives them a useful reference before a much tougher round. Collombon plays on the right and Sharifova on the left. Fernández and Calvo use the same formation. The quality of the first return and the management of defensive lobs could decide which pair controls the net.
Fernández-Calvo reached a final in their first event
Claudia Fernández, 20, and Martina Calvo, 18, reached the Pretoria P1 final in their first tournament together. They beat Bea González and Paula Josemaría 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-final, then pushed Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea to a third-set tiebreak.
The final ended 6-2, 6-7, 7-6. Fernández and Calvo served for the title in the deciding set and came within two points of the trophy. After the match, Gemma Triay summed up the challenge posed by the new pair.
“From now on, we will always have to give our very best to beat them. They showed all their quality today.”
The partnership was introduced before Pretoria in our article on the new women’s pairings. Their opening week confirmed their position as the fourth seeds in London.
A quarter-final place at stake
Collombon and Sharifova do not have the protection of a seeding, but they have already competed on the Olympia courts. To extend their run, they must reduce the comfortable overhead balls available to Calvo and stop Fernández from controlling the right-side diagonal.
Tight games may decide the match. The French-Russian pair have just won a tiebreak, while Fernández and Calvo played a two-hour, 53-minute final in Pretoria three days before arriving in London. The winners will face either Tamara Icardo and Claudia Jensen or Jimena Velasco and Verónica Virseda in Friday’s quarter-finals.
The official FIP order of play lists the match first on court 2. Collombon and Sharifova now face the pair that pushed the world number ones to the limit in its first week together.
