British number three Naomi Broady eased into the second round of the Manchester Aegon Trophy after a 6-3 6-4 victory over India’s Ankita Raina.
The Stockport-born player crashed out in the first round of the doubles on Tuesday, but recovered from a tricky start to win in convincing fashion in front of her home crowd at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club this afternoon.
After having her serve broken in the third game of the opening set, Broady recovered to break Raina’s serve in the following game, something she went on to do another two times as she took the set.
In the second set, the world number 115 picked up where she left off, coming close to breaking her opponent in the first game.
With the pair tied at 2-2 in the second set, Broady finally broke Raina’s serve to go 3-2 up, and held her nerve in the next game to establish a 4-2 lead.
Although world number 273 Raina continued to put up a strong fight, Broady’s quality proved too much in the end, wrapping up the second set to secure a satisfying victory with some fine match winning shots.
Not much better than celebrating a win with family!@NaomiBroady gets a kiss from Grandma after her #AegonManchesterTrophy win pic.twitter.com/3YdCYtQQmm
— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) June 14, 2017
Afterwards, Broady told MM: “It was a tough match. Ankita played really well, she’s a great grass court player, so I knew that she would be really good on there.
“I was taken aback by how well she dealt with my pace. It didn’t overwhelm her at all and in the end I ended up winning a lot of points through my slices.
“I ended up serving really well and I think that made the difference in the end.”
Despite a promising start to the competition, the 27-year-old insists she is not getting carried away with her chances of taking home the $100,000 prize winnings just yet.
“I’m taking it match by match, it’s a really tough draw here so we’ll see. You never know on grass but hopefully if I can keep serving how I did today that will help me,” she said.
Broady will now face her doubles partner American Maria Sanchez in the second round on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Stockport’s Samantha Murray was beaten 6-4 3-6 6-3 by fellow Brit Katie Boulter.
Image courtesy of The Northern via Twitter, with thanks.
