Not a great day for Nat but very good for me to get my revenge after losing to Linda a week ago at the Tournament of Champions in New York.

Nat was on earlier in the day.  She has a pretty good record against Grainger but today just couldn't get the ball past her.  Grainger is a great shot player and usually Nat can count on running around and picking up everything until Grainger finally hits the tin, but today that was not to be.  She kept hitting the balls straight on to Grainger's volley where she is so dangerous and kept the pressure on so well that Nat just couldn't get herself out of trouble as usual.  And the court was perfectly suited to shot players - Grainger was hitting some really good winners in the front.  Nat was then just getting more frustrated with herself and couldn't get her head together at all to be able to work her way into any rallies.

But one of us had a good day atleast !  After losing to Linda in New York I was able to have a good think about the match and how I could deal with her new game plan.  She had basically beaten me with one shot - cross-court lob from the forehand to the backhand where I would get stuck in the back.  So my main objective was to keep the ball on the backhand side so she couldn't play that shot.  Apart from that I kept patient, especially after losing some rallies in the beginning from going short too early, so I kept rallying to the back until she went short when I could then get onto it quickly and counter-drop if I wanted to.  The conditions were more favourable to me this time... I had thought I was gonna be in trouble again because this glass court was the same one we had played on in New York and it had worked so well for her - but the weather went my way !!  It was really humid so we were sweating like crazy, which I was not so happy about except for the fact that I knew Linda was gonna be more uncomfortable than me since she's renowned for having a problem with sweating too much on her hands and struggles to grip her racket properly.  That could have led to some inaccuracy in her shots, as she did finally hit some of those lobs out instead of them being winning shots as they were a week ago. 

Anyhow, overall I'm very happy to get through that match and now can look forward to a re-match with another player to whom I lost the last time we met... Nicol David.