Saturday 19th April 2025 Approx 1230

I am delighted to announce my next live text commentary will be for one of my favourite WTA players, Switzerland’s Simona Waltert. Simi is having a great season so far, regularly going deep in tournaments and stacking up the trophies in doubles. She has been super this week and I look forward to bringing you her match tomorrow lunchtime – good luck Simi! See you tomorrow for the live text commentary.

Good afternoon, after a lengthy delay we may be good to go 🙏

It looked promising for ten minutes or so, bit windy, few spots in the air. Courts were swept and line judges walked out then this happened…..

You gather the animals and I’ll start building the ark! It looks bleak, hopefully it will settle soon 🤞

Okay we are back and we have players on court 😀 still windy though, you can hear it!

My Portuguese is not great but I think Volynets won the toss and choose to receive? Yes my Portuguese is perfect Simi has the balls and we are off!

0-1 Simi struggling to find first serves in the opener, the wind is no friend to her either. She is defending hard behind the second serves but Katie has just started a little sharper and despite an early drop shot going wrong she gets a couple of strong winners on the board and with assistance from one or two Simi errors she breaks early.

0-3 Simi pushes Katie to deuce with a punchy little cross court forehand winner. With resilient defending from the backhand she eradicates a game point and creates a break point opportunity yet a wild error drags it back to deuce. More pressure from Simi next, her backhand is looking strong in these early exchanges. Another break point comes and goes and Volynets manoevers her opponent out of position to strike a winner and then pressures Simi into another mistake and she is 2-0 up but that game was close! Missed chances perhaps still lingering Simi quickly finds herself broken to love. Katie is starting to pull away.

0-5 A good aggressive point with some nice variety tries to get Simi going at 0-15 but as Simi dictates play a net cord on a return breaks the rhythm and Katie tidys up the point and then tidys up the game to go 4-0 up. Simi quickly 0-40 down again but gets back into the game care of a baseline error from Katie then a marvellous point from Simi using the drop shot to get a perfect lob winner over Katie. We get to deuce but Simi is ultimately broken again. She is trying to make something happen but far too many errors at the moment, Katie is handling the windy conditions much better.

1-6 Simi gets a break, literally! She is continuing is work hard in the long exchanges and forcing Katie to go for too much, a couple of errors from Volynets give Simi some break points which she converts with a decent forehand winner. She’s just starting to find her groove in this battle, it may be too late to save the set but the play is looking much closer now. A Jekyll and Hyde service game follows, Simi now seemingy in control with the forehand however a loose error and double fault takes the game to deuce and Katie Volynets seals the set. Some good moments from Simi but not consistent enough and the better player is in front.

As set two gets under way, the wind definitely seems to have died down and the sun is out, looks a pleasant evening after a day of rain.

1-6 1-0 Simi gets to 0-30 on the Volynets serve but a rather wild forehand error lets the American back in, she does not capitalise however and goes wide with a forehand, break point for Simi which she takes in style, bossing the play and a thumping forehand winner into the open court to finish. Great start to set two after the lacklustre opening set!

1-6 1-2 Volynets puts the Swiss under pressure again, Simi hitting well off both wings but Volynets keeps putting balls in play and eventually Simi coughs up an error to give Katie two break points. Simi saves the first with a trendy drop shot but another long exchange which draws out another error from the Swiss player means we are even again. Katie Volynets quickly holds to take the lead in the set, that wind is really picking up again and we have lost the little ray of sunshine we had. Bit like how Simi must be feeling now.

1-6 2-3 Simi is playing some good tennis and creating some lovely shots however as with most of the match she is struggling to finish the points off, under pressure again as a few more errors give Katie another break. Simi controls the play on the next Volynets service game and some excellent tennis gets her to 0-40. She is let down by a drop shot on the first break point and Katie forces her back to 30 yet goes long on the next one and we are back on serve again!

1-6 4-3 Excellent defending from Simi on the first point as Katie pushes her side to side and then charges forward but as she comes in Simi gets her with a gorgeous passing shot winner. Big hitting from both on the fourth point but Katie has a little too much and gets to 30-30 then another long exchange is ended with a beautiful lob winner from Simi and she makes a perfect drop shot winner on the next one to go 3-3. At 3-3 30-30 this set is so much closer and both are playing well at the same time. A Simi forehand sails long of the baseline on Katie’s game point and she escapes but this set close. Simi is playing well if she can just reign in a few of the errors she might navigate her way to a decider!

1-6 3-5 More relentless pressure from Katie in the next game a killer backhand winner sets her up with a break point and another long return by Simi in the next point confirms it. Katie is serving for the match!

1-6 4-5 Not over yet! A slightly tight game from Katie and Simi pounces on it. Back on serve but Simi must hold to stay in the match now.

1-6 4-6 More excellent defending from Simi in the first point she holds strong in another long exchange which ends in a Volynets error. But then loses the next point. Volynets using a lot of slice now which Simi contains well and as Katie draws forward Simi gets her again with another lush passing shot, she then wins another long point as she outlasts the American. Yet Katie is relentless an excellent point by both is ended when Katie goes big down the line with a powerful backhand forcing an error from Simi. We are dragged to deuce and another couple of errors allow Katie Volynets through to the final.

To be fair she deserved it and was the better player throughout. Simi battled very hard, especially in the second set but just found Katie a little too much today, however she should be very proud of her week.