Ninth seed Naomi Cavaday gave British fans something to cheer about after breezing into the second round of the Junior Championships.
The hard-hitting youngster from Kent, who also competed as a wildcard in the main ladies singles event and was beaten by Martina Hingis in the first round, found herself in the position of firm favourite against Romania's Jasmina Tinjic, who is ranked 75 at junior level.
Watched on by a sizeable crowd on Court 5, 18-year-old Cavaday, number 61 in the junior rankings, immediately put pressure on her younger opponent with some deep returns which earned her an early break.
The Briton’s huge serve, solid footwork and solid ground strokes provide her with an ideal game for the surface. Tinjic did manage to break back however the mini fightback was all in vain as she crumbled again to hand the advantage back to the Briton. At 5-3, Cavaday served out the set to love after Tinjiv netted a forehand return.
The second set became even more one-sided as the 16-year-old Romanian managed just one more game. Cavaday took advantage of Tinjic’s faltering serve and high error count to break three times and take the match 6-2, 6-1 in 55 minutes.
Cavaday’s strong groundstrokes and mature tactics give her a good platform make a big impact on this tournament and to have some confidence about her future on the women’s tour.
The only blip on an otherwise splendid performance was Cavaday’s poor first service statistics. She’ll need to improve on 41% of first serves in if she intends to go the whole distance in the junior event. Cavaday now faces Georgia’s Oxana Kalashnikova in the second round.
Match Statistics
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