Preparing myself mentally for 1. stupidy media questions to merc boys about lewis going to f****** 2. see H***** at testing days despite everything and 3. dts s6 weekend 4. say "merc sandbagging" to any signals of w15 downfall
Lina Glushko's point to 2-3* 15-30 (top left), to 2-3* 15-40 (top right), to 2-3* 40-ad (middle left); Evialina Laskevich's point to *4-4 0-40 (middle right), and to take the first set 6-4 (bottom) (📸 ITF Media)
Closing the play in this week's ITF W50 Lopota (Apr 22) was the final match between Lina Glushko, who defeated Alexandra Shubladze 1-6, 6-2, 7-6(2) in a rollercoaster showing after being unable to serve it out in the third set, and Evialina Laskevich, who also underwent a topsy-turvy match after defeating Daria Kudashova 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinals. This match ended up testing most of their aggression, where those who maintained their range as stable as possible stood out by the end of the match.
However, the question of their balance was already asked in the first game as Lina misfired his forehands, as evident in the last 2 points, that resulted in E. Laskevich breaking early to 1-0. The latter then consolidated to 2-0 as Lina put her name on the scoreboard with a service game hold to 2-1. The latter had a fair chance as she forced a failed smash to E. Laskevich for her one-point lead before having 2 break points, one thanks to a cross-court backhand pass, and another one through a forehand winner. E. Laskevich's forehand error secured the break-back to 3-3, and the next two consecutive games became service game holds.
However, the moment did not last long as Lina got pressed by E. Laskevich's baseline game, which affected her forehand errors while the double-fault midway did not help. This generated the latter's break point before its conversion came due to Lina's +1 forehand error, which gave a chance to E. Laskevich to serve for the first set. Ultimately, even though Lina became a stiff opposition at that game, E. Laskevich was still solid on serve to take the first set 6-4.
Evialina Laskevich's points to break 2-1 (top left), to *1-3 15-30 (top right), to *1-5 15-30 (middle), and to take the second set 6-1 (bottom) (📸 🎥 ITF Media)
The second set became a one-way traffic as E. Laskevich became more aggressive. After two straight holds, E. Laskevich started passing Lina's net game further as evident in her break to 2-1, followed by a consolidation to 3-1. The former also doubled her break as she took advantage of Lina's forehand errors by overpowering her, which also contributed to her double-break lead to 4-1 before another service game hold (5-1). A working pass secured E. Laskevich's 1-point lead afterward, which was followed by Lina's double fault and a +1 backhand error that secured E. Laskevich's title.
This marked E. Laskevich's second ITF title of the year after winning the ITF W15 Monastir (Mar 25), where both her and Lina will also present in next week's ITF W50 Lopota. Furthermore, this also propelled E. Laskevich's rank to 439 live, while Lina is at 357 live from this runner-up run. With several interesting names inside the current version of the entry list, this could also be one of the tournaments to look out for the week!
This piece of work lets me reference a cell at soft-coded relative coordinates. Now I can generate successive steps of my 3D fractals in arbitrary or even variable resolution haha!