Britain’s longest winning streak for women is over at 16-0, when Naomi Broady failed to reach the quarter-finals of the $50,000 Challenger in Quanzhou City. After a hard fought 36 63 64 win over the 4th seed Julia Cohen (USA) in round one, Naomi paid the price of losing her serve 3 times in the 1st set, all in games where she held game point and lost the set 7-5 to Aleksandra Krunic (SER), who then got hot and won the 2nd set 6-0. “Conditions did not suit Naomi’s game. It was cold and very slow so Naomi was unable to use her pace to dominate a very accomplished mover like Aleksandra. Even so Naomi would have been in good shape had she converted one of the three game points on her serve especially the forehand at 5-5 when Krunic was beginning to wobble. That changes a match. If a player escapes 3 times in a set it takes the pressure off and from then on she rolled. Again failure to convert to go 1-2 in the second set allowed her to settle and play some excellent tennis” said Dave Sammel who has been with Naomi throughout the winning streak. Naomi will hope to begin a new streak when she begins play in the $25,000 in Pinggou next week, before returning to the UK.

In other news Jim Edgar and Roxanne are working with TeamBath in January whilst Anna continues to rehab her foot, hopeful to be playing doubles in February and singles again in March. Stefi is working to sort out her shoulder which is possibly a career threatening problem. Meanwhile Christina Mathis is returning home to Austria to train in her hometown so once her shoulder has recovered from surgery she will no longer train with MCTA. “We had an excellent year with Christina where she won 2 tournaments, made her Wimbledon debut, reached a career high ranking and worked very hard to improve. We realise how difficult long periods away from home can be and we wish her the best of luck in her career. MCTA has given her an excellent foundation to take forward just as we did with Henri Kontinen. MCTA is a consultancy which specialises in the touring aspect of tennis. We are flexible and players can use us as much or as little as they please. We believe this is the way forward and we have the added advantage of the TeamBath partnership which allows players to base out of Bath from a young age. Now players can base out of Bath yet tap into the touring academy, or equally base elsewhere as Naomi Broady does and still use the touring aspect of MCTA, so we will not be surprised to see Christina on the road with us again in the future ” added David.