Cavaday falls at final hurdle

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:34

The 20-year-old from Kent, who saved a match point before beating Angelique Kerber on Wednesday, was beaten 7-5 6-2 by Russia’s Vesna Manasieva.

Cavaday, the only British player to make the final round, will now have to hope she is given a lucky loser spot.

Unlike in her previous matches – she won the first set 6-0 in the first two rounds – Cavaday got off to a poor start on Thursday, going 3-0 down.

But she battled back well and had chances in most of her opponent’s service games, eventually breaking in the seventh game. However, she came unstuck serving to stay in the set for the second time.

Cavaday looked the more threatening player at the start of the second set but the break would not come and it was Manasieva who took advantage of her first break point to move ahead before racing to victory.

Among those who did make it were former semi-finalist Xavier Malisse, injury-plagued American Taylor Dent and Kazakhstan’s Sesil Karatantcheva, who reached the second round in 2005 as a 15-year-old but was then banned for two years after failing a drugs test.

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