The last day of pool stages came to an end with a dramatic contest between week 1 winner Vasilescu and UKPL debutant Lukosiute.
The 24-year-old Romanian defeated Andre Lukosiute 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 to wrap up her pool stage matches with a suffered yet tenacious victory. Lukositue had to win in straight sets to have the opportunity of playing in the quarter-finals, but after a brilliant first set, she missed on a couple of chances in the second and eventually lost to a better Vasilescu 10-6 in the decider.
Another tight women’s game that decided the top spot in Pool B was Garland against Gillan, with the 20-year-old from Chinese-Tapei getting a straight sets win 7-6(4), 6-2. In a match of many twists and turns, Gillan couldn’t convert two set points, letting Garland get the first set only at the tie-break after more than an hour. The second set started with 5 consecutive breaks of serve, but Garland found her good form again and stormed through the remaining games. A strong junior player, Garland reached a career-high ranking of No. 14 on the junior circuit and will look to continue her great form in the quarter-final against Michelle Dzjachangirova.
In the man’s draw, Billy Harris found his strength back after the tough loss yesterday and claimed a straight sets victory over Hodkin, claiming the top spot in Pool A. The highest-ranked player of week 2 will now face Murphy in Wednesday’s quarter-final.
Over on court 2, David Fox missed out on his first UKPL quarter final losing at the match tie-break, after being a set up to Patrick Foley, who earns instead that valuable spot and will face Johnson on Thursday. Moore and Wendelken will also join the race to the semi-finals thanks to their two set wins over respectively Gibbens and Murphy.
For Foley, Hands, Wendelken and Murphy it will be the first appearance at the UKPL quarter-finals.