Miyazaki delighted with first round Wimbledon qualifiers victory

By Oli Dickson-Jefford at Wimbledon qualifying

Lily Miyazaki could not have been much happier with her performance after starting her Wimbledon Qualifying campaign in fine style on Tuesday afternoon.

Surrey’s Miyazaki eased her way past South Korean opponent Han Na-Lae 6-2 6-4 to progress to the second round in Roehampton.

It was a commanding performance from the 27-year-old, who dictated play from the baseline and looked by far the more comfortable of the two on Wimbledon Qualifying’s brand new Stadium Court.

And afterwards the world No.242 admitted that there were very few aspects of her game she was unhappy with after such an impressive display.

She said: “I’m really happy with my performance today. I’d played her once before and I lost, so I had a clear gameplan coming in. I think I executed it pretty well. 

“She’s quite a tricky player because she’s left-handed and then double-handed both sides, so she didn’t give me too much pace. I had to go and try and be aggressive, make her move, and when I got her on the stretch I tried to finish some points at the net. I think I did that pretty well and also served fairly well for the most part.

“There are plenty of positives to take away. On the serve I thought I was really going after it, trying to stay aggressive on that, and off the ground I played a pretty complete match. I was playing aggressively when I needed to be and defending, slicing when I had to as well. I had a good balance with all of that.

“There’s always some nerves in the first round of any tournament, but especially at Wimbledon, so I’m really happy with it.”

China’s Yuan Yue, the 11th seed in the qualifying draw, awaits next for Miyazaki in the second round on Wednesday.

Yue is currently just outside the world’s top 100 on the WTA Rankings, and the Brit is under no illusions that she will once again have to come up with a strong game plan to prevail. 

“She [Yue] is another different opponent as well. I’ve never played her but I think I’ve seen her play before,” added Miyazaki.

“She’s an aggressive player, so I might have to defend a bit more, maybe I need to be a bit more physical and expect a tough match.”

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