[Devongone]

Emma did absolutely brilliantly. winning ten consecutive matches without dropping a set is some performance. At 18 a few weeks after her A Levels in a season for her which followed a prolonged period of little competition and little practice that is astonishing, but it is important to recognise she did have a golden ticket with the draw. Whereas Leylah had to knock out several top players herself, including the physically imposing Sabalenka, Emma cruised through a section of the draw in which the top players were falling to lower-ranked players, who were themselves vulnerable to a player as good as Emma. That she kept winning was astonishing, but to be fair to her opponent, she had battled past top players from her own ranking of 73 in the world and had now come face to face with a player she was supposed to beat, but who had beaten her in their only previous match and was even younger .......... I can understand her getting a little shirty over the cut knee. She was looking for something to go her way and she didn't need to be a weatherman to be seeing which way the wind was blowing.

To add to Leylah's woes, whereas she looks pretty much physically developed in a smaller, slimmer frame, Emma might add an inch or so and certainly will define her muscles. With full-time training behind her, if she can avoid injury, Emma might get stronger, serve that bit harder, ground strokes become more devastating, add another yard of speed. So long as we don't break her with our high expectations she could become great. How good that she seems so British, speaks Mandarin and has a Rumanian dad. She took the knee, when she took her first breath.