The Magic of Madison Brengle
You have to marvel at the way life works out sometimes don’t you? Madison Brengle started her year in the final in Hobart against Global Chick’s very own Heather Watson, and we were (off course) rootin’ tootin’ for our Hev to prevail, which she did, and so the tennis world rolled on. Until the Australian Open where once more Brengle spun into the tennis consciousness in ‘The Battle of the Madisons, ™’ as Madison Keys battered fluffy balls all the way to the Australian Open semi-final.
She arrived in Stuttgart all set to play qualies but the late withdrawal of the handshake queen (or rather lack thereof) Genie Bouchard meant she was the last acceptance into the main draw.
She won her first round match and was set to face a returning Petra Kvitova in the second round. Now Kvitova was seeming much more relaxed, talking very frankly about her time out through exhaustion of the grind on tour, and was very much looking forward to getting back to work – until she encountered the free swinging Brengle, who despatched her in straight sets.
She has largely flown under the radar as far as the US Women’s scene this year, with Sloane Stephens coming back into form, and with the blistering style of Madison Keys, but that is all water off a duck’s back to Brengle.
“I quite like that. I really do. I mean I’m quite quiet and keep to myself at the tournaments mostly. I think there is definitely a buzz with American women’s tennis. We’re doing really a lot and there is a lot of good players out there. So, yes, it’s definitely promising. “
Her run to the semi-final may have caught some people by surprise, but actually, she’s going to be a Top 40 player after this run, and she knows that to move on in the tour, she has to string it all together on all surfaces.
She said: “I definitely like how I prepared for here. I played Charleston, then I went home and practiced a couple of days. I thought that I was going to play qualies. I snuck into main draw the last minute. So, I had quite a few days on these courts just to practice. Yes, and I made a strong match here. I had a little bit more nerves in my first-round match here. You know, first match on the red clay over here. So, I was glad I got that.
“It’s easier now. It’s taken me a little bit longer to get comfortable and a big part of my game is movement anyway. So, you really need to move differently on the clay as opposed to hard court.”
She continued: “After Australia people like asked me what do you want to work on, what are your goals and a big one for me was having better results on clay. I played some good matches here and there but it wasn’t as solid all the way through as I would have liked. So, it’s kind of one of my goals to play every match quite well on the clay. So, I’m very happy to have all these weeks.”
Of course she was pretty disappointed not to have given the home crowd favourite Angelique Kerber more of a battle out there. But all in all, apart from raving to us about the food and the quality of pretzels, there were other positive takeaways for Brengle, and she could well be our one to watch and root for over the rest of the clay court season.
Topics: global chick, Madison Brengle, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart tennis, Tennis News
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