Maia Lumsden set for career high ranking after reaching Glasgow semi-finals

Maia Lumsden continued an impressive start to her year with a run to the semi-finals of last week’s ITF tournament in Glasgow.
Maia Lumsden reached the semi-finals of the W25 tournament in Glasgow (pic courtesy of Tennis Scotland)Maia Lumsden reached the semi-finals of the W25 tournament in Glasgow (pic courtesy of Tennis Scotland)
Maia Lumsden reached the semi-finals of the W25 tournament in Glasgow (pic courtesy of Tennis Scotland)

The 21-year-old, from Lenzie, having come through three tough three-set matches, eventually went out to ultimate winner Jessika Ponchet of France after another three-set match.

Maia, originally from Bearsden, opened with a 5-7 6-3 6-4 win over Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian, beat number seven seed Pemra Ozgen of Turkey in the second round and then saw off France’s Audrey Albie 6-3 4-6 7-6 in a tight quarter-final.

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But the semi proved a step too far as Ponchet won a close encounter 7-6 5-7 6-2.

Despite the defeat Maia - who reached the final in Glasgow last year - was happy with another fine performance on home ground to follow her recent run to the quarter-finals of the W60 event in Shrewsbury - and is now set to go above her previous highest ever world ranking of 307.

She told the Herald: “I’ve been happy with the week. I had three tough three setters in a row so to get through all of them, when I was in losing positions and came back, will give me confidence going forward.

“In the semi-final I lost the first set 7-6 and 12-10 in the tie break. I had a couple of set points and was pretty unlucky not to get that set. But then in the second set I was 5-2 down and came through to win the set 7-5.

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“In the third set she played better and I was a little bit tired towards the end.

“I had a couple of tournaments in France where I wasn’t playing great but then I went to Shrewsbury and had two good wins - in the second round it was the highest ranked player I’ve beaten.”

That put Maia through to a last eight encounter with Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, a former world number 12 who reached the US Open semi-finals in 2009, losing 6-3 6-3 to Caroline Wozniacki.

Maia admitted: “It was a good experience playing against her, she’s obviously been at the very top of the game so it was a good way to get confidence and momentum going into Glasgow.

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“She defintely has a bit more added power than a lot of my other opponents and how professional she was was a good experience to see that.”

Next for the Stirling University student is a couple of weeks training, followed by a tournament in Russia and two more in England at the start of April.

She continued: “I’ve got a couple of university cup matches over the next few weeks so I’ll do those as well.

“I think I’ll probably go to a new career high this week and then just over the next few months before the grass season try and get up as high as possible and get the opportunity to play bigger tournaments in England on the grass.”