For her second match at the WTA 125 in Ilkley, Diane Parry faced the British player Harriet Dart. A match that turned in favor of the player from Nice.
It’s another victory for Diane Parry. In Ilkley this week, the player from Nice is preparing her grass season in the best possible way. Already victorious yesterday against another British player, Ranah Akua Stoiber, she continued this afternoon in the second round. This time it was a more renowned player in the form of Harriet Dart (ranked 121st in the world, 28 years old). More known for her off-court antics, like the revelation of the last French Open, Lois Boisson (who trains in Nice), Harriet Dart has never managed to break into the top 60 in her career. This is due to her inconsistency on hard courts and her aversion to clay courts. A surface on which she hasn’t won in more than a year. However, her preference for fast surfaces such as grass made her a formidable opponent for Diane Parry.
This would be confirmed quickly. As the day before, Diane Parry starts her match well thanks to a good first serve. However, with experience, Harriet Dart manages to break the serve of the player from the Côte d’Azur early in the match. Unlike the day before, Diane Parry has to play catch-up. The player from Nice is forced to take risks, and it pays off. She unleashes her shots and forces her opponent into errors. Thanks to strong returns, she causes the British player to doubt, who ends up folding twice. Diane Parry takes the first set (6-3).
The second set is more closely contested. The French player finds her rhythm on serve and strings together aces (six in the second set). A formidable weapon on this surface that often favors big servers. And this solidity on her first serve makes the difference to compensate for a slight lack of reactivity at the end of the match.
After 1 hour and 35 minutes of play, Diane Parry wins in two sets (6-3/7-5) and will face the Swiss player Viktorija Golubic in the quarter-finals in Ilkley. See you on Friday.
