Anisimova too strong for Kartal at Queen’s

The 23-year-old from Brighton fell 6-1 6-3 in the second-round of the LTA's HSBC Championships, unable to take command in the Andy Murray Arena.

Kartal had downed world number 16 Daria Kasatkina to clinch the first grass court win of her season in the first round, sneaking into the top 50 rankings for the first time in her career.

While Anisimova, who is the eighth ranked seed at Queen’s, dumped Britain's Jodie Burrage out of the main draw in her first-round appearance, winning 4-6 6-3 6-4.

It was a performance Kartal admitted she cannot look too deeply into, with Anisimova playing her own brutal game.

"[Anisimova] has kind of a one-game style, and that's to hit the ball pretty flat and into the corners," she said. "I think when she has a day like today, she's unplayable.

"I can't get too hung up on it. I didn't do too much wrong, to be honest. She just played an incredible match.

"With her game style, she hits a big ball. Yeah, she can rush me, give me not a lot of time on the ball. It's harder to kind of play my game style when she's just going one corner to the next."

The American gave Kartal the run around in West Kensington, consistently forcing her to move on court, something Kartal seemed reluctant to do early on.

The Brit instead was left to pounce on her opponent's mistakes, which was her ultimate undoing in the Andy Murray Arena, unable to fall into her usual rhythm.

It led to the Brit quickly losing four games on the trot before finally winning her first service game.

Kartal was finally rewarded as Anisimova made a series of mistakes to allow a break in the first game of the second set, but the American was never going to let that continue and immediately broke back.

A bit of back-and-forth action led to Kartal returning for another break, but the Brit was unable to hold her service games and continued to over-hit.

Unable to get the better of her opponent on the day, Kartal missed out on progressing to the quarter-finals but is taking any positives into Eastbourne ahead of Wimbledon.

"I feel like I'm still playing great on the grass, so I'll try and take as much confidence as I can into next week," she added.

British hopes now rest on Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Heather Watson who all play their second-round draws tomorrow.

For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website