Lily Miyazaki believes reaching the top 100 is a realistic goal after pushing Caroline Garcia on her ‘amazing’ Wimbledon debut.
Surrey star Miyazaki, who benefits from the LTA’s NTC Access programme, providing cost-free access to courts on all three surfaces, coaching, trainers and the LTA’s tournament bonus scheme, made a mockery of the 149 spots between her and Garcia in the WTA rankings.
However, the world No.204 was defeated 4-6 6-1 7-6 [10-4] by the Frenchwoman, who had claimed an eighth WTA title just two days previously in Bad Homburg.
The 26-year-old had never played at SW19 and now wants to continue her rise up the rankings after a summer that has seen her gain valuable experience on tour.
“It was absolutely amazing. I’ve never played at Wimbledon before. Just to play on the perfect grass court in front of home fans, it was an incredible experience,” said Miyazaki.
“In the last few weeks throughout the grass court season, I played against many, many girls in the top hundred. I feel like I’ve competed really well with them. I feel like my level’s there.
“Hopefully I can push on from here and get into the top 200 first, then who knows, into the top hundred as well.”
A break in the ninth game was all the 26-year-old needed to claim the opening set, calmly serving it out in front of passionate friends and family on Court 17.
However it looked as if Garcia – who has been as high as fourth in the world and was once tipped to be a world number one by Andy Murray – would run away with proceedings when she broke twice to take the second set and held an early break lead in the third.
Miyazaki twice rallied from a break down in the decider and was just two points away on a handful of occasions as Garcia served to stay in the contest on two occasions, though the world No.55 drew on all her experience to dominate the decisive tie-break.
“I think ultimately it came down to serving,” she added.
“She has a great serve. I think that’s something that I need to work on. I’m not saying I can hit serves as big as her, I think maybe sometimes my first-serve percentage dropped a little bit.
“That was maybe the ultimate deciding factor.”
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