Glad to see a couple of the Brits qualify, shame it couldn't be all three!

Hope more than just two Brits get through to the second round

I had a chat with Nigel Sears tonight, got a few comments from him. Unfortunately we didn't speak for long as he was in a rush

Speaking on the final qualifying round matches "Naomi did extremely well to win that, it was very close but she eventually came through 7-1 in the final set tiebreak. There were lots of baseline duels, she really had to grind it out and it's a great win. Jane also did well, Silva is a tricky opponent but Jane kept plugging away and once she won the 2nd set tiebreak 7-4, that was the turning point. Karen Paterson was the big disappointment today, she's beaten that Spanish girl twice before but got edged out 6-4 in the 3rd this time. However, Suarez Navarro is a very good player, she made the Sunderland 10K final last month and the last time they played it went to a final set tiebreak."

Looking ahead to the main draw, Nigel said "Georgie versus Melanie will be an interesting match. Last week Mel had spent the previous two days in bed so it'll be a lot closer this time round. Both have played well so far this year. Anne's the second seed but she doesn't have an easy opening match, her opponent's ranked 195. Her loss to Hlavackova in Sutton was unexpected but I'm confident she'll play a lot better this week. Natasha has a very tough draw, Salerni's currently ranked 225 but she's been a lot higher in the past. Used to be a regular on the WTA tour."

Looking ahead to the other ones...

Natasha has a tough match as Salerni's been in the top 100 in the past, doubt she'll get through that one. It started at 10am so result will be through for my next update. Anna Fitzpatrick is the other player who I doubt will get through, Hlavackova reached last week's semis and beat Anne 4 and 0 in rd2. She also outranks Anna by over 400 places.

Sarah Coles has a good chance against Justine Ozga. The German qualifier's only ranked 30 or so places higher, at 25K level it's an excellent draw.

Jane v Katie: They've played twice before. Jane won 6-2, 7-6 in February 2005 in Redbridge, Katie won 7-6, 6-4 in the autumn. Both matches were indoors. It's going to be close but I reckon Katie will win this one in straights aswell.

Anne should beat Gubacsi but it's a nasty rd1 draw as the Hungarian has been a lot higher.

Amanda and Margit Ruutel have similar rankings but Ruutel reached the Sutton semis last week and came close to beating top seed Taemala.


-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:15, 2007-02-07

great start to the day from the Brits, well done Naomi.

Hopefully the rest of the British women will be inspired by that result and produce similar scorelines!

Georgie Stoop (GB)(WC) bt Mel South (GB)(4) 7-6(4), 7-6(10)

Anne Keothavong (GB)(2) bt Zsofia Gubacsi (Hun) 6-4, 6-3 

ultimateshedman wrote:

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Georgie seems to have the edge over Mel at the moment, shows that she's currently playing at top 200 standard

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....or that Mel isn't.