Anna Smith is the eighth seed. Jade needs just another withdrawal for a direct entry! Madelaine Brooks, Lucy Fletcher, and Lereesa Easterbrook are in qualies.
Good decision from Anna to head out here The fields in these Kiwi futures are a lot weaker so it's a great chance for her to pick up some points and move into the top 500. Top seed is 400 while in the British 10Ks there are top 300 players entered ! No one in this field who Anna can't beat, hoping for some great results for her over the next few weeks.
So far this year she's put in some impressive performances against higher ranked players but just hasn't been able to convert them into ranking points
Lots of Brits in the qualifying which starts tomorrow...
Rd1 (GB unless stated):
M Brooks (3) v M Durie (NZ)(WC)
L Fletcher (5) v J Moriarty (Aus)
J Curtis (8) v C Terasawa (Jpn)
L Easterbrook v E Starr (Aus)(15)
Madelaine, Jade and Lucy all face unranked opponents. 15 year old Lereesa Easterbrook makes her debut on the womens tour against Aussie 15th seed Emelyn Starr. Lereesa has been in New Zealand for several weeks competing in junior events and she made the final of a G4 a couple of weeks ago. She may have a chance against Starr who only has a couple of ranking points and has lost to Jade Curtis and Lucy Fletcher recently.
Great results for all 4, particularly Lereesa. That's her first win on the women's circuit, continuing her great start to the year (made a G4 final in NZ a couple of weeks ago).
She now plays 18 year old Japanese 7th seed Yurina Koshino for a place in the main draw. Koshino is ranked 1185 and this is her first tournament since October. She's yet to win a main draw match in a 10K.
Jade now plays Japan's Miki Ueno, an unranked player who defeated the 16th seed in straights. Prior to this tournament, Ueno had only ever won 1 match on the womens circuit.
Possibly an injury or maybe she just got outclassed, this is her first tournament at this level. It's a big step up from the G4s she's been playing. Also, Lereesa is currently only 5ft1 and is 15 so she might get outhit by stronger players on the women's tour, probably what happened in this match.
Anna's match is trickier than it looks on paper. Sema is 18 and in the top 50 juniors. She's been as high as 570 on the women's tour (last July) but has since slipped back a bit. She had a poor 2006, didn't do much all year on the women's tour. Hasn't played since last November so she might be a little rusty. Anna should hopefully have too much for her.
Lucy has the toughest draw, that's really unlucky getting the 3rd seed who's about 700 places higher. Lee is a 19 year old clay-court specialist, career best of 306 (Feb 2006). Has started 2007 extremely well, made a 25K semi last week.
Good draw for Jade, although Szili's ranked over 500 places higher we know that Jade's a lot better than her current ranking and is top 1000 standard. Szili's career best is 402 but that was reached back in 2002. Has played 1 tournament so far in 2007, lost to Lucy's opponent in 3 sets last week. Highlight of 2006 was making a 10K final in Australia. Since Nov 2005, both Melissa Gibb and Naomi Cavaday have beaten her in straight sets. She's also quite good looking as a matter of fact.