R1...

Anne Schaefer (Ger, 807) vs WC Annabel Bann
(5) Karen Paterson vs Emily Webley Smith
(4) Jane O'D vs WC Laura Slater
Q Natasha Hillyer vs Corina Dentoni (Ita, 666)
WC Anna Hawkins vs q Karolina Nowak (Nor, 905)
Olivia Scarfi vs Catarina Fereira (Por, 656)
WC Melissa Gibb vs (3) Martina Pavelec (Ger, 388)
Anna FitzPatrick vs (8) Ria Doernemann (Ger 597)
Julia Bone vs Laura Habberkorn (Ger, 724)
Claire Ricketts vs q Holly Richards
Lucy Warburton vs (1) Gaelle Widmer (Swi, 249)

Happycynic wrote:

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R1...

Anne Schaefer (Ger, 807) vs WC Annabel Bann
(5) Karen Paterson vs Emily Webley Smith
(4) Jane O'D vs WC Laura Slater
Q Natasha Hillyer vs Corina Dentoni (Ita, 666)
WC Anna Hawkins vs q Karolina Nowak (Nor, 905)
Olivia Scarfi vs Catarina Fereira (Por, 656)
WC Melissa Gibb vs (3) Martina Pavelec (Ger, 388)
Anna FitzPatrick vs (8) Ria Doernemann (Ger 597)
Julia Bone vs Laura Habberkorn (Ger, 724)
Claire Ricketts vs q Holly Richards
Lucy Warburton vs (1) Gaelle Widmer (Swi, 249)

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Paterson v Webley-Smith, has to be the pick of the rd1 matches !  Emily won 6-2, 6-1 back in 2000 but Karen won their last encounter 6-3, 6-3 in November, during the Australia tour. Emily's started to shake off the rust and has found patches of her best form lately, I think she'd have a better chance though on a slower surface. On fast indoor courts, Karen's power hitting and big serve will surely prevail. Emily doesn't have the same power off the ground, her game is based more on mixing this up and working the rallies, looking to get into the net whenever possible. In Sutton, it was effective at times, her game does tend to upset the opponent's rhythm. However, in that tournament she was just too inconsistent, missed some easy shots and didn't always pick the right time to come in.

Anna Fitzpatrick has a tough match. I saw Doernemann at Sutton, she can blaze the ball off both wings, extremely powerful.  Hit some spectacular winners, amazing that she's never been in the top 550 ! Somehow, she's only won 1 match this year that was the one I saw against Britain's Melissa Gibb. I guess that Doernemann must blow hot and cold, seems like the cold happens more often and hopefully that'll be the case today. Anna's only won 2 matches so far in 2007, disappointing couple of losses in 25K qualies on indoor carpet in the last few weeks. Could do with a good run here.

Julia Bone is ranked about 100 places higher than Germany's Laura Haberkorn. Haberkorn can hit some big shots but is also pretty erratic. Julia's game is designed more for clay or slow hard, hits with heavy topspin and is very consistent. If Julia plays a consistent match and mixes things up, Haberkorn's errors should prove her undoing.

Lucy Warburton, Melissa Gibb and Laura Slater don't have much chance. Anna Hawkins has the best chance of the wildcards, Nowak has had her best results on clay. Anna's game is based around a good serve and her strengths lie at the net.

Claire Ricketts should beat Holly

Olivia Scarfi has played Portuguese clay-courter Caterina Ferreira once before, on clay in Edinburgh last spring. Ferreira won 6-3, 6-1 but 10 months later, Scarfi is a much improved player and their rankings are now pretty similar plus the fast indoor acrylic in jersey will suit Scarfi's game a lot more.   Ferreira lost 7-5, 6-3 to Webley-Smith in Portimao last month.

Annabel Bann has a lovely draw, she's playing an opponent on a 24 match losing streak going back to October 2005 !  Annabel is currently unranked but once she starts playing more 10Ks, she'll surely be nearing the top 1000 soon given her results on the British tour.

Natasha's opponent is Italian but she's had good results on surfaces other than clay. She's 17 and the world no 34 in the juniors. Made a 10K quarter-final indoors at the start of the year and reached her first 10K final last autumn

Claire Ricketts (Gbr) bt Holly Richards (Gbr) 6-2 6-3

Laura Haberkorn (Ger) bt Julia Bone (Gbr) 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-4

Olivia Scarfi (Gbr) bt Catarina Ferreira (Por) 6-0 6-3

Samantha Schoeffel (Fra) bt Celine Cattaneo (Fra) 6-1 3-6 6-3

Corinna Dentoni (Ita) bt Natasha Hillyer (Gbr) 6-1 6-2

Vanessa Wellauer (Sui) bt Melanie Oosterhof (Ger) 7-5 6-1

Jane O'Donoghue (Gbr) bt Laura Slater (Gbr) 6-4 6-2

Emily Webley-Smith (Gbr) bt Karen Paterson (Gbr) 5-3 rtd

Sherazad Benamar (Fra) bt Constance Sibille (Fra) 6-2 7-5

Annabel Bann (Gbr) bt Anne Priska Schaefer (Ger) 6-0 6-3

Aurelie Vedy (Fra) bt Talitha De Groot (Ned) 6-1 6-1

Speaking afterwards to britishtennis.net, Fed Cup captain Nigel Sears said:
"The performance of the day came from Olivia Scarfi. She was very fired up for the match and played really well.

The O'Donoghue-Slater match was very interesting, Laura started well and led 4-1 in the 1st set but Jane managed to work out how to turn it around and came through in straights. Laura is one of our best teenage prospects, she's an exciting player and I think she'll definately be top 300 in the future. She has a good backhand and uses the slice well, she's willing to come forward and also serves well. With Jane, she's still very rusty, she hasn't played a lot of matches this year.

Karen Paterson has a groin stroin, it's not serious but just something which has been niggling her for a while. It's a shame as she's been in good form recently. Emily is getting better with more matches under her belt, she still serves very well as she did at her peak in 2004 and her backhand is still a strong shot. She mixes it up well with the topspin and the slice. However, she needs to work a lot on her forehand and fitness. She's been re-constructing her forehand recently to make it more of a weapon so it's a work in progress.

Annabel Bann had a great win, especially considering that she's not been well recently. Hannah Collin (former national champion who's now a coach) was there today, cheering her on. Annabel trains at Bisham Abbey with Mike Walker and is improving a lot, she hasn't played a lot of matches though so it's good to see her out there. Her big weapon is her backhand, that's a great shot.

Anna Fitzpatrick was disappointing today, she missed a lot of forehands. She needs more matches but it's a catch 22 as she's been losing early in a lot of tournament lately which affects the confidence. She's going through a bad patch but it's a learning curve for her. Anna's one of our best prospects, an extremely talented player, she serves well, is willing to come forward and attack the net. Her game is still very much a work in progress. Her best surface is probably outdoor hard.

Julia Bone lost a close match today. In order to move up the rankings, she needs to be more aggressive from the baseline and move up the court more to finish off points. Like Anna Fitzpatrick, she's also more suited to slower courts. Outdoor hard is also probably her best surface, she doesn't move well enough for clay."

Looking ahead to round 2, Jane O'Donoghue and Emily Webley-Smith have the best chance of reaching the last 8. Jane plays Switzerland's Vanessa Wellauer, who's ranked 360 places lower at 752. Wellauer has only won 2 main draw matches since last July ! Emily takes on 17 year old French qualifier Sherazad Benamar, ranked about 200 places lower at 917. Benamar defeated another qualifier 6-2, 7-5 in rd1. She also competed in the Portugal 10Ks last month, so Emily may have seen in the qualies.

Unfortunately Claire Ricketts, Annabel Bann and Olivia Scarfi all face the 1st, 2nd and 3rd seeds respectively and so will be heavily outranked. It will be a massive shock if any of these three make the quarters.

2nd rd:

Gaelle Widmer (Swi) bt Claire Ricketts (Gbr) 6-2 6-1

Ria Doernemann (Ger) bt Laura Haberkorn (Ger) 6-2 6-4

Martina Pavelec (Ger) bt Olivia Scarfi (Gbr) 6-2 6-1

Ana Veselinovic (Ser) bt Karolina Nowak (Ger) 6-2 7-6 (7-5),

Whooah!

Annabel must be someone to really watch out for in that case. Wonder why she doesn't play Juniors...

Does this mean we have to start an Annabel Bann fan club to mirror Tara?

Am impressed.