It's the first time Anna's qualified for a challenger:
Anna was delighted to make the breakthrough and to have done it in such fashion, she told the Monte Carlo academy (where she trains) website "This is the first time I have qualified for a $25,000 tournament and it was comfortable. I'm going into the main draw feeling good and confident that I can do some damage. Today, I was happy with the style of tennis I played, I was waiting for opportunities to come forward and I closed the net very well. I need to play every match with that commitment at the net.
MCTA Director of Coaching, David Sammel added: Anna qualified for her first Challenger in style. Hopefully this will be the start of her being comfortable at this level. The Monte-Carlo training camp [last week] helped, her unforced error count was way down.
Anna is up against German qualifier Ria Doernemann in rd1 so a decent chance to pick up some more points. She'll be hoping for revenge after losing 6-4, 6-4 to Doernemann in Jersey earlier this year. The hard hitting German made the quarters in the first Antalya 25K last week, beating Anna Smith along the way.
Anna Smith stunned the French 2nd seed in rd1 last week, this time she opens against Georgian qualifier Manana Shapakidze who's ranked about 400 places lower at 816 so Anna will be confident of progressing
Anna can look back on a really fantastic week. She has so much to build on now and will know that she can compete at this level. This week seems to have been really good for the Brit girls in Challengers.