Sarah won 4-6, 7-5, 6-2!

Excellent results - one of Sarah's best of the year. Bally will play either Kelly Liggan or Natalie Grandin, who are playing at present - either very winnable. Sarah has to overcome Anne's nemesis, Meng Yuan, which will be tough. Both are scheduled second match.

Great results!

Wow, what an amazing win for Bally against someone ranked 200ish....she's on fire for this tourney ! Grandin could pose some problems though in final qualies round, she's got a very unorthodox style which could throw Bally...She's ranked 205 but is top 100 in doubles....has a very good record against Brits having beaten Mel South, Georgie Stoop and Karen Paterson all very comfortably in the past year. Here's hoping Elena can make it through to main draw, on this form she'll be a threat to a lot of players

Great result for Sarah too...must be one of her best wins for some time. She was a break up in the 1st so showed great guts to come back from losing that set and also she got broken back at start of the 3rd too before wresting control of the match

Much tougher task for her though against Chinese 3rd seed Meng Yuan who's ranked 132 (with a career best of 92). Yuan has recently won rounds in WTAs Bali and Seoul (beating Anne Keothavong very comfortably in Bali). Her best results on the challenger circuit came in the early spring in the US where she won a 25K without dropping a set. However, Yuan is something of a counter-puncher and Sarah's game, based around the big serve will be more suited to the quick Tokyo courts. Yuan has 3-0 record against Anne K but 0-2 against Katie O'Brien.

when are bally and sarah playing next match. so glad to see them winning again!

Grandin broke straight back unfortunately, now 1-1 with Grandin about to serve.

... and now four breaks in a row. You'd think it was a women's match! (ah, it is!)