Katie has just scraped into the main draw in the Uzbeki capital, and her section is:
(8) Anastasia RODIONOVA (RUS) vs Anastasiya YAKIMOVA (BLR) Julia SCHRUFF (GER) vs Katie O'BRIEN (GBR) Yuliana FEDAK (UKR) vs Anne KREMER (LUX) Renata VORACOVA (CZE) vs (3) Olga GOVORTSOVA (BLR)
Schruff has had an indifferent season, after a couple of years finishing in the top 100, but has scalped a number of top 50 players on hardcourts - so a win for Katie would be the best of her career outside the UK. Defeat would mean dropping out of the top 150 in a week's time.
well spotted ! Katie wasn't expecting to get in here so will have to find a last minute flight to the Far East !!!
Schruff is very experienced, has been as high as 59. Made semis of WTA Acapulco at start of the year but done little since then. Bally hammered her 1 & 1 at Eastbourne.
Katie is fiirst match on court 3 tomorrow (7am BST) and returns third match to play doubles with local rising star Akgul Amanmuradova (a commentator's nightmare!)
well done bally hope fully we can have following girls in top 200 by end of year cavaday bally obrien mayb 100 keothavong maybe 100 south borwell possibl stoop
I think its too much fo an ask for Georgie to be top 200 by the end of the year she had 47 points to defend. I think she'll have done good to be top 300.
Fantastic result for Katie - particularly considering she was a set and 3-0 down. This is what she told the LTA site:
I was down a set and 3-0, but luckily I found my game before it was too late,
I was a bit too tentative at the beginning because I knew this tournament was a good opportunity for me and it's matches like these I need to come through in order to break through to the next level.
The courts are fast here and the balls are really flying, so it took me a while to find my range, especially as I didn't have much time beforehand to get used to the conditions.
As soon as I fought my way back into the second set, my confidence grew and I won fairly comfortably in the end.
I cannot recall 2 British women winning a round in different WTA tournaments during the same week - certainly not in the last 12 years. I reckon Bally and Katie have taken inspiration from Anne, and Katie may also have been relieved to have lost the British No. 1 tag.
15 points. But she is defending 17 from a 25K final (comes off this week) and then 25 from a 25K win (comes off next)- I think. The 17 may have come off already, hard to precisely tell.