Wickmayer breaks to lead 5-4 and serve for the set.... not looking good for Katie

Katie serving start of 2nd set

shes holds after goin to deuce!! each game is going to deuce it seems!!

Wickmayer to serve *0-1

Fri - QR2: (q20) Anne Keothavong WR 132 lost to Monica Niculescu (ROM) WR 155 by 6-2 6-4  - dire ...
Fri - QR2: (q15) Katie O'Brien WR 127 beat Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) WR 174 by 4-6 6-3 8-6  - good recovery!
Fri - QR2: Elena Baltacha WR 180 lost to Shuai Zhang (CHN) WR 149 by 6-4 6-1  - another dire one ...

-- Edited by steven at 07:13, 2008-01-11

So disapointed that Bally and Anne both lost when you think of the overall progress they have been making.

All down to Katie now who should fear nothing given there's only a few places between them in the rankings. This is a great opportunity for her. Fingers crossed.

Yay Katie!

Excellent fight from Katie, who continues to triumph in most of her tight 3 setters. If she doesn't beat Meng Yuan then there is a good chance of making any Lucky Loser draw, as most seeds have already tumbled. A lot of the slots for qualifiers would give a chance of progress in the Main Draw: 4 slots are in QvQ matches and another 4 are against some of the weaker players in the draw (Pin, Rodionova, Ferguson and Johansson)

Anne's result was disappointing, but certainly not dire. Whilst Anne has struggled in the last 3 months with illness and injury Niculescu has won 3 challengers (including 3 wins over Georgie and one over Katie) and in those tournaments only one player managed to take more than the 6 games Anne got against her. It's no surprise to see players like her and Sabine Lisicki, who have been a thorn to Brits in recent months and on a fast track to the top 100, through to final qualifying.