Week 39 - WTA Tier 4 - Seoul, Korea

DavidC · Tennis legend

Week 39 - WTA Tier 4 - Seoul, Korea

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Mel is the 4th seed plays a japanease girl ranked around 189 in thr 1st round. I forgot her name.

Morita is in her section so we could have a re match from earlier this year when Mel won 4-6 6-0 6-0.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Real chance for Mel to qualify here if she plays well.

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

QR1: Melanie SOUTH (GBR) (4) v Tomoko YONEMURA (JPN)

The winner plays either Akiko Yonemura or Min-Hwa Yu, and as already mentioned, Ayumi Morita (2) is the seed in that section.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Pity Mel has drawn Tomoko rather than Akiko, who is the weaker of the Yonemuras. Tomoko won the Fukuoka tournament defeating Tanasugarn in the final (who had just beaten Mel), and also beat the legendary Date-Krumm in her last tournament (Mel's other defeat in the Japanese 50Ks this spring). So it will be a tough test.

Mel's match is second on (around 4am BST)

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Mel won 7-5 7-5

DavidC · Tennis legend

Good win for Mel, and she plays Min-Hwa Yu next, who spends a time in Futures events mainly, so Mel is a clear favourite to progress.

DUSTY DICK · Club Coach

Go Mel.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

I love to see a Brit win 5 and 5. Shows she won the mental battle as well!

DavidC · Tennis legend

Mel's next match is scheduled to start at noon tomorrow (4am BST)

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Mel won 2-6 6-4 7-6

Drew · Sep 21, 2008

Keep it going Mel !!!

DavidC · Tennis legend

Much closer than I would have expected. Final qualifying is against Ayumi Morita, which is a rematch as Mervatron said from earlier this year (Bangalore) when Mel double bagelled after losing the first set.

All the qualifiers and one LL avoid seeds: Safarova, Pin, Lee, Craybas and Rus - so it's a good draw for Mel to get into.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Mel plays first up (2am). If she loses keep an eye on Meng Yuan and Steph Dubois. If both of these win then Mel would get the LL. Given Yuan's track record of stopping British players making progress......

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Go on Melanie!

Two good wins shows she can compete at this slightly higher level! Long may it continue!