Katie O'Brien returns to the scene of her only Tour QF. Her opponent is a teenage Romanian who has dropped out of the top 100 this year, but is reviving and qualified plus won a round at the US Open. Nevertheless it is a reasonable draw. She is in the bottom quarter:
(5)Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) v Kathrin Woerle (GER) Vesna Manasieva (RUS) v Roberta Vinci (ITA) Ioana Raluca Olaru (ROU) v Katie O`Brien (GBR) Q v (2)Olga Govortsova (BLR)
Doubles draw: (4)Lapushchenkova/Niculescu (RUS/ROU) v Laisne/OŽBrien (FRA/GBR)
Olaru is only ranked 4 places above Katie (134 to 138) so that's quite a dire loss. Katie had 30 QF points to defend here. I think they'll get replaced by her 18th best which is quite high (9) and now that she's in the top 150, the gaps between players are a reasonable size so she'll only drop about half a dozen places.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Although the current ranking difference is only 4 places the real gap is much higher. Olaru was just outside the top 50 last year and has obtained her points from 19 tournaments, while Katie has played 36 tournaments in the last year (more than anyone else in the top 200 - arguably too many).
The doubles didn't go any better - the Anglo-French pair lost 6-1 6-2