I hope for Mel's sake that 110 will prove good enough for the targeted Australian Open as before, but I am rather concerned about the number of girls who could enter with protected rankings. Six come to mind (Golovin, Grenville, Malek, Petkovic, Santangelo and Shaughnessy) and there may well be others who I have lost track of, but things will become clearer in December.

I'm not sorry though that she has failed to reach the top 100. In my view she needs to broaden her experience in stronger challengers and Tour qualifiers against players of similar rank before (if successful at that level) the tougher challenge of playing week in week out on the Tour, where any weaknesses are ruthlessly exposed and confidence easily destroyed. All in all it has been a good year for Mel though, providing the extra effort put in during recent weeks doesn't cause an early season hangover in 2009.

Yes well done !