A great day at Melbourne Park yesterday with 3 wins out of 4 for British players!

Georgie Stoop WR 216 beat Alexa Glatch (USA) WR 150 (= CH) by 6-0 7-6(5)

Was late in arriving for this one and when I arrived, Glatch was up a break in the second set. Stoop managed to come back though although she nearly threw it away when she was down three set points. Stoop managed to save them though with some excellent hitting and took the set to a tiebreak which she won to clinch the match.

(q19) Elena Baltacha WR 134 beat Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) WR 193 (CH=191 10/2008) by 3 & 4

Baltacha was up next on Court 14 and put in a solid performance to beat Sevastova comfortably. Baltacha was throwing in some huge serves at times and her form is looking very good.

Katie O'Brien WR 160 beat Sandra Zahlavova (CZE) WR 164 (CH=139 5/2007) by 5 & 3

O'Brien did well to come through a tough match. Zahlavova was very good defensively but not so good on the attack. The Czech was grunting heavily and appeared to be struggling a bit in the warm conditions but her defence was outstanding at times. Wasn't so keen on the moonballing she was producing but it wasn't easy for O'Brien to deal with. Several breaks of serve were exchanged in the second set but you always felt that O'Brien was the better player and she proved that by taking the final set 6 - 3.

Friday

QR2: Georgie Stoop WR 216 lost to Kathrin Wörle (GER) WR 162 (CH 138 6/2006) by 3-6 7-5 14-12

As plenty of people on BT.net, GBTG and here will agree, this was one of the most compelling 4 hours of live score watching ever - so sad it didn't turn out the right way. Not only were there lots of games, most of the games had multiple deuces too. I hope Georgie can realise how well she fought here and not be too devastated by the loss. She had two MPs herself but saved umpteen before finally succumbing.

QR2: (q19) Elena Baltacha WR 134 beat Carly Gullickson (USA) WR 151 (= CH) by 5-7 6-0 6-0

Elena takes the H2H to 2-1 (and 2-0 in slam qualifying) with an unbelievably strong last couple of sets!

QR2: Katie O'Brien WR 160 beat (q3) Julie Ditty (USA) WR 115 (CH 89 3/2008) by 3-6 6-3 6-3

Since the start of September, Ditty has won a 75K and reached three 50K Finals and Katie lost to her 1 & 4 when they met in 2006, so this is a huge result for Katie and she, very un-Katie-like, even served out the match to love!

Saturday

FQR: (q19) Elena Baltacha WR 134 v (q1) Jelena Kostanic Tosic (CRO) WR 112 (CH 32 7/2004)

3rd on Court 13 at about 02.00 GMT

Kostanic has something in common with the Brits - she's on a losing streak against Zahlavova Strycova! She only just saw off GB no. 7 Amanda Elliott in Wimbledon qualifying last year, 8-6 in the 3rd, having thrashed her 2 & 1 in Zagreb a month earlier. She hasn't played another Brit since 2001. If (and it's a big IF!) Elena is inspired to repeat the form of the last two sets against Gullickson, I reckon Kostanic is there for the taking, top seed or not!

FQR: Katie O'Brien WR 160 v (q21) Betina Jozami (ARG) WR 137 (= CH)

4th on Court 13 after Elena - are the GB coaches bribing the schedulers to put Katie on just after Elena's shown her what to do?

In her only matches against Brits since 2004, Jozami beat Karen Paterson and Naomi Cavaday and lost to Sarah Borwell in 2007. Another match that is far from unwinnable, though again it's going to be tough.