The first wildcard is actually for Jessica Ren. Jennifer withdrew from the Tennis Europe 16&U Winter Cup team in February, and then withdrew from Bath and Jersey a few days later, which suggests she has a serious problem.
Laura is heavily restricted on numbers of tournaments and wildcards, so is very unlikely to take a WC here. Heather Watson is a more plausible possibility.
Thats a great choice giving Daneika a WC, she will fight her socks of trying to make the most of it.
For those of you that don't know Daneika she is a 1993, who picked up her first ITF junior points in Spain in Sept that was followed by a semi & a quarter in Philippines having lost in qualies one of the weeks & getting in as a LL. I remember when I first met her last year in Spain when she had no ITF points but she was adament she would be at junior Wimbledon this year, I would not bet against it now as she has pushed herself into the top 500 in such a short time.
She fiercly ambitous & professionally driven, she is a very athletic girl with a great frame & height for tennis, her gamestyle I would say is best compared to Hantuchova as she is long limbed, big serve & loves to come to the net & take the ball out of the air. On top of that she always wears a visor like Hantuchova. She is from up north some where, Cumbria I think? Although speaks with a geordie accent, which I like to rib her for!! I will be hoping she has a great week & performs as she can & as she would want to in this situation.
__________________
Its Not Who You Know But What You Know.........Or Is It???
A disappointing start to Heather's pro career, as I don't see anything in Vrskova's record to suggest that she is as strong as most of the juniors Heather has been beating in recent months. Perhaps she was rusty after 6 weeks without match practice. Heather may be pleased though that her first point will, barring injury, be registered next week at home in the Channel Islands.
Thats a great result for Katie though, shame she had to play Nicola though. Hopefully she can qualify although it will be pretty tough.
Bad result for Lucy there and it would have been nice for Heather to get a bit closer in her match. I guess there could have been some nerves in there as well though, probably a bit different from playing juniors!
Veronika CHVOJKOVA (CZE) (1) Vs Eva PIGOVA (CZE) Linda FRITSCHKEN (GER) Vs Verdiana VERARDI (ITA) Gally DE WAEL (BEL) Vs Daneika BORTHWICK (GBR) Karolina NOWAK (GER) Vs Estefania CRACIUN (URU) (8) Stefania BOFFA (SUI) (3) Vs Irina RAMIALISON (FRA) Lucia VRSKOVA (SVK) Vs Helene AUENSEN (NOR) Shaozhuo LIU (CHN) Vs Jade CURTIS (GBR) Iveta GERLOVA (CZE) Vs Emma LAINE (FIN) (7) Leonie MEKEL (NED) (6) Vs Alexandra WALKER (GBR) Jessica REN (GBR) Vs Naomi BROADY (GBR) Tara MOORE (GBR) Vs Katerina VANKOVA (CZE) Yasmin CLARKE (GBR) Vs Darija JURAK (CRO) (4) Amanda ELLIOTT (GBR) (5) Vs Tanja OSTERTAG (GER) Alice BALDUCCI (ITA) Vs Elisha GABB (GBR) Constance SIBILLE (FRA) Vs Hanne Skak JENSEN (DEN) Milica TOMIC (SUI) Vs Stephanie VONGSOUTHI (FRA) (2)
The return of Anna Fitzpatrick is the doubles draw here with Boffa. The first time she has played sinced she suffered a stress fracture last August. Wonder if she will ask/get a wild card for Jersey.
I agree not the best of starts for our ladies but I must say it is wonderful to see so many junior's given the chance to play this week. Bad luck Heather Watson, I am sure she will be hungry to show everyone what she can do in the ladies game once she has had a bit more experience. Its also nice to see Laine from Finland playing again, was she not once top 60? Any information on what happened her?