From the SA Independent Online:

"Second seed Michaella Krajicek got off to a shaky start at this week's Soweto Open as Britain's Naomi Cavaday gave her a run for her money in the first round on Tuesday. But sanity prevailed and the blonde from the Netherlands pulled it back to go through with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Although only No.2 seed all eyes were on Krajicek here as she's still coming back from a long injury layoff. She dropped to 330th in the world in 2008 after knee and wrist injuries but is already up to 135th since coming back to the Tour.

While the rest of the field here are all playing the ITF circuit - which is one level down from the WTA Tour - as a result of their rankings, Krajicek is only going through the motions on her way back to the main Tour, where she once reached the top 30 alongside the best in the world.

That's why she's the centre of attention at Soweto and the sparse crowd could be heard grunting and cheering her on as she struggled to get going against Cavaday.

Though each struggled with the altitude - which was evident from the over-hitting on both ends of the court - Cavaday seemed in control of the match as Krajicek's frustrations became more and more apparent.

Cavaday's early success wasn't all due to Krajicek's struggles; the Brit had grit, soldiering on through one-and-a-half sets before Krajicek got her act together.

Cavaday looked more solid throughout the first set and she was going along very well until 4-2 in the second set when Krajicek won three games in a row to get to 5-4. They then went even to 6-6 and Krajicek easily clinched the tiebreak 7-1 to get back into the match.

It seemed all over for Cavaday then as she wilted in the third set and easily surrendered 6-4 to hand Krajicek the match.

'She didn't give me anything in the first set'
"It was very close and Cavaday played very well," said Krajicek after the gruelling encounter. "She played a solid match and didn't give me anything in the first set but I played much better in the third."

O'Brien def. Moulton-Levy 6-3 6-3
QF : O'Brien v Giraud (WR 269) and also the only non-seeded player left.

The new and improved Katie should be good enough to handle her though.

Best of luck Katie, the QFs are very familiar now hey?

(1)Katie O'Brien (GBR) d. Marinne Giraud (MRI) 63 62


-- Edited by djlovesyou on Friday 1st of May 2009 02:27:54 PM

This win will make Katie the GB no. 2 on Monday and to pick up on djly's point, it will also take her into the top 110, which should be enough for direct acceptance into Wimbledon - possibly not when the cut is made in just under a fortnight, but almost certainly after withdrawals are taken into account.

Next up for Katie is no. 8 seed Eva Hrdinova WR 239. Although Katie is ranked well above the Czech player, they have a 2-2 H2H and Hrdinova won their last two meetings, in Dubai qualifying and Linz qualifying last year. More revenge needed then!

Great news. Be fantastic to see katie join Anne in DA to Wimbly. If Mel and Elelna could get in too, even better. Hope katie can win this title now and close in on the big 100.

http://satablog.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/soweto-ladies-open-friday-results/ reports on Friday's action, which saw Krajicek unexpectedly go out to Kucova.

It includes:

"In the other quarter-finals, top seed Katie OBrien of Great Britain was again in cruise control as she beat the in-form Mauritian, Marinne Giraud, 6-3 6-2 in 70 minutes, while fourth seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia edged out number five Lauren Albanese of the U.S. 7-6(7-5) 7-6(7-3) in an absorbing two-hour battle that was even closer than the score suggests.

OBriens opponent, the unseeded Giraud, has defeated seeds here, and beat OBrien 6-1 6-1 six months ago. I didnt start so well but once I found my range I was more confident [against Giraud], OBrien said.

The Brits all-round game is impressive. She is well-prepared mentally, still fresh after a relatively easy ride during the week and is so solid there is very little weakness left for her opponents to exploit. OBrien might need all of that when she meets Hrdinova, with whom she has shared the spoils in two recent matches."

Re. the LTA reports thread, there is plenty of context in that report from the SATA, and it isn't even about one of their own players. The LTA said "Katie OBrien is through to the semi-final at the $100k event in Johannesburg, South Africa." Still, at least we have Katie's blog to look forward to, one of the good things theLTA have added to their site.