If Vaidisova is on she will take it, but i dont think shes played well since Wimb of last year...

In case anyone is interested, here are some images of the Brit girls I saw today (Stoop and Rae):











More images to follow at Insie-Tennis.net

Only got to see a couple of the British girls in action today - would have liked to have seen a bit of the Katie/Naomi match but it clashed with a couple of the other matches that I was watching. I could hear the umpire announcing the score though and when Katie went 5-2 up, I was expecting the bit choke to come. Fortunately she held on second time around which I did manage to see through the holes between the stands.

I started the day by watching Emily Webley-Smith just because I wanted to sit on the centre court mainly and it got off to a bad start for her. She couldn't find much rythym in the opening set at all and her timing looked to be a bit out of kilter, but having missed a few weeks, that's understandabe. And MJMS was serving and volleying well, which made it hard for Emily to get into her service games. I left the match as it wasn't really a contest but went back to centre court when I noticed the set was heading for a tiebreak. Shame that EWS double faulted at 4-4 but she played a break backhand pass to get the minibreak back. She put a forehand long though at 6-6, and then MJMS hit a great volley on MP to get the win. Think she could do some damage in Wimbledon qualies though given a good draw and she should be looking to win a round at least unless she's unlucky.

Saw the last set and a half of Mel's match as well when the men's matches had finished and she played really well for that time. I actually saw until she was broken in the first set as well and at that point she hadn't got going and was putting too many balls into the net, so it was great to see the improvement she had made throughout the match. She broke for the set with a great backhand pass, and then continued to keep the ball deep throughout the final set and returned really well. By this time the crowd on court one was pretty big...it was almost 1/3-1/2 full which was quite impressive and they were getting behind Mel and she got the break when her opponent put a forehand long. She set up the three match points with three good returns which Lepachenko could do nothing with, but the first two match points were saved with good serves. But on the third, Mel hit another good return and then Lepachenko went wide with the forehand to give her the win.

When watching some the player practice as well it gives you an indication of why they are the best in the game. Kuznetzova for instance, spent at least 15 minutes just practicing the serve out wide to the deuce court (at which point I left the practice courts), so presumably she would have then done the same with all the other serves that she can do.

Katie leads 2-1*
Makarova races to 40-0 (she won her first game to love)
Wins it to 30 with an ace; Katie had been pushed to deuce in her previous service game.
KOB *2-2 EM

Makarova serves it out for *2-4. Katie has won only 3 of 15 points returning; only one on the first serve, so not even a glimmer of a break back so far.

Makarova holds for *3-5. To her credit, Katie has thus far served but 1 DF and has only had one BP against her.

Makarova takes the first set 6-4.