The girls championships are like the boys in Villach (under 18), Moscow (under 16) and Pilzen (under 14). Both Heather Watson and Sam Vickers have byes in round 1. Sam plays on Monday.
U18 R2 (L64)
Samantha Vickers (GBR) v Hilda Melander (SWE) (5) Heather Watson (GBR) v Polina Pekhova (BLR)
Hilda Melander (SWE) d. Samantha Vickers (GBR) 6-1 6-1 Polina Pekhova (BLR) d. (5) Heather Watson (GBR) 7-5 5-7 6-4
That's the problem of playing on grass the week before, so not too surprising that Heather lost, but that's the second consecutive embarrassing scoreline for Sam in junior events against opposition not obviously that much stronger.
U14 R1 (L128)
Beth Askew (GBR) d. Mara Argyriou (CYP) 6-1 6-2 Grace Lymer-Sullivan (GBR) BYE
R2 (L64)
(13) Saska Gavrilovska (SRB) v Beth Askew (GBR) Grace Lymer-Sullivan (GBR) v Elisavet Ntoulia (GRE)
Russia have put a stronger team out for the U16s than U18s, as they are hosting that event, so Jessica had to deal with the French Open runner-up, who was as expected far too strong.
U16 R3
(3) Daria Gavrilova (RUS) d. Jessica Ren (GBR) 6-2 6-1 Jennifer Ren (GBR) d. Babilina Machadze (GEO) 6-1 6-2
R4
Jennifer Ren (GBR) v Agata Baranska (POL)
Heather and Sam won their opening doubles in the U18s
From the LTA site: "It was a good performance from Jen who had a solid first set and capitalised on playing with higher intensity. "
Leykina is a 14 year old who is already ranked 32 in the ITF U18 rankings, having won a Grade 1 event (beating Timea Babos in the process), so I don't expect further progress.
am i guessing right to say that Leykina is only 7th seed because she plays mainly in U18 events?
Yes, they use a hybrid seeding system which fails (in my view) to give adequate weight to achievments at ITF (Under 18) level. Hence the number 1 seed was Jovana Jaksic (SRB), with an ITF ranking of 182 but TE16 ranking of 1. That meant three clearly superior Russians who have been playing junior grand slams (Gavrilova, Kirillova and Leykina) were seeded 3, 4 and 7 respectively. No surprise that the Russians are all in the QFs whilst Jaksic went out in the early rounds.
Heather and Sam exited the doubles at the last 16 stage, so Jen is our last representative in any of the girls events.
