Heather Watson should be the third seed behind Mladenovic and Babos here, with top 5 end of year placings up for grabs. Seven girls are trying to join her in the main draw, with Jessica Ren probably having the best opportunity given the draw. Our other seeds Elisha Gabb and Natalie Beazant will probably have to overcome Haochen Tang (7 consecutive titles until recently, beating Lucy Brown in the Thailand Grade 2 final) and Lou Brouleau (who has moved up a gear since playing Natalie in Mexico, accounting for top tenner Njiric in the Eddie Herr) respectively.
Ruth Seaborne should also be in the under 16s
QR1
Jessica Wacnik (USA) v (13) Elisha Gabb (WC) Gabrielle Desimone (USA) v Jennifer Ren Daneika Borthwick v Daniela Degano (ARG) Renata Arshavskaya (RUS) v (9) Natalie Beazant (5) Jessica Ren v (WC) Morocco Hitt (USA) (7) Natalija Kostic (SRB) v Francesca Stephenson (WC) Alexandra Anghelescu (USA) v Joanna Henderson
Not a good day for the Brits except for Elisha, who faces a daunting final qualifier, Jess and Jen, who came within a couple of points of a win over a top 100 player.
QR1
(13) Elisha Gabb d. Jessica Wacnik (USA) 6-0 6-0 Jennifer Ren d. (WC) Gabrielle Desimone (USA) 6-1 6-0 Daneika Borthwick d. Daniela Degano (ARG) 6-1 6-2 (9) Natalie Beazant d. Renata Arshavskaya (RUS) 6-7(1) 6-1 6-2 (5) Jessica Ren d. (WC) Morocco Hitt (USA) 6-1 6-0 (7) Natalija Kostic (SRB) d. Francesca Stephenson 6-1 6-3 (WC) Alexandra Anghelescu (USA) d. Joanna Henderson 6-4 6-4
QR2
(13) Elisha Gabb d. Ekaterina Semenova (RUS) 7-6(3) 6-1 (2) Sofie Oyen (BEL) d. Jennifer Ren 7-6(3) 4-6 7-6(7) Adel Arshavskaya (RUS) d. Daneika Borthwick 6-7 (3) 7-5 6-3 Lou Brouleau (FRA) d. (9) Natalie Beazant 6-1 6-1 (5) Jessica Ren v Agata Baranska (POL)
Not great there is no doubt that our 93 crew is not as good as the 92's or the 94's. All really play to a similar level. The only hope is that it is quite a large group and thus they can hopefully push each other along to the improvements necessary to make a much bigger impact.
(1) Haochen Tang (CHN) v (13) Elisha Gabb (5) Jessica Ren v (WC) Mary Clayton (USA)
There are 2 LL spots available in the main draw
Main Draw
R1 (L64)
(3) Heather Watson v (WC) Krista Hardebeck (USA)
Heather's quarter looks to be the least demanding, but Mladenovic or Gavrilova lie in wait for the semis. Her opening match today is against someone who doesn't compete in ITF Juniors, but won their national junior clay court championships
Heather won 6-2 6-2 and Jess won FQR 7-5 7-6(6) and will play Dolehide who is a pretty tough opponent eventhough I am not sure of her current form. Elisha lost 6-1 6-2
Courtney Dolehide doesn't appear to have played for a couple of months, but she beat a WTA top 100 player in August, so if she is anywhere near that level she should be too good for Jess.
Courtney Dolehide doesn't appear to have played for a couple of months, but she beat a WTA top 100 player in August, so if she is anywhere near that level she should be too good for Jess.
Well, thankfully for us, she wasn't near that level (or was she)
(Q)Jessica Ren (GBR) d. (wc)Courtney B. Dolehide (USA) 0-6 6-2 6-2
Big big win strange scoreline and we'll have to wait and see whether Dolehide played to her best and Jess found a new level when she comes against the number 1 junior in the world in the second round. A small crumb of comfort is that Mladenovic has got a relatively poor record at this event. Heather will play a qualifier from Russia so it should be straightforward.
Courtney Dolehide doesn't appear to have played for a couple of months, but she beat a WTA top 100 player in August, so if she is anywhere near that level she should be too good for Jess.
Well, thankfully for us, she wasn't near that level (or was she)
Jess must have read my motivational spiel Her wins will see her move to around 100, and will certainly be inside on January 1st.
R2 (L32)
(1) Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) v (Q) Jessica Ren (3) Heather Watson v (Q) Adel Arshavskaya (RUS)
The Russian only just beat Daneika Borthwick in qualifying