Both Anne and Katie have reasonable first round draws here, though they missed the plum Moroccan wildcards. Anne crushed Julie Coin on their previous meeting in Stanford two years ago, and the Frenchwoman has been in poor form this year, winning just 3 matches in 9 tournaments - her one outdoor clay court match yielding just 2 games against Alberta Brianti.
Pauline Parmentier hasn't been in top form either, though it would still be an upset for Katie to claim her first top 100 scalp on clay. It is the first time the two have met on the Pro Tour
R1
(1)Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) v Anna Floris (ITA) Anne Keothavong (GBR) v Julie Coin (FRA)
........
Katie OŽBrien (GBR) v Pauline Parmentier (FRA) Renata Voracova (CZE) v (4)Melinda Czink (HUN)
-- Edited by DavidC on Saturday 24th of April 2010 04:13:27 PM
Pretty weak event maybe affected by the ash cloud disruptions. Don't know what to expect this week. We know Anne can play on clay after Warsaw last year but she has left it late this year to make her debut on this surface so expectations must be quite low.
Katie is also making her first appearance of the season on this surface and we know is not on top form but I would suggest is still playing better than she was a couple of months ago.
Both Coin & Parmentier have been a part of the French Fed Cup team, which was played on Red Clay too, so I would expect our girls to play on Tuesday.
It may be advantageous that Anne & Katie have had more time to settle in Morroco, especially if the Frenchies come over after a confidence knocking loss. CSN has also been playing Fed cup on hard court in Poland so will need to adjust back to playing on clay before, hopefully, playing Anne. Not sure if any of it will have an impact on their results but its possible.
Oooh Groth teaming up with a Brit, perhaps the family have now taken pity on our country folk! Olaru isnt a bad partner either, but unpredictable but the same could also be said for Katie!
As far as draws go, this one aint bad. Like to see the girls trying to get more practise, and getting used to trading groundstrokes in a WTA match scenario is only going to be useful. Hoping for a good clay season this year!
Haha, theres no harm in admitting defeat, as long as its done with a British stiff upper lip. Just hope it pays off for her, cant imagine her jumping for joy at the thought of the number 1 seeds awaiting in both singles and doubles... Clay & Top Seeds is not a cheerful mix for poor Anne :(
After the odd alarm (Olaru dropped her opening service game contributing 2 doubles) whilst Katie failed to serve out they finally broke to secure a 6-0 6-3 win. Not often we have 2 part British pairs in round 2 of a Tour event