Mel's diary on playing the 25Ks in China and then Bronx and US Open qualies:
http://www.melaniesouth.net/diary.asp?entryid=30

Excerpts:

The first venue in Chengdu was interesting. The toilets were the hole-in-the-ground variety, but I suppose they’re good for your thigh muscles! That was the first club I’d ever been to where there wasn’t the option of at least one Western toilet, but the second week wasn’t too bad – that had one normal loo! Katie said she saw a rat in the toilet in the first week and we saw a few when we were out running too. We all had sore stomachs from trying hard not to go to the toilet too often!


The Chinese girls are amazing. They all play exactly the same way, they run all day long. You have the longest rallies against them and have to really earn every point. With my type of game, I had the power to hurt them but I had to make sure I didn’t get too impatient. Some of the Chinese unranked wild cards were as good as the ones with higher rankings. Because there are so many of them coming up they’re all out there fighting to be noticed and trying to do well.

Two months earlier I never dreamt I’d be playing the qualifying at the US Open so I just tried to enjoy it but at the same time continuing to work hard on the practice court. I lost to Kyra Nagy from Hungary in straight sets in the first round. It was pretty windy when I went on and didn’t play a very good match. She was just better on the day

My goal after the next five or six tournaments is to break into the top 150 in the world. I need to sit down and go through my long-term goals again because I’d aimed to be inside the top 200 by the end of this year which I’ve already achieved. That’s obviously happened a lot sooner than I expected. If it keeps going well I want to keep changing my goals and pushing myself harder and harder.”