Oh well, I suppose all Mel's recent matches had to catch up on her at some point. Maybe playing doubles this week aswell was a mistake. I think she might be taking a week off next week before playing the Bronx challenger and then US Open qualies.

Excellent win for Katie O'Brien after two rd1 defeats in the last two 25Ks, Sugano gave Mel some problems in rd1 of the Chengshu 25K last week, taking her to 3 sets so this should be a good confidence booster for Katie.

Katie plays 18 year old Chinese qualifier Qing Yu in rd2. Yu is unranked, she had to qualify this week and beat a Chinese wildcard 7-6, 6-4 in rd1. She lost in rd3 of Chengshu 25K qualifying last week.

Karen Paterson seems to have developed into more of a doubles player, singles results have dried up for her this year and she's lost her last 7 matches stretching back to the beginning of June.

Good to see Katie put together a pair of wins again. She hasn't been enjoying China like Mel. Here's to a successful QF.

Go Katie!

QF: Katie O'BRIEN (GBR) def. Yi-Fan XU (CHN, 484) 76(5) 75

Next up:

SF vs WC LIANG, Chen (CHN, 654)

Chen Liang is 17, is at her highest ranking, so is clearly up and coming-and better than her ranking suggests. Hopefully, Katie's experience will see her through.

Finger's crossed!