The first tournament on the mini-tour down under for the British squad.
Just Mel South [who will be seeded 3], Rebecca Llewellyn and Jane O'Donoghue have made the main draw so the qualies will be packed with Brits.
Naomi [4th], Karen [5th] and Georgie [7th] will be seeded in the qualies. Emily Webley-Smith, Natasha Khan, Claire Ricketts, Melissa Percy and Lucy Fletcher will be the others competing.
Naomi has made the main draw. Does that make Karen Paterson top seed in qualifying now?
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i emailed the tournament office, though have to wait tomorrow for reply! qualies start early sunday (sunday morning AUS), so the main draw probably be done either sunday or monday since main draw action wont start till tuesday.
Georgie plays Aussie 15th seed Alenka Hubacek [wr: 906] . Hubacek is just 15 but has already reached a 10K semi and quarter-final.
Emily plays Aussie 4th seed Daniella Dominikovic [wr: 495]. Her 2006 has been blighted by injury but she's recently won a 10K and last week made a 25K quarter-final in Melbourne.
Natasha plays Lucy's conqueror Shona Lee
Claire plays unranked Aussie Emily Haylock who knocked out the 8th seed in 3 sets in rd2.
Rebecca Llewellyn v Raquel Kops-Jones [RSA][7] [wr:262]
Georgie Stoop v Claire De Gubenatis [Fra][q] [wr:428]
Naomi Cavaday v Emily Webley-Smith
Melanie South v Violette Huck [Fra] [wr:365]
Tricky match for Jane, Widmer has also come straight from Europe so they'll be on an even playing field in terms of preparation and adjusting to the conditions. Widmer had some great results earlier in the year but she's only reached 1 quarter-final since July.
Decent rd1 draw for Natasha but Golds is a lot better than her ranking. In Melbourne last week for a 25K, she beat someone ranked 289 in straight sets in rd1. She won a 10K title in September.
Very tricky draw for Rebecca. Kops-Jones won a round at the 50K in Bejing last week. Since August she's won a 25K, made a semi in Bronx [beating Keothavong in straights] and reached the quarters of a 25K in Melbourne.
Georgie aims to make the top 300 by the end of the year and to do so she needs tro make the quarters each week. She's got a great chance of winning a round her, playing another qualifier.
Naomi beat Emily 6-3, 6-2 in Glasgow a few weeks ago, I wonder if Emily's extra match practise will give her the edge this time.
Unfortunately Karen sustained a hip injury early in her match, she thought she could play through it but it became too bad and made her movement very restricted.
All the players said that the conditions were tough but they ground out wins in their matches. Coach Lucie Ahl said “The girls all prepared very well for their matches today,” she said.
“Since arriving here they’ve dealt with the jet-lag and conditions and worked hard on the court and in training, so it was no surprise that they got the results today.
“If they continue with this attitude and work ethic they all will have a great three weeks.”