Georgie Stoop and Natasha Khan in the main draw with Stoop seeded second behind Sandra Martinovic, ranked 296 in the world and getting on abit imo, shes 27.
I kinda forgot that this tourney was taking place this week....oops !
Mixed news from rd1....
I Gerlova (Cze)(q) bt N Khan (GB) 7-5, 7-5
G Stoop (GB)(2) bt K Jovanovic (SRB) 7-6(0), 6-4
Quite a tricky opener to 2007 for Georgie, she did well to come through that. Jovanovic is 18 and made massive strides in 2006, going from 10k qualies at the start of the year to making the latter stages regularly. She reached 3 finals and 3 semis, currently ranked 480.
Shame about Natasha, looks like it was very close. Her opponent was ranked 88 places lower at 599 but had already won 3 matches on the courts this week.
Geissler is 17, beat a Slovak ranked in the 500s 3 and 3 in rd1. Her 2006 highlights were two 10K semis. However, she also lost 2 and 0 last year to Georgie's rd1 opponent Jovanovic. Amanda Keen beat her 3 and 3.
Georgie should win in straights.
Courts in Stuttgart are indoor acrylic
Natasha and Georgie are the 4th seeds in doubles, they got a bye through to the quarters.
Georgie and Natasha also lost 2 and 4 in the doubles quarters
Disappointing results this week, but it was their first tournament of the year, will take a while to shake off the rust. Maybe both struggled to get used to the faster indoor surfaces in Europe having been practising all winter on the medium paced indoor acrylic in Britain.
Georgie's quarter-final victor is an upcoming player, she made seven 10K finals in 2006 !