... and then suddenly it's all over.

Katie wins 3-6 6-2 8-7 ret.

Great that Katie's through but not a nice way for such a close-fought match to end.

Nastya P next for Katie, she beat the no. 24 seed in straights.

Thanks for the scores people. Great news that Anne and Katie went through, looked like that took some guts from both of them. Shame Mel couldn't join them but she seems to have put up as much of a fight as she could and just been beaten on the day. Can't ask her for more than that.

Good luck to our two girlys in the second round.

In the strange world that is new WTA rankings, each of those R1 wins is worth 15 ranking points. Only marginally less than a 50K semifinal, or 25K final appearance.....

Women players really do have to turn up and win games at GS qualies now to progress. Glad two of our three have managed it.

Can't say I fancy Katie O'Bs next match. Natsya P is a seriously good player, and as stated, her senior ranking reflects the fact that she has played very few senior tournaments-WR1 in juniors at 15 is quite something. Anne should have a better chance-encouraging today, and against another opponent of similar rank tomorrow.

Victory tomorrow would get 25 ranking points. Same as winning a 25K tournament...

(rather strangely, winning through to the main draw in the last rounds only gets you a few extra points-qualifiers get 31 as opposed to 25..... but then a R1 MD win gets you a whopping 60 extra...)

Go to http://www.itftennis.com/shared/medialibrary/pdf/original/IO_23407_original.PDF
for the new ranking schedule.

At the bottom (start out) end, there are no longer fractional points; no qualifying points at 10K, and no points except for qualifers at 25K. So it is much harder to earn your first points. You need to win MD at 10K or qualify for 25K to get a point. This is the same as in the current mens game. However, R1 appearance does still get points at all levels aside 10K, which is a contrast to the mens game.

I am not clear about whether women players still need 3 ranking tournaments for a ranking; if they do, then it is now much harder to gain a womens ranking to start with than a mens one. Same trouble getting points, more tournament points required. My guess is if they do still need 3 tournaments, then 300/400 people will slip off the rankings.

At the other end, there are very high points in the slams-both initial rounds of qualies and MD. I still find the 60 points for a R1 win in a GS amazing, and the 15 points of a Q1 win is very high compared to what a win like this gets you in a 75K tournament (likely against the same quality of opponent). Clearly, the WTA is placing very high emphasis in appearing in slams, both at qualie and MD level. Whilst this is great, it will make the job of breaking into slams harder-those who are up there get these opportunities for big points, those who aren't don't.

-It will be harder to work your way from 300 to 200 now-i.e. competing with people who are in the slams and gaining these points while you aren't.

-It will be also harder to crack the top 100-those within the top 100 get to play for 60 points (a GS R1 win) four times a year, those outside can only get these kind of points if they qualify (which only 12-16 of them can). To get 60 points for a player outside the top 100 will require them to be winning the 75K level tournaments (as opposed to 1 GS match!). Winning a 75K tournament is a very serious business.

The odd thing is the reward for slams is disproportionately high at R1/Q1 win level.

Q appearance: 2 points, Q1 win: 15 points, Q2 win 25, Qualifier 31 (i.e. the first win gets 13 points, the next (which should be harder) 10, and the final one 6 (OK, it is at least 8 with the 2 MD R1 appearance points)-So each win (against progressively better opponents) gets fewer points.

Same in MD

R1 appearance=2 points R1 win=60 R2 win=90 R3 win =140. So first win =58, second 30, third 50 points. Given that is much harder to gain a R3 win than R1, this is just weird.

Rant over. The overall effect is performance in early rounds of GS qualies/MD is now very important. It will be harder to crack into the qualie zone from outside, as they aren't getting these silly points, and harder to get into the top 100 from the qualie zone.

We should be very glad that wimbledon exists and can give MD WCs to some of our players. The odd random MD R1 win will really propel them up the rankings....

Thank for that happycynic and the 'rant' as you put really helped me see what the changes mean so was much appreciated!

It certainly seems strange that the points should decrease (in effect) as you progress through a tournament rather than increase but I guess we'll have to see how much of an effect it has this year before making too many judgements.

Hopefully none of our girls are distracted by the change and they keep winning matches!

Anne is broken 1st game. Made only 3 of 8 first serves there, hopefully this is just a blip at the start.