2011 gets under way!

Week 1 of the new WTA season finds GB #2 Anne Keothavong in the Main Draw of the $220k WTA International in Auckland, New Zealand by Direct Acceptance ; with GB #1 Elena Baltacha unfortunately having to be a late withdrawal due to illness

Annie, world ranked #121, opens her campaign against Edina Gallovits (ROU) world ranked #76...

Hoping to join Annie in the MD through the qualifiers are GB #4 Katie O'Brien, world ranked #179, and her recent replacement as GB #3 18 year old Heather Watson, world ranked #176.

Both got their new seasons off to a winning start today in Q1: Heather made light work of what on paper appeared a tough ask beating 7th qseed and world #133 Jamie Hampton (USA) 6-1 6-2 for a hugely encouraging start to the year ; and Katie beat local wild card Emily Fanning 6-2 6-2

Tricky one next up for Katie: 4th qseed and world #112 Junri Namigata (JPN); with Heather's no pushover either: world #151 Corinna Dentoni (ITA).

GL all Brits!

So far so excellent!

Katie has trumped Heather's superb Q1 with an even better Q2 today taking down 4th qseed and world #112 Junri Namigata (JPN) 7-5 6-3 ; which has earnt her a decent shot at the MD with world ranked #187 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) in Q3...

Heather followed up very nicely in Q2 with a 7-5 6-4 win over an opponent world ranked 25 places higher than herself ; very tough Q3 though against top qseed Alberta Brianti (ITA) world ranked #91...

Good luck both

Brilliant stuff from Heather and Annie!

Unfortunately Katie didn't make it through Q3 but, superbly, Heather made pretty impressively short work of the top qseed 6-3 6-2 ; and has the chance to get instant revenge for Katie's defeat as she has been drawn against Lertcheewakarn in R1...

Annie is already through to R2 having claimed her first top 100 scalp of the year 6-7(4) 6-4 6-0 ; Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) world ranked #99 next up...

Way to go, Heather!

Heather demolished her Thai opponent Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (the 2009 Wimbledon Girls Singles champion and former world junior #1 no less!) 6-1 6-1 in just 50 minutes to earn another 30 ranking points on top of the 16 she pocketed from qualifying to have her closing in rapidly on the world top 150

Next up for Heather in R2 is 9th seed world #57 Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) with a probable QF against 3rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) awaiting the winner. Go, Heather!

Brilliant again, Heather!

Heather is very likely inside the world top 150 on Monday after superbly edging a nail-biting first set against the world #57 (7-5 in the tie-breaker) and then forging through the second set 6-1. Superb stuff

Next up in the QF for Heather not, after all, Svetlana Kuznetsova but world #72 Shuai Peng of China who beat the third seed 2-6 6-4 6-4...

Unfortunately Annie K went down 5-7 3-6 to Bondarenko so the all-Brit final can't now happen this week; next time, eh?

That was close!

Brilliant fight by Heather against a quality player but she went down 4-6 5-7 in 1 hour 55 minutes. Terrific start to 2011 though; and next stop Melbourne Park!

Heather new CH world #149 today

Good luck in AO qualifying, Heather, to keep up the great start to the year!