Fantastic news today!
Emily was 37 places out of the qualies only 2 days ago but is now IN and, after a flu-induced delay of one week, Em's season on tour STARTS HERE on 8th February!
Go, Emily!!

Just waiting for news of the draw!

Yep taking place today and the Daily Match Schedule is due to be released tomorrow Sunday, February 8, 2009 - can't wait - Good luck Ems

Em playing Henke in Q1, gets tweedie-yates or Pastikova in Q2, not the best draw but could have been worse.Good luck Em

Hi Jemma; yes here's hoping Em can open her 2009 with a nice win today!

Hi Jemma - good to see a fresh face in these forums. Bring some friends and we can start to build the community!!

Well done, Emily, on your win today!

Good luck for tomorrow!

First tournament outing for 6 weeks was bound to be a challenge. Close call in the first set but Em came through 7-6(5) and then sealed it 6-4 in the second.

6th qualie seed and world 266 next up. A tough task so good luck Emily!

Steve you beat me to it! Yes brilliant news - Emily won 7-6, 6-4. A hard match and Emily had to come back well in the 1st set, but what a start to 2009!! Well done Ems and the best ot luck against Pastikova (CZE) in the next round.

Em first up today on court 1 at 10.00 EST (= 15.00 GMT, I think!)
Good luck, Emily! Remember what you did to Rao!!

Vohor - any news on Emily - I can't seem to find anything online??

Well the news has staggered through and it's disappointing.

Emily gave her opponent, ranked 80 places above her, a terrific run for her money before going down 5-7 6-4 3-6. In the scheme of things that's more than in my opinion; but Em will be feeling pretty gutted I imagine!

Still, next week will be outside and warmer so she'll be looking forward to that!

Emily must have softened up Pastikova good and proper as she lost her final round of qualifying and then, having got the Lucky Loser slot in the Main Draw , lost to #4 ranked Brit Girl Katie O'Brien 0&2; call that Unlucky Loser, then , coming up against Katie who's clearly on fire at the moment carrying on where she left off in Sutton.

Katie's got Scheepers of South Africa next; no pushover, having just reached a new career high ranking 158, but Katie will be fancying her chances of setting up a QF next against, probably, the top seed.
Go, Katie!

Katie's run goes on! She beat the world 158 6-1 7-5 to set up a QF against 18 year old Begu of Roumania who's obviously on fire as well at the moment having just put out the top seed 2&1. Hopefully it'll be after the Lord Mayor's show for her!

Wow!! Katie still winning! She saw Begu off 4&3!

It's Danilidou of Greece in the semi-final next; she was world #14 in 2003 but currently ranked 303. With only one seed left in the competition, #5, this is a great chance for Katie to pick up her biggest title yet!

She got close to the top 100 last season (#104) before going backwards in the second half of the year. It's great that she seems to be back big time!

Katie went down in 3 sets overnight; she took the first set and held a 5-3 lead in the second but lost it on the tiebreak which was the crux. All good runs have to come to an end but this was one that got away!

Could be back in the top 150 tomorrow, though!