Welcome to Shropshire!!

As a Shropshire Lad it gives me great pleasure to say we seem to have a superb turnout of GB women for this tournament with 6 of the top 10 Brit Girls

Only Annie K and Naomi B (injured) Laura (needing a rest after her exertions at the US Open seniors and juniors) and Emily (preferring Darwin to Darwin's birthplace ) are missing.

That's Bally, Katie, Mel, Georgie, Naomi C and Jade then

Qualies start Sunday; wild card allocations awaited

Wild Card announcements made

The updated slate of Brit Girls taking part is as follows:

MD: 4 Bally; 5 Katie; 10 Mel; 15 Georgie; 20 Naomi; WC Jade C; WC Anna S; WC Joss; WC Jade W

Qualies: 16 Tara; 17 Tash; 18 Mandy E; 20 Liz Thomas; 21 Sam Vickers; 23 Olivia Smith; 26 Steph Cornish; WC Lisa Whybourn; WC Nicola George; with 4 WCQs yet to be allocated

The top 3 ranked players in the draw are world #61,67 and 93 respectively. Bally and Katie on the brink of the world top 100 agian for the second time in their careers...hopefully they will make the breakthrough this time; possibly at Shrewsbury

Actually, it's very doable with Bally only 14 ranking points shy of #100 at the moment and Katie only another 14 points further away and 50 ranking points for reaching the semis here

Good luck to them and, indeed, everybody

Great stuff from Lisa and Tara in Q2 yesterday!

Lisa took down the top qseed 7-6(4) 6-4 whilst Tara accounted for the #2 qseed 7-5 in the third

Annoyingly, the draw has Lisa up against a fellow Brit in Q3, Nicola George; so that's a max of 2 Brit Girls to battle all the way through to the MD ; but, on the bright side, a minimum of 1

It was Lisa and Tara who won in Q3

Tara beat qseed #5; bad luck Nicola but that's still a nice haul of points

Today was a great day for the Brit Girls

Bally recovered from dropping the first set to finish strongly taking the next two 2&2 ; Katie played an excellent match albeit with a minor wobble just before closing it out 1&3 ; Mel had a humdinger against the 8th seed, dropping the first set but edging the tight second 7-5 and then crunching the ball strongly to win the third 6-3 ; her next match-up is Naomi who arguably had the result of the day also crunching the ball strongly against her 166 ranked opponent who was blown away 1&4 ; shame they have to meet but that's tennis...

Jade C had a huge fight in the first set, saving 3 set points in the tiebreaker before edging it on her first set point 10-8 and then taking the second 6-4

R1 threw up two Brit Girl v Brit Girl encounters with Georgie Stoop dealing successfully with spirited opposition from Jade W and Lisa carrying on where she left off in the qualies with forthright play against Steph Cornish who was tenacious in defeat.

7 Brit Girls through to R2 of a $75k qualifies as a majorly good day

Only 3 Brit Girl defeats at the hands of foreign opposition with Joss Rae running her 201 ranked opponent closest 6-3 7-6(5) with Anna Smith going down bravely 4&4 to her 187 ranked opponent and only Tara going down heavily, if understandably, to the 87th ranked 4th seed by 2&1. She'd earned her laurels already in the qualies though

Keep up the great work tomorrow, Girls!

Another great day!

3 Brit Girls through to the QFs; Katie winning 2&4 ; Bally winning 3&3 albeit Lisa acquited herself admirably by all accounts ; Mel downing Naomi 4&4 in what would have been a slugfest no doubt

Georgie gave the 2nd seed Barrois, world #68, a good run for her money before going down 7-5 6-2 ; and Jade lost to the top seed slayer 1&4

Bally meets Barrois next with Mel taking on 3rd seed Flipkens and Katie facing 4th seed Kerber. So no easy pickings there!

Good luck you three!

The dubs have reached the semis with British interest remaining in both sides of the draw ; albeit linked respectively to Swedish (our Anna Smith teamed with Johanna Larsson) and Dutch (our Mel teamed with Leonie Mekel

Next up Anna and Johanna play the Czech top seeds whilst Mel and Leonie take on the third seeds (including Meusberger who Mel beat in the singles R1).

Good luck everybody!

Wow, it just keeps getting better!

3 more fantastic results to report; 2 in the singles and 1 in the doubles. Only disappointment for Mel today going down in both comps but it's still been a great week for her; she can kick on for the rest of the year now

Meanwhile back in Shrewsbury...

Bally almost certainly guaranteed the big break into the world top 100 on Monday thanks to her QF win today beating 2nd seed and world #67 Barrois of Germany 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4

Katie not quite so certain but still a decent chance; depends how results go elsewhere around the globe; brilliant result today against 4th seed Kerber of Germany 3-6 6-3 7-6(5)

SFs has Bally against 3rd seed Flipkens of Belgium and Katie against unseeded Barthel of Germany

Anna Smith and Johanna Larsson of Sweden beat the Czech top seeds in the doubles SFs today 2-6 7-6(3) [10-8] ; wonderful stuff

Third seeds next up in the final...

Yabba dabba doo!

Bally and Katie only went and did it! Won their semis and ensured they're top 100 players on Monday

Bally was first up beating Flipkens 6-3 7-6(3) to get sweet revenge for the Belgian beating her at Wimbledon this year; next was Katie who made short work of Barthel 4&2 TO SET UP AN ALL BRIT GIRL $75k FINAL!!!

Predictions are that Bally may well be world #93 on Monday with Katie not far behind; or vice versa! May the best girl lift the title tomorrow!

Sadly, Anna was just edged out from joining the title party, going down 10-7 in the champions breaker ; it was a great effort though

Fantastic week for our Girls!

Bally will be world #91 and Katie world #98 on Monday; including injured Annie K, that's 3 Brit Girls in the top 100 for the first time since the 1980s

Superb 3 set final at Shrewsbury today lasting 2 hours 18 minutes showcasing British womens tennis at its best (for 20 years, if Annie will permit the hyperbole on this occasion!)

Bally won 6-3 4-6 6-3 to lift her second ITF $75k title; off to Athens next for a $100k+H

Katie ran Bally soooo close with Bally getting through on willpower at the end, it seemed; Katie will feel gutted at just missing out today, no doubt, but also hugely encouraged by her week, I'm sure.

Congratulations to both on cracking that top 100 barrier

Brilliant News!!

Congratulations to you both - GB Tennis on the up!!

Just bringing this historic moment back to the fore!

Bally continues to go from strength to strength likely to be at a new CH of about #61 on Monday when the points from Indian Wells WTA Premier Mandatory go on ; another historic moment around the corner maybe when she overtakes Annie K's best of world #48

Katie's stay in the top 100 is just about to end after peaking at #84 on 1st Feb; hopefully she'll be back again soon...

And Annie is back playing again and able to use her Protected Ranking status from time to time over the weeks ahead but is actually world #123 at the mo...

3 Brit Girls in the world top 100 was the best for 19 years; all being well the next wait will be weeks rather than months or years

Excellent!

Just realised that a couple of months ago ITF "added to calendar" the Shrewsbury $75k for 2010; so that with Barnstaple also a $75k this year (up from being a $50k) that's two such in blighty with just a week in between. As I say, excellent!

Still only one top 100 Brit at the moment; albeit Bally getting within touching distance of the top 50 (CH #52; curently #56; just need one really good week now... )

Katie and Annie K showing fitful signs of mounting a resurgence whilst youngsters Heather, Laura and Lisa charging into view not far behind.