I wanted to call this a but didn't want to tempt fate!

The second part of this Aussie ITF 25Ks tour gets under way in Western Australia at Esperance on the coast 740 kms East from Perth; stays in WA, albeit inland, for the Kalgoorlie, 600 kms from Perth and 390 kms from Esperance; and then makes the short hop ( ) across to Bendigo 140 kms NW from Melbourne the week after.

The first part of the tour brought Dani a heap of ranking points in both singles and doubles and Emily her first 25k title but a succession of very mouldy singles draws and a wrist injury; so here's hoping for better luck for Emily over the next 3 weeks plus more of the same for Dani

Plus Joss Rae is joining in the fun

Joss Rae is 2nd seed for the qualies and gets a bye in Q1 and veteran Aussie Kat Bailey in Q2; whilst Dani Brown is 7th qseed, gets a bye in Q1 and 15 year old Aussie Natasha Micevski in Q2.

Good luck, Girls

Nice and efficient start from both Joss and Dani

Joss won 0&1 and Dani 2&2

New Zealand opposition for both in Q3, 14th qseed Ellen Barry for Dani and 9th qseed Dianne Hollands for Joss

Good luck both

One through, one down

Dani Brown accounted for Ellen Barry of New Zealand, who has been ranked as high as #253 as recently as May 2008, 6-3 6-3 in the final round of qualifying and takes her place in the Main Draw in the same half as our Emily (and Alicia Molik); thankfully she's not due to meet Emily or Molik until the semis

First up for Dani is fellow qualifier Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands who has had a successful year in senior 10Ks plus the junior circuit where she's currently just outside the top 10. No pushover, for sure. Good luck Dani

Joss went down disappointingly 3&3 to a lower ranked player but will hopefully be acclimatised and firing on all cylinders next week in Kalgoorlie.

Emily's R1 looks a rare kind draw albeit against the 8th seed; Nicole Riner of Switzerland has had an indifferent run of form since June and hopefully Emily will continue the bad news for her

Good news/bad news again

Very good news is Emily making an excellent start to her singles campaign taking down the 8th seed, world ranked 303 Nicole Riner of Switzerland, by the comfortable margin of 4 & 2 ; her wrist hopefully firing on all cylinders again after the injury picked up in Mount Gambier

Next up for Em is another Swiss opponent in all likelihood.

Surprisingly, Emily and Zhang who made the final in Balikpapan together and were top seeds in the dubs here, went down in the MTB

Better news from the dubs for Dani who is through to the next round for the loss of only one game.

Dani's MD singles start awaited...

Rain delays in Western Australia?!

Seems rain on the southern coast is not such a surprise to those in the know Anyhoo...

Dani had a tough R1 singles draw against Hogenkamp of the Netherlands who is world #14 junior so to get as close as 7-6(6) 7-5 was but ultimately ; and Dani's dubs run ended at the QF stage going down 1&4 to the 3rd seeds.

Having surprisingly gone down in R1 of the dubs, our Emily has been able to give the singles her undivided attention; and to good effect picking up 14 ranking points so far by following up 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2 in R2 against her second Swiss opponent in succession, Amra Sadikovic ranked 398. Second set must have been scary but she toughed it out. Well done, Em

Alicia Molik next...give it your best shot Em

Sick as a parrot; or is that sick as a dingo?

Seems there's been a vomitting bug afflicting quite a few of the players in Esperance and it caught up with our Emily just when she needed it least

Molik was always going to be a major challenge; throwing up on court didn't help; Emily lost 2&0. Bad luck Em

Hope you're feeling better in time for Kalgoorlie