So far so very good indeed!

It looked like Emily Webley-Smith might have drawn the short straw again in qualifying here after the Incheon $25k saw her go down in 3 sets against Ling Zhang of Hong Kong the third qseed (who went on to the QF in the MD only to lose there to the eventual winner of the whole shooting match).

Q1 here saw Emily up against the 2nd qseed Akiko Yonemura, world ranked 306 to Emily's current 440. OK we know Em is underranked because of her Autumn wrist injury but even so this looked like a tough draw.

Em produced the goods to down her opponent 6-2 6-3

Still in her path to the MD, though, two talented juniors underranked at senior level: Em got the job done though against Anna Orlik of Belarus in Q2 6-3 7-6(2) and Krystina Pliskova of the Czech Republic (11th qseed and ranked 368) in Q3 6-4 7-5

R1 of the Main Draw has Emily up against, on paper, a weak opponent Min-Kwa Yu of Korea ranked 873; weak until on inspection she beat the aforementioned Ling Zhang in Q3 here...

Good luck Emily

Also in the MD here, as a DA, is GB #5 Mel South who is seeded 8th but, unluckily, drawn in the same quarter as top seed Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) ranked world #92. Mel also gets a Korean qualifier in R1, Na Ri Kim ranked 501. Good luck Mel

Mel and Em have teamed up for the dubs here and have a tough first assignment against the 3rd seeds Sun (CHN) & Xu (CHN). Go, team Melem!

Judging by Em's twitter the officials had a mare!

It was the third seeds team Melem were up against in the dubs R1 so no disgrace in losing 6-1 7-6(2) and valuable matchcourt time had ; but looks like the rub of the green was against them on the calls...

Here's hoping for better luck in the singles; good luck both

Curse these oriental puzzles!

There is a perception, which is very often true, that the world rankings do not properly reflect the strength of the players one comes across in these ITFs in the Far East

Having beaten Ling Zhang in Q3, Yu is clearly not an 800+ player and so Emily's loss, 1&4, is something to be taken philosophically; and, encouraged by 3 great results in the qualies, move on to Changwon

Mel suffered a similar fate going down 7-6(4) 6-4 to her 502 ranked opponent and is also in the field for the Changwon $25k next week. Better luck there, Mel