Let the grass court season commence!!

OK, it may only be the first day of Roland Garros but, what the heck, vohor can smell the grass already!

The run up to Wimbledon starts in earnest here on Saturday 29th May when the qualies get under way. The entry list currently has British interest as follows:

Main Draw: 1 Elena Baltacha ; 21 Naomi Cavaday

Qualies: 4 Mel South; 12 Anna Smith; 13 Naomi Broady; 19 Jade Curtis; 20 Emily Webley-Smith ; 21 Lisa Whybourn; 22 Joss Rae; 24 Dani Brown; 26 Jade Windley

Alts: 2 Tara Moore and many many more...

Good luck everyone! Especially our Emily of course

Good luck in the qualies, Em!

A mass of last minute withdrawals!

Weather delays at Roland Garros may have something to do with it

Anyhoo...

Our Emily promoted to top Brit Girl in the qualies and qseed #3. With 4 qualifying berths up for grabs in the Main Draw if the seedings work out that'll be the MD for Emily and Joss Rae. Here's hoping!

Plenty of other British interest in the qualie draw too, of course, with in fact 24 Brits in the field in all. Good luck everybody!

Brilliant result Tara!

Disappointment for Emily going down agonisingly 10-8 in the second set tie-breaker to lose her final round of qualifying to fellow Brit Jade Windley for whom the win was a very nice boost

Bigger boost still for Tara Moore who produced maybe the best result of her career to date in FQR to beat Chang (TPE) who is world top 100 at #89 despite a second set wobble going through 7-6(0) 0-6 6-4

Joining Tara and Jade in the MD is Joss Rae who won her FQR 6-1 6-2 to justify her 4th seeding

Draw could've been kinder!

12 Brits in the Main Draw which is great

Not so great is that R1 has top seed Elena Baltacha against Naomi Cavaday with the winner of that against the winner of another all-Brit first round encounter (wild card Anna Fitzpatrick v qualifier Jade Windley); so that's 3 Brits down for sure

Heigh ho! Elsewhere the draw has been strenghtened from a home point of view with Anne Keothavong and Katie O'Brien taking late wild cards so that an all-Brit final is not impossible

Good luck everybody!

All Brit final still on!

Five Britons through to round two as the rain affected first round was finally concluded today...

At the top of the draw, top seed [ ] and GB #1 Elena Baltacha, world #62, held sway over GB #4 Naomi Cavaday, world #177, by the convincing but by no means overwhelming margin of 6-3 6-3; it's just a shame Naomi couldn't have drawn a non-Brit in R1

Next up for Bally is another Brit; this time it'll be Anna Fitzpatrick who has been dogged by a succession of injuries over the past 18 months but who might just be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now ; she certainly put in a strong showing today ; again, shame it had to be against a fellow Brit, Jade Windley succumbing 6-1 6-1

In the bottom half of the draw GB #2 Katie O'Brien, 3rd seed here, battled her way past Hofmanova (AUT) 6-4 2-6 6-4 to face Carly Gullickson (USA) in round 2; Gullickson will clearly be a tough challenge having disposed of Lisa Whybourn 6-1 6-1 in R1

GB #3 Anne Keothavong is seeded 7 and also in the bottom half; she beat Valeria Savinykh (RUS) 6-4 7-6(2) in R1 today and next up meets fellow Brit Naomi Broady, ranked 281, who yesterday accounted superbly for Arina Rodionova, world #157, in three sets 7-6(4) 3-6 6-3

Just the two Brits through then!

The all-Brit final is still on but, not unexpectedly, Carly Gullickson (USA) was too strong for GB #2 Katie O'Brien today taking her down 7-6(3) 6-2

Elena Baltacha proved too good for fellow Brit Anna Fitzpatrick easing through 6-2 6-2 to face Noppawan Lercheewakarn (THA) in the QFs; good luck Bally

In the other all-Brit second round former world #48 Anne Keothavong, currently underranked at world #154 after her injury time-out, also went through 2&2 against compatriot Naomi Broady; next up for Annie second seed Sandra Zahlavova (CZE) ranked world #80. Go, Annie

Better news from the dubs where 2 of the pairs through to the semis are all-Brit pairs and another has GB's #1 doubles exponent.

Katie and Naomi B had a walkover against the top seeds in their QF to face the Russian/Ukrainian 3rd seeds next; whilst in the other SF it's Annie K & Mel South against 2nd seeds Sarah Borwell & her American partner Raquel Kops-Jones. Good luck you 5 Brits!

Bally lifts the title! Sez lifts the title!

The British cup runneth over!

Apart from Annie K having to retire with a dodgy hip in the QFs that is although rumour has that she'll be fine for the upcoming WTAs...

Anne was on course for a good old dog-fight with 2nd seed Sandra Zahlavova (CZE) but the match ended at 3-3 in the second set but it was Carly Gullickson (USA) who in fact made the final from the bottom half of the draw beating Zalhavova 6-3 6-4.

At the top of the draw, Bally had to get through two matches yesterday as the tournament caught up the rain delays from earlier in the week. First up was her QF against former world #1 junior and 2009 junior Wimbledon champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA). Bally won that one 6-4 6-0 ; next up was 6th seed Xinyun Han (CHN) ranked 150. Bally won that one 7-6(5) 6-3

And so to finals day: Bally won 6-2 6-2 to lift her first ever $50k title (albeit she has already won at $75k and $100k level!). Congratulations Bally

A very nice start to the grass court season for our numero uno!

Meanwhile in the doubles, GB #1 exponent Sarah Borwell and her regular partner Raquel Kops-Jones (USA) had a walkover through their SF which had been scheduled to be against Mel South and Annie K and faced-off against unseeded British pair Naomi Broady and Katie O'Brien who had accounted for the 3rd seeds from Russia and Ukraine in the SFs 10-1 in the Match Tie-Breaker.

Naomi and Katie gave them a real good fight but Sez and partner shaded it 6-3 2-6 10-7. Bad luck to the losers ; congratulations to the winners

Another good start to the grass court season!