The grass court season gathers pace!

Hot on the heels of the hugely satisfying $50k ITF in Nottingham with British champions in both the singles (Elena Baltacha ) and doubles (Sarah Borwell ) it's on to Birmingham's Edgbaston Priory for this WTA level tournament and, who knows, yet more British success

Great news already from the qualifiers with 16 year old GB #6 Laura Robson beating 5th qseed Nina Bratchikova (RUS) ranked world #133 in Q1 and won by retirement in Q2 when 6-3 2-0 up against the world #169

GB #7 Anna Smith had a great win in Q1 too against 4th qseed Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) ranked world #131 before going down in Q2

GB #4 Naomi Cavaday won excellently in Q1 against 12th qseed Anna Tatishvili (GEO) world ranked 152 and then today suffered an agonising loss to 6th qseed Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) world ranked #134 when rain interrupted their third set tie-breaker with Naomi 4-3 up; upon the resumption about 90 minutes later Naomi lost four straight points to go out +

Hey ho! Plenty of British interest in the Main Draw as well as Laura: not least, of course, GB #1 Elena Blatacha who is 12th seed and due to play a qualifier in R1 (not Laura please! ) and, if they both get their, top seed Na Li (CHN) world ranked #12 who Bally has in fact already beaten once this year already!

GB #3 Anne Keothavong is in the top quarter too with wild card Naomi Broady in the second quarter, wild card Mel South in the third quarter and in the bottom quarter wild card Heather Watson and Direct Acceptance GB #2 Katie O'Brien.

Doubles draw news awaited...

Good luck everybody

It wasn't Laura v Bally then!

The doom-mongers who foresaw Laura Robson's superb win through qualifying being rewarded with a R1 against Elena Baltacha, Britain's form horse extraordinaire these past 12 months, were proved wrong and how!

With Bally (and Annie K for that matter) not due on court until day 2 there were no other wins and plenty of British losses in R1 on day one of the MD with, in particular, Mel South going so so close against Anna Chadvetze (RUS) before going down in 3 and certainly no disgrace and good experience for Heather Watson and Naomi Broady in their matches against much higher ranked opponents

However 16 year old Laura Robson, who has NO ONE younger than her higher up the senior rankings , continued her cream rising to the top process by today winning her first ever WTA level Main Draw match

It may have ended slightly unsatisfactorily when her opponent, Stefanie Voegele (SUI) ranked world #78, presumably had a back spasm right at the end of the first set as she called a time-out having lost it 4-6; but, hey, Laura was on her way to win anyway

Big ask next for Laura: 3rd seed and world #16 Yanina Wickmayer (BEL). Another experience to savour on the learning curve. Go, Laura!

Poor old Bally

Having battled heatstroke after her Nottingham exertions, GB #1 Elena Baltacha had food poisoning to contend with today in her rain delayed first round encounter with Kaia Kanepi (EST) and had to give up after conceding the first set 1-6...

Hopefully Bally can get herself fully recovered now in time for Eastbourne

With rain continuing to play havoc with scheduling, no dubs at all have been played yet but, thankfully, there is good news for home fans today thanks to former GB #1 and world #48 Anne Keothavong. Up against a top 100 player (OK, she's #100! ) Pauline Parmentier of France, Annie battled through 4-6 7-5 7-5; gutsy!

Tough job next: top seed Na Li of China currently ranked world #12; having had a first round bye, Li may be caught cold of course (if, indeed, not frozen stiff given the weather! ); good luck Annie

Rain continuing to cause havoc

Still no British doubles matches been played yet

Anne produced a very decent effort against top seed and world #12 Na Li of China in R2 yesterday but went down 2&4

Laura went down too but it was a hugely encouraging performance against the world #16; 5-7 4-6 is worthy of a and indicative maybe that if she can keep injury-free from now on Laura will be top 20 herself this time next year?

No more British successes this week from Birmingham

The dubs finally got under way but to little effect from a British viewpoint, unfortunately, with GB #1 Sarah Borwell (with regular partner Raquel Kops-Jones) going down to the Rodionova sisters 6-10 in the Match Tie-Breaker; and Anne Keothavong & Mel South and Heather Watson & Laura Robson going down in straight sets

Albeit, Heather and Laura were up against top seeds Liezel Huber (world #1) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands and acquitted themselves pretty well taking 4 games in each set

In the singles, Annie K went down 2-6 4-6 to the top seed in R2, Na Li going on to today's final where she faces Maria Sharapova.

Here's hoping for better news from Eastbourne...