Tough schools!

The Main Draws have handed out no easy options for the British contingent in Eastbourne this week. Good work-outs ahead of Wimbledon, then!

GB #1 womens singles, Elena Baltacha, is a wild card entry and has 7th seed and world #11 Na Li (CHN) first up albeit Bally beat Li in Indian Wells in March and so will therefore fancy her chances of avenging her loss to Li at Eastbourne last year (assuming she has overcome all last week's ailments); good luck, Bally

GB #3 womens singles, Anne Keothavong, is also a wild card entry and in the same quarter of the draw; first up for Annie is world # 25 Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)

There are still three British contenders hoping to join Bally and Annie in the Main Draw from the qualifiers

Best chance in Q2 maybe is GB #5 Mel South who accounted for world #100 Pauline Parmentier (FRA) 6-3 6-4 in Q1 ; and faces Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) ranked 109 next...

Heather Watson won the all-British Q1 against Anna Smith 7-5 6-4 yesterday and today faces 3rd qseed Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) ranked world #81 ; and the winner of that faces the winner of Mel's Q2 in Q3...

Great result for GB #15, 19 year old Joss Rae, in Q1 justifying her wild card into qualifying belying her world ranking of #499 to beat world #131 Nina Bratchikova (RUS) 7-6(4) 6-2 ; next up for Joss 8th qseed Sania Mirza (IND) world ranked #94. Good luck, Joss

No joy amongst the home contingent in the mens qualies, sadly, and with wild cards Jamie Baker and James Ward (GB #3 and #4 respectively) drawing seeds in R1, hopes for British participation in R2 of the singles seems fairly remote; but where there's life there's hope...

James faces 2nd seed and world #31 Feliciano Lopez (ESP) and Jamie plays 7th seed and world #46 Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR). Good luck, guys!

9 Brits in the mens dubs: Ross Hutchins and his Australian partner plus 4 British pairs (Colin Fleming & Ken Skupski; Jamie Delgado & Dom Inglot; Jamie Baker & James Ward; Jonny Marray & Jamie Murray).

News of womens dubs awaited...

Great win for Heather Watson today!

Heather, GB #1 junior and #10 senior with a senior world ranking of #345 and whose 18th birthday was last month, celebrated her coming of age by taking a giant leap forward today with her best result yet at senior level. In the second round of qualifying for this $600k WTA Premier tournament she was up against 3rd qualie seed and world #81 Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria; having dropped the first set 2-6 Heather fought back superbly to take the next two 6-3 6-4

Just when you start to think Laura is getting away from her in the battle for best of the British young 'uns, Heather comes up with something; long may they chase each other up the rankings!

Next up for Heather is Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, ranked 109, who today accounted for Mel South 6-3 6-4; revenge please, Heather!

Joss Rae was unable to follow up yesterday's great result, going down to the world ranked #94 8th seed Sania Mirza of India 6-1 6-2

Great wins for Heather and Flemski!

Another day, another great step forward for Heather Watson winning her way through to the Main Draw with a topsy turvy 6-1 1-6 6-1 victory in Q3 over her 109 ranked opponent ; here's hoping for a kindly placing in R1

And another great result from Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski, taking down the #3 seeds Julian Knowle (AUT) and Andy Ram (ISR) 6-4 7-6(5) in R1 of the dubs

Much honest toil from Jamie Baker in R1 of the singles before going down 4-6 6-3 1-6 to the world #46 so more than ; and likewise Anne Keothavong in her R1 singles against the world #25 before losing 4-6 2-6 the score not reflecting some phenomenally long games

What a day, yesterday!

Major successes galore for the British contingent!

Elena Baltacha made it two in a row against world #10 Na Li (CHN) albeit the Chinese girl was unable to come out to start the second set having just clinched a tight first set tiebreaker but, hey, Bally had to give up last week owing to food poisoning (and Li went on to win the tournament when Bally would have downed her in the QFs ) so it's swings and roundabouts, eh?!

World #24 Jie Zheng (CHN) next up for Bally

Heather Watson will be up against world #15 Victoria Azarenko (BLR) in R2 after, superbly, trouncing world #48 Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 6-3 6-2 in R1 to really make the tennis world sit up and take notice that the transition from junior (albeit junior Slam champion) to senior has well and truly been made

Heather will be breathing down the neck of that other young British prospect, Laura Robson, in next Monday's rankings list (unless Heather wins today, of course, in which case she'll have overtaken her!). Fantastic for the near future of British tennis

Even more unexpected, perhaps, is the wonderful R1 achievement of GB #5 James Ward in the ATP250 event in bringing down the 2nd seed and world #30 Feliciano Lopez (ESP) in straight sets (OK the Spaniard retired but James was serving for the match at 5-4 )

Next up for James is world #72 Reiner Scheuttler (GER)

James teamed up with Jamie Baker to win their dubs R1 in straight sets and book themselves a QF against Flemski. Shame they have to meet so early but there y'go

The other Brit Guys in the dubs went down in R1

The only Brit pair in the womens dubs, wild cards Anne Keothavong and Mel South, went down in their R1 Match Tie-Breaker 7-10

Can't win 'em all; it's fantastic that there's been so many!

Another great day!

Heather Watson's brilliant week came to a close today when the world #15 gave her a 1&1 schooling (but that can be a good thing too in the long run) so it fell to GB's current #1 to produce the result of the day for home fans in the $600k WTA Premier...

Whilst Bally's R1 against Li was tinged with good fortune, her win in a few seconds over two hours against Jie Zhang of China the world #25 (and #14 in this year's Sony Ericsson Race so her high ranking actually belies her current form!) was entirely earnt: 6-2 1-6 6-3

Bally will have a new Career High ranking on Monday of #54 or thereabouts on the back of this and, who knows, she may win her QF against Sam Stosur (AUS), seeded 3 and world ranked #7, to go even higher!

In the ATP250, another fantastic outcome for home fans courtesy of GB #5 James Ward who followed up his R1 win over the second seed by accounting for world #72 Reiner Scheuttler 6-3 7-6(5) ; and next up is 7th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) ranked world #46 from whom Jamie Baker took a set in R1.

James and Jamie had to bow to Flemski in the dubs, going down 2&4, to leave the way clear for GB's #1 dubs team to face the Brazilian pairing of Marcelo Melo & Bruno Soares in the SFs.

Good luck you remaining 4 Brits

Way to go, Flemski

With Bally and James both going down in the singles on Thursday (albeit with heads held very high including Bally magnificently taking the first set off the world #7 in a tie-breaker and James battling manfully for two hours saving 14 of the 16 break points he faced before succumbing to the world #30 ) last Brits standing in Eastbourne this week were GB #1 and world #49 mens doubles exponent Ken Skupski and his team Flemski colleague Colin Fleming, GB #2 and world #52.

They won their dubs SF 6-4 6-4 against Melo & Soares who are no mugs at world #30 & #31; another great result for Flemski

Sadly, they went down agonisingly in the final against the second seeds Polish pair Marius Frystenberg & Marcin Matowski (world #14 & #13)...hmmm, weren't they the Davis Cup pairing against GB last year? ... 3-6 7-5 8-10

Never mind guys; save it for Wimby, eh?!