A home title here then?

[By the way, this is a $25k not a $52k; vohor cross-eyed again! ]

With Woking being a case of so near and yet so far, I'm treading more carefully for this one!

The cause hasn't been helped with Katie, Naomi C, Laura and honorary Brit Jo Konta all withdrawing over the past fortnight but there's still plenty straight into the MD : Heather seeded 4, Naomi B seeded 5 and Lisa seeded 7 plus wild card Fran, Joss, wild card Liz, Jade W, wild card Sam, Anna F, wild card Mandy E, Nicola G, Tara and our Emily.

Plenty battling it out in the qualies too.

Good luck everyone

Especially Em who has a tough old draw again: 2nd seed Mona Barthel of Germany who can blow hot or cold; here's hoping cold!

No Barthel for Em in R1 after all

In theory a bit of luck for Emily with the draw being rejigged, with due respect to Liz Thomas...

4 Brits through from the qualies: Pippa Carr, Daneika Borthwick, Hannah Hume, Emilia Banos-Gregorians and lucky loser Manisha Foster

Well done Emily

Carrying her good singles form forward from helping DL Raynes Park win the Womens National Club League title (might be called Aegon Team Tennis these days!) at the weekend, Emily made good use of being promoted to 9th seed after the late withdrawal of the 6th seed to beat compatriot Liz Thomas 6-2 6-2. Em has Tammi Patterson of Australia in R2; Tammi beat Joss 7-6(5) 6-4 but Em beat her comfortably in Darwin last Autumn...

Em's lucky loser replacement opponent for second seed Barthel also had a stroke of fortune; Brit Manisha Foster winning 3-1 ret.

Apart from Manisha, all Brits through to R2 were at the expense of other Brits in R1: Tara beat Emilia 1&3 and faces Manisha next; Lisa beat Daneika 7-5 6-4 and faces a Greek opponent next; Heather beat Nicola 2&3 and next faces Anna who beat Mandy 3&4; Naomi beat Sam 2&4 and faces an Aussie next.

Only one Brit in the top half now (Emily); go, Emily!

Six Brits in the bottom half; good luck everyone!

Good news, bad news

It ain't going to be an all British singles final

Emily went down to Patterson 4&3 (more time to get to Kazakhstan, though! )

One British singles finalist guaranteed

All 4 QF berths in the bottom half are occupied by Brits; the 3 seeds plus Tara.

7th seed Lisa trounced her Greek opponent 2&1 to continue her meteoric rise in the tennis firmament from unranked this time last year to inside top 300 a week on Monday

In the QFs she faces Tara who accounted for Manisha 4&0; very much 8 bonus ranking points for 16 year old Manisha here to open her senior account rather nicely!

The other all-Brit QF will be between 4th seed Heather, who beat Anna 2&3, and 5th seed Naomi who had to battle in R2 before getting past Emelyn Starr of Australia 6-4 in the third.

With all 4 being youngsters (Tara is 17, Heather 18, Lisa 19 and Naomi 20) it's wonderful to see them all heading onwards and upwards!

And then there were two

There was always going to be two Brit winners and two Brit losers in the QFs, of course...

4th seed Heather Watson (aged 18, world ranked 252 and GB #7) against 5th seed Naomi (aged 20, world ranked 284 and GB #9) went the way of the younger player 6-2 6-3

7th seed Lisa Whybourn (aged 19, world ranked 318 and GB #10) against unseeded Tara Moore (aged 17, world ranked 602 and GB #18) turned out to be a much closer affair with Lisa edging it 7-6(3) 1-6 6-4. Tara has rediscovered her form of late and will be eyeing her Career High 482 ranking again soon!

Heather v Lisa for a place in the final then; and new Career High rankings for both when the ranking points are added on Monday week

The other semi is between top seed Sania Mirza of India, world ranked 131, and 8th seed Emma Laine of Finland, world ranked 335.

Laine and Mirza both have higher CHs in dubs than in singles, in fact, so it is little surprise that they are through to the doubles final here as top seeds; where they face Tara and her Brit partner 16 year old Fran Stephenson who accounted for the 3rd seeded Aussie pair in the QFs ; good luck in the final, Girls!

Yep, that's one home title!

Brilliantly, old timer 17 year old Tara Moore and 16 year old Fran Stephenson have taken down the top seeds Mirza and Laine in the doubles final recovering from dropping the opening set 2-6 to take the next 6-3 and then hold their nerve in the Match Tie-Breaker to take it 13-11 and with it the doubles title. Superb! + x 2!!

All being well, there'll be a second title coming along tomorrow!

Heather Watson has been on song this week conceding no more than 3 games in any set en route to her final against top seed Mirza.

Heather beat Lisa 1&3 in their SF today; Mirza beat Laine 1&4.

Good luck, Heather

Better make that two titles!!

Heather only went and did it!

She beat the top seed 6-2 6-4 to lift her first $25k singles title. Congratulations, Heather!

When the points are added a week tomorrow she'll be GB #5 and approx world #220. Superb stuff!