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Auckland and
Huss save 6 match points to reach Delray Beach semis James
Auckland and Stephen Huss recovered from the brink of defeat to
overcome Jan-Michael Gambill and Rainer Schuettler 17-15 in a champions
tiebreak.The British-Australian pairing started strongly, breaking to lead 3-2 but then got broken back straight away. The set went with serve till the 11th game when Auckland and Huss broke to 30 to lead 6-5 and then they served it out, taking their 4th set point. The 2nd set was a similar story, Auckland and Huss broke to 15 to lead 4-3 but then got broken straight back. The set went to a tiebreak, Gambill and Schuettler hit some blistering returns to race to a 5-1 lead and they wrapped it up 7-2. Gambill and Schuettler took the momentum into the champions tiebreak and Auckland and Huss were behind for most of it. Things didn't look too good when the American-German pairing held 3 match points at 9-6 but they got a bit tight and the 4th seeds saved all 3 to level at 9-9. Gambill and Schuettler had a further 3 chances to win the match but couldn't convert any and eventually it was Auckland and Huss who took their 3rd match point to reach the semi-finals. They now face the top seeds Jeff Coetzee and Rogier Wassen. The South African pairing have had a brilliant start to the year, winning an ATP title in Auckland and then reaching the quarters of the Australian Open. They've yet to drop a set so far in Delray Beach so it will a tall order for Auckland and Huss. Kasiri, Kennaugh and Corrie in action in Bressuire  Miles Kasiri,
Andy Kennaugh and Ed Corrie are all in action in qualifying for the
Bressuire 10K+H this weekend. Chris Eaton is still injured so he's not
competing.Kennaugh is the 6th seed, however in rd1 he faces Alain Ntamag, the Frenchman who beat him in straight sets last week. Corrie is drawn against France's Samuel Dancet (unranked) and is likely to play the 13th seed in rd2 if he wins. Kasiri also faces an unranked French player in rd1, Romain Deridder. Woolley and Probert competing in Mallorca Two British players have entered this week's 10K futures on Mallorcan clay. Kirsty Woolley and Abbie Probert are both involved in this weekend's qualifying draw. Woolley is the 9th seed and plays unranked Belgian Florence de Vyre in rd1. She could face Probert in rd2 if the 17 year old gets past Georgia's Sofia Kvatsabaia Sarah reaches quarters in Palm desert  British
no 5 Sarah Borwell has reached her first 25K quarter-final since July,
defeating Irish 8th seed Kelly Liggan 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4 in a topsy-turvy
second round match.Sarah now faces American Julie Ditty for a place in the semis. Ditty defeated Argentinian 4th seed Maria-Jose Argeri 7-5, 6-4 in round 1 and she's enjoyed a strong start to the year, reaching a 25K semi in Tampa in January. Sarah has played her once before, in a 25K in Redding in 2005 when Ditty won 6-4, 7-6(4). Auckland and Huss hold their nerve to make rd2  James
Auckland and Stephen Huss squeezed through to the 2nd round of ATP
Delray Beach by the narrowest of margins, defeating Americans
Amer Delic and Robby Kendrick 7-6(4), 4-6, 11-9.The first set went with serve until the tiebreak, with chances to break few and far between. In the breaker, it was the British-Australian pairing who struck first and they hung onto the crucial minibreak to win it 7-4. However, Delic and Kendrick hit back hard in the 2nd set, taking their only break point chance. Auckland and Huss never got a chance to break back leading to a champions tiebreak. In the end it was the stronger returns of Auckland and Huss which decided things and they secured a quarter-final match against wildcards Jan Michael-Gambill and Rainer Schuettler. Brits crash out in Sutton  It's
been a bad day in the Sutton 25K as far as British interest is
concerned with Anne Keothavong, Katie O'Brien, Amanda Keen and Georgie
Stoop all losing in rd2. Stoop was edged out in a close match with Switzerland's Gaelle Widmer, losing 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 while top seed Elise Tamaela outplayed Amanda Keen to win 6-2, 6-1. The defeats for Anne and Katie were surprising as their opponents are ranked around 100 places lower. Anne won only 4 games against Andrea Hlavackova, losing 6-4, 6-0 . The first set of Katie's match against Nika Ozegovic was close but from then on the Croatian upped her level to win 7-6(5), 6-1. Anne, Katie, Amanda and Georgie will now head to Tipton for a 25K next week. Barnes goes out to Croatian qualifier in Radenci  16 year old
Lewis Barnes (junior ranking: 297) has been in action this week in
Radenci, playing a grade 4 junior tournament.Lewis was seeded 2nd and defeated Austria's Lukas Jastraunig 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in rd1. However, he came unstuck against Croatian qualifier Iljia Cilic in the 2nd round, losing 6-4, 6-3. Lewis is still in action in the doubles, where he's partnering Russia's Mikhail Titov. They're the 2nd seeds and have received a bye through to the quarters. Lewis has gained 10 points + any points he gets from the doubles, so far this week. British quartet reach round 2 in Sutton  Georgie
Stoop, Anne Keothavong, Katie O'Brien and Amanda Keen all reached the
second round of this week's Sutton 25K. Stoop was particularly impressive, defeating British no 2 and 5th seed Mel South 6-3, 6-1. South has been struggling with a virus since returning from Australia and didn't have the energy to combat the powerful baseline game of the Cambridgeshire teenager who broke early in both sets and never gave South a chance to get back into the match. Speaking afterwards to the LTA, Stoop said “I played a good match and I was particularly pleased with the way I stuck to my gameplan. Mentally I played a very solid match." Anne Keothavong had no problems in defeating American qualifier Susannah Lingman, 6-2, 6-3 and Amanda Keen's serve-volley game proved to be too much for Portugal's Nueza Silva, Amanda winning 6-4, 6-2. 6th seed Katie O'Brien held her nerve and saved set points in the 2nd set tiebreak to beat Slovakia's Katarina Kachlikova. However, there was disappointment for Naomi Cavaday who narrowly missed out on completing a fine fightback against Switzerland's Gaelle Widmer. Widmer outplayed the Kent teenager in the first set, taking it 6-2. However, Cavaday recovered from a break down in the 2nd to win it 7-5 in a tiebreak. She looked on course to victory when she opened up a 4-1 lead in the 3rd but lost her concentration and played two sloppy service games. Widmer won the last 5 games to win 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4. Wildcards Sarah Coles, Jade Windley and Karen Paterson also lost. However, 16 year old Jade did extremely well to take the opening set 6-4 against Estonian 4th seed Maret Ani before getting outplayed in sets 2 and 3. In round 2, Amanda has the unenviable task of taking on top seed Elise Tamaela. They've played twice before, Taemala winning both times; 6-4, 6-4 at the Edinburgh 10K in 2003 and 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 at a 75K in Bordeaux in 2004. However, both those matches were on clay so Amanda may have a better chance this time. Taemala has started the year well, only narrowly missing out on qualifying for the Aussie Open and beating Russia's Nina Bratichova in rd1 here. Georgie will face Naomi's conqueror Gaelle Widmer. Looking ahead to this match she said “Widmer is a useful lefty and is quite awkward to play, but if I stick to my gameplan tomorrow then I should have a good chance of progressing.” Katie will play Croatia's Nika Ozegovic who defeated Karen Paterson in rd1 and Anne Keothavong faces Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic. Excellent start for Borwell in the desert  British
no 5 Sarah Borwell reached round 2 of this week's 25K in Palm Desert,
beating Argentinian teenager Bettina Jozami 7-6(6), 6-2. Sarah had to
hold her nerve to win a very close first set but from then on it was
plain sailing.She now faces Irish 8th seed Kelly Liggan for a place in the quarters. Liggan defeated Japan's Miho Saeki 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-2 in rd1 Natasha misses out on Sutton main draw  Unfortunately
Natasha was unable to reproduce the form she showed on Monday, in the final qualifying round and she lost to Russia's Anastasia Poltoratskaya 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. Although Poltoratskaya is ranked over 200 places lower than Natasha at 722, she's playing at a much higher level than that at the moment. Last week she reached the final of a 10K in Hull and in the Sutton qualifying this week she'd already knocked out 11th seed Natalia Orlova 6-3, 6-1. Natasha now heads to Tipton for a 25K next week. She's been given a wildcard into the main draw. Jamie Murray misses doubles cut in Zagreb  Jamie
had been planning to compete in the doubles main draw of ATP Zagreb
this week. However, the cut-off ranking was unusually high - 121 and he
wasn't able to get in.Jamie now heads to Dallas to compete in next week's 50K challenger before teaming up with Andy Murray for the doubles in ATP San Jose the following week Eaton forced to withdraw in Feucherolles Chris Eaton was forced to retire with an injury, just 22 minutes into his first round match against Charly Villeneuve. They'd played 3 games, with both players having broken serve and Eaton trailing 1-2. Eaton is due to play qualifying for France F3 at the weekend but he may have to give that tournament a miss depending on the extent of his injury In Columbia, Myles Blake also went out in the first round of the Bucaramanga 10K, losing to 5th seed Sebastien Decoud 6-4, 7-6(9). Sutton 25K - qualifying match reports - rd2  Rebecca Llewellyn (1) 2-6, 2-6 Liana
Ungur (Rom): Rebecca was struggling with a dead leg which
really hampered her movement and like Julia Bone she was outhit by
Ungur. Rebecca also adopted the tactic of hitting heavy topspin shots
down the centre but Ungur just kept thumping forehand winners. Rebecca
didn't serve very well, her 1st serve percentage was very low and once
Ungur broke in the 6th game of the 1st set to lead 4-2 it was all
one-way traffic. Natasha Khan 7-5, 6-4 Aurelie Vedy (Fra)(2): Natasha broke in the opening game and had chances for a 3-0 lead with a double break. However, Vedy held on and worked her way into the match. It went with serve till Natasha served for it at 5-4. She led 30-0 but then made a few volley errors and Vedy broke back for 5-5. However, Natasha upped her level again, broke for 6-5 and took the set. She broke midway through the 2nd and held on to win. She really held her nerve at the end as Vedy served to stay in it at 5-7, 3-5 and Natasha had match points then but missed them. In the next game she got to 40-15 on her serve and she had an easy volley to finish things off but was too tentative with it and Vedy hit a running forehand passing winner. However, a forehand winner on the next point from Natasha gave her the match. Natasha looked a really promising player. Her serve is a big weapon, it's as fast as Danielle Brown's serve but Natasha gets a lot more in. She can hit really big shots off both forehand and backhand and covers the court well. The area where she needs to work on is up at the next, she hit some great volleys but sometimes can be too tentative. She was really aggressive with her play today, moving Vedy all around the court with deep shots and following them into the net. Vedy is a leftie and she has a really effective forehand but at times in the match she was simply outpowered by Natasha. I spoke to Nigel Sears during the match and he said he was very impressed by Natasha, apparently he's been encouraging her to come forwards more and he was really pleased with the way that she was doing that today and taking the ball out of the air to finish off points. Emily Webley-Smith 3-6, 3-6 Debbrich Feys (Bel)(16): This was a really tough rd2 match for Emily. Veys is very tall and hard hitter. Emily got broken from 30-0 up in the opening game (mainly errors from her) and and then again at 5-3 to Veys. She just got outhit in that set, was attacking the net a lot throughout the match but with mixed results. The 2nd set was a lot closer, Emily counter-punched more effectively and got a lot more balls back. She broke to lead 2-1 but then played an erratic service game to get broken for 2-2. Veys broke in the 8th game for 5-3 and served for it. Emily saved 4 match points with some great defensive play and actually had a break point herself but Veys saved it with a powerful backhand and then wrapped up the match on her 5th chance. Nigel Sears felt that the problem was that she didn't have a clear game plan in her head. Anna Smith 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 Olga Panova (Rus)(3): For fans of power hitting, this was the match to see; both players were simply smashing the cover off the ball. Smith dominated the first set, she had the bigger serve and was returning Panova's superbly. She hit some simply stunning forehand and backhand winners, Panova didn't really have any answers, she came to the net and Smith passed her or hit tricky topspin shots, which dipped wickedly at the Russian's feet. Smith broke in the first game and then again to lead 4-1. However, Panova broke right back to make it 3-4. Smith held a close game and then broke again to take the set 6-3. Unfortunately she lost concentration at the start of the 2nd set and started making a few unforced errors, she lost 3 close games on the bounce and went 0-3 down. She got one of the breaks back but was then broken again serving to stay in the set at 3-5. Unfortunately, Smith's level dropped in the 3rd set and she made too many errors.Anna Fitzpatrick 7-5, 6-7(6), 3-6 Neuza Silva (Por)(14): Anna broke early on and then won a marathon 5th game to lead 4-1 (there must have been something like 10 deuces), her opponent had several break points but Anna's serve got her out of trouble. She served for the set at 5-3, but got a bit tight and gave that game away with forehand errors. Luckily she broke again at 6-5 to take the set. I had to leave then, I'm surprised that she lost. Silva is just a solid baseliner, hits with heavy slice on the backhand side but doesn't have any real weapons. The 2nd set looks as though it was really close, 8-6 in the tiebreak to Silva - judging from the first set Anna would have had quite a few chances in set 2 - possibly match points - shame she wasn't able to take them. Danielle Brown 2-6, 3-6 Julia Goerges (Ger)(9) Claire Ricketts 1-6, 5-7 Claire de Gudenatis (Fra)(10) Sutton 25K - qualifying match reports - rd1  Julia Bone 2-6, 2-6
Liana Ungur (Rom): Ungur simply outpowered Bone in this
match, playing at a level which defied her current ranking of 542. She
broke Bone's serve twice in each set and although Bone had a
couple of half-chances on the Ungur serve at the start of the 2nd, she
never came close to breaking it. Bone hits with heavy topspin off both
sides, perhaps a tactic to try and disrupt Ungur's hitting rhythm, but
it didn't work as the Romanian consistently stepped up the court, took
the ball on the rise and thumped it into the corners. Emily Webley-Smith 6-4, 6-4 Anna Hawkins: Emily started strongly, breaking twice early in the first set to take a 4-1 lead. She seemed to then lose concentration and allowed Anna get back to 4-4, throwing in a succession of unforced errors and double faults. However, Emily stepped it up again and won a long game to break for 5-4. Anna wasn't overjoyed at double-faulting on break point and made her feelings clear with an outburst of Anglo-Saxon. Emily broke early on in the second set and held on to take the match without too much trouble. Overall, Emily had too much variety, mixing up her game well and attacking the net on a regular basis. Anna served well but made too many errors and missed some easy shots. Emily still looked a bit rusty at times - her first serve percentage was quite low and there were moments of indecision at the net. Natasha Khan 6-2, 6-2 Holly Richards: Natasha was in fine form, hitting some blistering groundstrokes off both wings. Holly tried to mix things up by attacking the net more in the second set but was simply outhit. Anna Smith 6-0, 6-2 Paula Fondeville-Castro (Esp): An impressive win for Anna over her Spanish opponent who didn't look at all comfortable on the indoor acrylic courts and was sent packing in quickfire fashion. Anna dominated the match with accurate serving and heavy hitting off both flanks from the baseline. Her serving was particularly impressive in this match, setting her up time and time again with easy short ball putaways. Anna Fitzpatrick 6-3, 6-4 Melissa Berry: The first set went with serve till 4-3 when Anna broke to lead 5-3, having gradually upped the pressure on Berry's serve in the previous couple of games. She served out the set and then got off to the best possible start in the 2nd, breaking in the opening game. However, she then seemed to lose focus, and forehand errors crept in. From 30-0 on her serve,(leading 6-3, 1-0), two stunning forehand return winners from Berry made it 30-30 and then two forehand errors from Fitzpatrick (both makeable shots) meant that Berry broke straight back and made it 1-1. However, Fitzpatrick started to regain her focus and her range and broke midway through the set and served it out to win 6-3, 6-4. I'd never seen her play before and you can tell that she trains on clay, she has a very extreme forehand grip and hits with a lot of topspin off that side. The forehand is probably her biggest weakness, at times in her matches she loses focus for a short while, that shot goes slightly awry and she starts hitting it wide and long. Her two-handed backhand is very solid and a great shot, she hit some stunning winners off that wing. Unlike Smith and Khan, she's not so much a power player, she really works the rallies using angles, different lengths to try and open the court up or give her an opportunity to step up the court and attack. The clay-court training in Monte Carlo really does show through her forehand and the tactical side of her game. Her serve was very effective against Berry, she gets a lot in and gets a lot of service winners and a fair few aces. Melissa Berry has a pretty good serve, she also hit some superb forehands during the match. However, the backhand is her big weakness, she made way too many unforced errors off that side and Fitzpatrick really targeted it. Berry did also miss some pretty easy shots in the forecourt which didn't help her cause. Jessica Jackon 6-7, 4-6 Tara Iyer (Ind): Despite a ranking difference of around 900 places, this match was really close and the first set in particular could have gone either way. Iyer's extra experience told in the breaker which she cruised through. Jessica was up 3-1 in the 2nd set but lost her way and Iyer took the next 4 games. Iyer served for it at 5-3 but Jessica broke back. Unfortunately she then got broken serving to stay in the match at 4-5. I didn't see much of this match but Jessica is a pretty hard hitter, definately way better than her current ranking of 1438. I don't think it will be long before she's in the top 1000. Lucy Warburton 4-6, 3-6 Ekaterina Dramets: Lucy had the better chances for most of the first set but it went with serve till 4-5 when she played a bad game serving to stay in the set. Dramets broke early in the 2nd set and led 4-1 before Lucy upped her level slightly and broke the Dramets serve with some heavy forehands and got it back to 3-4. Unfortunately she then played a sloppy game, double-faulting on break point and Dramets served the match out to win 6-4, 6-3. I was impressed by parts of Lucy's game, I felt that it was a match that she could have definately taken to 3 sets. She's got a good solid serve and hits a heavy ball off both sides from the back of the court. However, she needs to do a lot of work on her forecourt game and unfortunately for her in this match, Dramets is an excellent counter-puncher, very fast around the court. The story of the match was that Lucy would do all the hard work, rallying from the back with heavy groundstrokes but then when she got the chance to finish the point she would lack the killer punch. Melissa Gibb 2-6, 0-6 Ria Doernemann (Ger): Deborah Armstrong 1-6, 5-7 Martina Pavelec (Ger): Armstrong is a pretty good player, after the opening couple of games I thought there might be an upset on the cards as she hit some stunning winners particularly off her forehand. However, Pavelec was just on fire today, I wasn't at all surprised that she went on to knock out the 7th seed in rd2. She's tall and very powerfully built, and has a devastating forehand and single-handed backhand combination. Armstrong didn't play badly at all, she was timing the ball very sweetly but for a set and a half Pavelec was just blasting unstoppable winners to all corners, I'm amazed she's not top 400, just shows the depth of the women's game. Pavelec won 6 straight games to take the first set 6-1 and then raced to a 5-2 lead in the 2nd set. Armstrong was just being outhit, in comparison to Pavelec she has quite a slender frame. She got quite frustrated and had several arguments with the umpire, there were no curtains dividing the courts and so balls regularly went over onto adjacent courts. During 1 rally, a ball from the Gibb match came onto the court behind the baseline and Armstrong stopped playing. She felt that they should replay the point as the ball had come over, but the umpire said no as the ball was on the other half of the court. At 1-6, 2-5 down Armstrong then started attacking the net more which proved successful and maybe Pavelec got tight as errors started to creep into her play. Armstrong began to dominate more of the rallies and worked her way back into the set, breaking Pavelec and levelling it at 5-5. Pavelec then held a close service game to lead 6-5 and Armstrong got broken to 30, serving to stay in it. Danielle Brown 6-2, 7-5 Abbie Probert: Danielle broke serve in the opening game but then got broken straight back - hitting 3 double faults in a row. She broke again to lead 2-1 and opened up a 4-1 lead. A break in the 7th game made it 5-2 and she wrapped up the set 6-2. 2nd set was much, much closer, Danielle was an early break up but Probert broke back and it went with serve till 5-5 when Danielle crunched some return winners to break and then held a long service game to win 6-2, 7-5. Danielle has probably the biggest serve of all the British players in action in this tournament, however it's extremely inconsistent. She also really, really goes for her 2nd serve, at times it's virtually as fast as her 1st and so she hit quite a few double-faults. From the baseline, she's a really big hitter, she crunched some massive forehand and backhand winners today and when she strings that together for several points she's unplayable. However, again consistency is a problem and is probably what's holding her back at the moment as she's got the power of a top 100 player. In the 1st set Probert was trying to anticipate where Danielle was going with the short and midcourt shots and moving far too early, she also made too many errors. However, in the 2nd set, she scrambled a lot better, cut out the errors and her length was deeper which kept Danielle at bay. Danielle's friend/coach was also watching the match and was saying that in the 2nd set Dani was going for the big winner too early in the rally, she needed to work the point more and wait for the right opportunities instead of getting impatient. Boggo outplayed by on-fire Jenkins  American
qualifier Scoville Jenkins proved too hot to handle as Alex lost 6-3,
7-6(3) in rd1 of ATP Delray Beach.Jenkins got 84% first serves in and he simply played the big points better today, firing down booming serves on the key points and really attacking Alex's second serve. Alex hit 6 double faults as the power and accuracy of Jenkins' returning forced him to go for the lines on his weaker delivery. Alex started strongly, holding to love and then racing to 0-40 on Jenkins' opening service game. However, he was unable to convert any of those break points and Jenkins held on before breaking in the very next game. Another break in the 5th game for the American gave him a 4-1 lead. Alex broke when Jenkins served for the set at 5-2 but then got broken straight back to lose the set 6-3. The second set was a lot closer, Jenkins broke in the 4th game to lead 3-1 but Alex broke straight back. In the 8th game Alex saved two break points with aces - one on his 2nd serve. At 5-5, Alex had two break point chances but Jenkins came up with the goods and the set went to a tiebreak. Jenkins found his best form and hit some scorching winners to take the first 6 points. Alex saved 3 match points but could do nothing about the 4th. Looking at the match stats, Alex was only able to win 28% of the points on his second serve and that proved costly. Alex's next tournament will be the ATP event in San Jose. He will enter qualifying which starts on 10th February. Good draw for Borwell in Palm Desert Sarah
Borwell has a good chance of getting another couple of wins this week
in Calfornia. In the first round she faces Bettina Jozami, an 18 year
old Argentinian player. If she wins then she's likely to face Irish 8th
seed Kelly Liggan in round 2.Last week, during the the 50K challenger in Hawaii, strong winds proved too be quite a problem so Sarah will be hoping for calmer playing conditions this week in the desert ! She's also entered the doubles with America's Tiffany Dabek. Unfortunately they've drawn the top seeds in round 1. Russell proves too tough for Baker in Hawaii  Jamie
Baker's 7 match winning streak came to an end in the Waikaloa
challenger final against the experienced American Michael Russell. Russell is the form player of the challenger circuit so far this year having already won a title in New Caledonia. In Hawaii he reached the final without dropping a set and accounted for the 2nd and 3rd seeds along the way. He beat Jamie comfortably; 6-1, 6-4. Jamie's impressive series of results this week has moved him up 68 places to a career high ranking of 256. He now heads to Dallas for a 50K challenger, Jamie will be entering qualifying which starts on 3rd February. Przysiezny overcomes Bloomfield in Wrexham final  Richard
Bloomfield's run in the Wrexham challenger was ended today by Poland's
Michael Przysiezny who defeated him 6-2, 6-3 in the final.Nevertheless, it has been an excellent week for Bloomfield who had only dropped one set en route to the final, and the 35 ranking points he's gained will take him up to a new career high of 188. Davis Cup coach Peter Lundgren has been in Wrexham this week and he reckons that Richard has an excellent chance of making the squad for April's tie against Holland. Lundgren said "He's got a big serve and his game looks to be in good shape and there's no reason at all why he can't make the team by April. Andy Murray and Tim Henman are the only players assured of their places - after that the players who are in form will play. There's a whole bunch of them at the moment but Richard has put down his marker already. It's up to him to carry this on." Richard also reached the doubles final with Robin Haase. They lost to the 2nd seed French pair Thomas Oger and Nicolas Tourte 6-7, 7-5, (12-10). Lundgren said "In Davis Cup it always helps to have players who can step into doubles and Richard proved just that." Richard will now head to either Wroclaw or Bergamo for challenger events which begin on 5th February. Dyce wins Aussie Open junior doubles title  Graeme Dyce
joined an exclusive club of British players who have won slam titles
when he and Finland's Harri Heliovarra won the Australian Open boys
doubles. The only other British players to have won slams in the past
decade are Andy Murray (US Open boys singles 2004), Lee Childs and
James Nelson (US Open boys doubles 2000) and Dave Sherwood and James
Trotman (Aussie Open boys doubles 1997).In the final, Dyce and Heliovarra overcame the distraction of a partisan Aussie crowd on Margaret Court Arena to defeat Stephen Donald and Rupesh Roy 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3. Speaking afterwards, Dyce said how working with Brad Gilbert in the off season had inspired him. “Working with Brad Gilbert for those few days was unbelievable. Just having him on the court next to you is a motivation to keep going. When he talks to you he puts it in simple terms. You know what he expects.” Dyce and Heliovaara certainly did that in the deciding set of the final. They seemed to have lost their impetus after dropping a match point and then losing the second set tie-break 7-4. The crowd seemed to be intimidating the pair but they took a bathroom break to regroup and returned far more focused on the job in hand. “The spectators were getting pretty vocal out there and it was the first time either Harri or I had experienced that kind of thing,” said Dyce. “But getting off court for just a few minutes helped us to calm down a little and we proved a point to ourselves in the third set. “We thought we could play pretty well and when we won our first round against a very good pair, we thought we could go all the way if we kept things together. It was just a matter of producing our best tennis on the court.” To read the LTA report, click hereJane gets "new lease of life" from new training base 
Jane O’Donoghue, one of Britain’s top tennis players, says making the University of Bath her training base has given her tennis career a new lease of life. The
23-year-old, originally from Wigan, is currently number 11 in the
British women’s rankings and 383 in the world, but is determined to
work her way higher up the rankings again. A year ago she was
second
in the British rankings and she has a career high world ranking of 185. Natasha gets boost from new national coach Natasha Khan has been singled out as one of the
players who can revitalise British tennis. Khan, from Hove, has
rocketed up the world rankings from 900 and is now inside the world's
top 500.Lewes-based Nigel Sears, the new national head coach for women, is impressed with her form and wants her to secure a place in the Federation Cup team. He also thinks she has the talent to break into the top 200 next year. The domestic women's game has limped along for years. The last top 100 player was Sam Smith in 1998 and it is more than 20 years since Jo Durie was in the top ten. Anne Keothavong is the only current player inside 150. Sears is the man charged with overhauling the women's game and Khan, 19, is one of the players he thinks can make the breakthrough. He forms part of the Tennis Leadership Team put together by LTA chief executive Roger Draper which aims to re-establish a "winning mentality" in the British game. Khan will benefit from a new system of support in areas including fitness, nutrition, psychology and coaching at the new National Training Centre, to be opened in Roehampton in February. To read the full article, click: here Martin Lee: "I was on the road to nowhere" 
Martin Lee looked across the grounds of the Bisham Abbey national sports centre, where his tennis career began, and savoured fond memories of travelling the globe in a desperate, eventually fruitless, attempt to reach the top. He has been jetlagged in Japan, ill in
India, too exhausted in Egypt to take a 10-minute drive to the
Pyramids, terrified by a rottweiler in San Francisco, smashed so many
rackets in New York that he had to buy some himself for a tournament;
and celebrated his loneliest Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken out
of a cardboard carton in a deserted Miami. |