In the Caversham $25,000 ladies competition the last round of qualifiers were played, with four British players among the eight, joining the England No 1 and No 2, Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha respectively, in today’s first round proper.
Top men’s seed, Jacob Adaktusson, won the first set before his opponent, Great Britain’s Tom Rushby, retired injured.
The Swede meets another British player in today’s match when he plays Neil Bamford, who yesterday beat Jamie Murray, brother of British star Andrew, in three sets.
Matt Smith (GB, seeded No 2) plays fellow British player Chris Eaton, and Alan Mackin (No 3) meets Cypriot Fotos Kallias.
No 4 seed David Sherwood will also be trying to beat a compatriot, Ian Flanagan.
Elena Baltacha, defending champion and No 1 seed, will be in action against fellow Brit Melanie South and Keothavong, seeded no 4 and ranked 208 in the world, plays Naomi Cavaday, who is ranked 852.
German player Angelika Roesch, who was knocked out of the women’s qualifying matches, will be playing in the main draw today after all, after one of the other players who had qualified picked up an injury and had to withdraw.
Highest-ranked ‘Angelika was the highest-ranked qualifier, so she got a ‘lucky loser’s’ ticket into the competition,’ tournament director Hugh Raymond said.
He added: ‘There will be 33 matches played today, with lots of British interest, so we hope to see plenty of tennis fans here at Les Ormes, to watch.’
