Monday saw the completion of qualifying in the idyllic setting of the indoor courts at the Edgbaston Priory club.
With the standard of the qualifying event more akin to a main draw of a women’s $25k event, the final round produced some high quality, and intriguing matches with 4 of the 8 matches going the full distance. British number 5 Sam Murray, who was seeded 2 in qualifying, overcame losing the 1st set against Switzerland’s Lisa Sabino, to dominate the next 2 sets to secure a place in main draw, with a 57 62 62 victory, whilst Anna Smith and Lucy Brown went out to higher ranked opponents.Birmingham’s Manisha Foster, who is a member of the Edgbaston Priory club, and is primarily based at Sotograde in Spain, had a highly impressive win over German 11th seed Laura Schaeder in the opening round on Sunday, but in a very close match against Amra Sadikovic, missed out on a place in main draw, going down 46 46 to her 291st ranked opponent.
Top seed in qualifying Misa Eguchi won through in three sets, as did Giulia Gatto-Monticone (3), and Lesley Kerkhove (4) who overcame Amy Bowtell 61 26 76(5) in the longest match of the day. The first round of main draw on Tuesday promises some extremely high quality tennis with 10 top 200 players in action.
Defending champion Ekaterina Bychkova, who is seeded 7 at this year’s event, opens her account against Dutch qualifier Lesley Kerkhove, whilst top seed Magda Linette, who has just returned to Europe from playing at the Miami Masters, opens up against Belgian teenage prodigy Elise Mertens.
There are 6 British women in singles action, with Naomi Broady and Emily Webley-Smith playing each other, Sam Murray playing Barnstaple winner Marta Sirotkina, Tara Moore playing qualifier Justine Ozga, whilst the 2 British teenager wild cards have interesting matches with Eden Silva playing former world top 40 player Pauline Parmentier, and Katy Dunne plays Alberta Brianti who was ranked 55 in the world in 2011.
Play starts at the Edgbaston Priory Club at 10.30am on Tuesday with free entry to spectators.
The action can also be followed on live scoring at www.lta.org.uk