Hannah James is seeded for the first of a series of Asian Grade 1s, and was joined in the main draw by qualifier Francesca Stephenson. 16 & Under Grand Prix winner Hannah Martin-Merchant was also here in qualifying, but unfortunately retired against Francesca's opponent. However she is down for doubles, so hopefully her problem was a temporary one.
R1 (L64)
(6) Hannah James (GBR) v BYE (Q) Nahathai Khuntaket (THA) d. (Q) Francesca Stephenson (GBR) 7-5 6-1
That equals Hannah's best performance in a Grade 1. I see the ITF has introduced another player into their drawsheets (remember Matt Thomson = Mark Thompson last month) Hannah has a tough battle ahead with world number 9 Timea Babos - Zsuzsanna is Timea's elder sister. Perhaps the ITF do this deliberately so they can find out how many other websites use their results
(1) Timea Babos (HUN) d. (6) Hannah James (GBR) 6-3 6-1
As expected the 15 year old top seed proved too strong, but Hannah has picked a good doubles partner (winner of a Grade A doubles title), and is through to her first Grade 1 semi-final
Doubles SF
LIU (CHN) / NIKITINA (RUS) Vs (3) JAMES (GBR) / ZANEVSKA (UKR)
There is no official news yet, but Justine Henin's Sixth Sense Tennis Academy (where Maryna Zanevska is based) has reported that she won both the singles and doubles (with Hannah)
Hannah James & Partner won the doubles, Hannah will rise to around 73.
Unfortunately Timea could to make it a Gosling group double (Hannah is travelling with Gosling but still very much a Bisham girl) Timea trains at Gosling & will now move to number 7 .
The qualies half of the group arrived in Kuching yesterday & the main draw half of the group leave for Kuching in the Morning.
Ben Davis has been having extensive physio on his knee after returning home on Monday & he will travel back out on Monday to acclimatise, he will miss Kuching & play Philippines & Japan.
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Its Not Who You Know But What You Know.........Or Is It???
Yes, it has been a while in fact it happened in the semis of the Orange Bowl in Dec. These were his first events back. He will be fine, he is good to go now!! Fingers crossed the guys do better next week In Kuching, it was not the showing I had hoped for in Bangkok, but they have spent a lot of time on the practise courts & are fine with the heat now, so I will be expecting better thats for sure.
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Its Not Who You Know But What You Know.........Or Is It???
Yes that is the case.
