Day 4: Yanina Wickmayer in the house

Although the weather wasn't really good today and all the doubles matches had to be played indoors we were lucky in the afternoon with the weather conditions. It wasn't really sunny but it didn't rain. Center court and court 1 were prepared for an afternoon full of fun and tennis.

Around 4 pm the kids and their parents arrived at the club. The local media were there too to await the arrival of national hero Yanina Wickmayer (WTA-18). Yanina took some time to talk to the local TV station, written press and radio. By 5 pm the kids started to hit some balls with their trainers and players from the Ladies Open. The players were impressed by the level of some of the kids. Although Yanina was in the centre of the attention, the other girls enjoyed their our of hitting balls with the local youth. First seed Mona Barthel played at the end some points against the better youngsters.

In the mean time there were two wild cards playing their first round in the singles maindraw. Local girl Valerie Verhamme came back from one set down and won against qualifier Leonie Mekel. She continued her good form of the last weeks. Half an hour later, Desiree Bastianon lost in a tight three-set match. Although her opponent was up 5-2 in the thrid set, Desiree saved two match points at 3-5 and fought back to 6 games all. In the tie-break she made a double fault which gave a mini break to the Japanese Takayama. She didn't make any mistakes and won the tiebreak and the match, exit Bastianon.

While all attention was focused on the kid's day and the singles matches, Belgians Els Callens and Nancy Feber won their first match, beating Chilean team Seguel/Costa Melgar in two easy (6-3 6-2). They weren't able to win their quarter final against the fourth seeds but their serve-and-volley game, chip and charce showed us they still have a good potential in doubles. If they stay healthy, they will cause some big upsets in the near future!