First seed cruises through opening match

The first match of the maindraw was played between our first seed Mona Barthel (WTA110) and Fatma Al Nabhani from Oman. It was quite some one-way tennis and the first seed had no problems to win her first match of the tournament. She will play on Thursday her second round match against either defending champion Maryana Zanevska or Bulgarian Martina Gledacheva. It will be a tough round for Maryana to defend her title but tennis is an unpredictable sport.

To morrow anounces to be an interesting day with many matches without favorite. Some qualifiers will face each other which means some girls who started the tournament on Sunday will be able to continu to the second half of the week and gain quite some points for their ranking and some extra cash.

The organization and myself are hoping that the Belgian girls may cause some upsets. Three out of the four will face a girl from the qualifying tournament so their chances are 50-50. The form of the day and the nerves will probably decide if they can continue their run or not.

My match of the day is for sure the doubles match between Callens/Feber and a duo from Chili (C.Costa Melgar/Seguel). What will their level be against experienced players on the tour? With some matches as training on future-level this will be the first real test for the duo who started their comeback with high ambition.

The players are ready and will serve us some good tennis, we can only hope that the weather won't spoil a nice day. Besides the tennis there will be a clinic for the youngsters of the club with a visit of Yanina Wickmayer, actual number 18 of the world. She will assist the trainers and sign autographs for the participants.