Pavlina Nola defeats Ruxandra Dragomir Illie

Pavlina Nola lost yesterday to fellow qualifier Greta Arn and, normally that would be the end of her tournament. But occasionally one of the confirmed main draw players fails to turn up and a 'lucky loser' is selected to take their place from the losing qualifiers based on their performance in the qualifying rounds. So it's always worth hanging around after the 'quallies' just in case.... Today it was Pavlina Nola's turn and she got to play one of the toughest ladies on the women's circuit - Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie of Rumania - who always seems to be on the edge of throwing a racquet.

From the first couple of games, it looked as though this match was going to last several hours. Neither player seemed to want to take control and really start to hit some winners. Surprisingly, it was Nola who was the more patient of the two and steadily drew ahead to lead the first set 5-1. Dragomir got her act together at this point and brought the score to 4-5 before Nola was able to take the final game and the first set.

Dragomir was not able to rally in the second set and lost to the patient but determined