Melanie South

Melanie Jayne South (born 3 May 1986 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey) is a British tennis player. She is currently the British number 2 and ranked 128 in the world, as of 06 October 2008.

History

Melanie South's father, John, played football for Fulham 1964-66 and Brentford 1966-67. Melanie attended Nonsuch High School, Cheam, gaining 7 GCSEs (1 A*, 4 As and 2 Bs)and 3 A Levels (2 As in Psychology and PE and 1 C in General Studies).

Career review

2006

In June 2006, South played for the first time in the Wimbledon main draw as a wild card, and reached the second round by beating No. 11 seed Francesca Schiavone in the first round. She lost to Shenay Perry in the second round. South's win over world No.14 Schiavone was a career-first Top 20 victory, and the best win in terms of ranking for a British player since Samantha Smith beat No. 7 Conchita Martínez at Wimbledon in 1998.

2007

South reached 4th round of Wimbledon in Mixed Doubles with Alex Bogdanovic.

2008

South lost out in qualifying for the 2008 Australian Open in January. In March she was defeated in qualifying for the 2008 Bangalore Open but won both the singles and doubles titles (with Adamczak) at the $25,000 Sorrento tournament. In May she failed to qualify for the 2008 French Open after losing in qualifying.

In June 2008, in the Birmingham DFS Classic, South beat the number 28 world ranked 4th seed, Sybille Bammer, 6-3 7-5, and the 17th seed, Aiko Nakamura, 2-6 6-4 6-4 to make the quarter final, becoming the third British woman to do so, the first two being Anne Hobbs in 1984 and Jo Durie, who reached the semifinal in 1992. In the quarter final, South lost 6-4 6-3 to the unseeded eventual runner-up, Yanina Wickmayer.

In the first round of the 2008 Wimbledon Championships singles tournament, South took the 28th seed Alyona Bondarenko to three sets but lost out 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4.

She then headed to the Tier II East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, California. She fell in the final round of qualifying but replaced Serena Williams as a lucky loser in the main draw when Williams was forced to pull out of the tournament due to a left knee injury. As Williams was the number 2 seed, South received a Bye into the second round and justified her place there with a straight sets victory over Petra Kvitová of the Czech Republic, 64 62. She then lost in straight sets to Meng Yuan of China in the third round, 6-2 6-3.

South continued her good form into the next tournament, the Canada Masters, a tier 1 tournament held in Montreal. She came through qualifying beating wildcard Elianne Douglas-Miron impressively, 6-0 6-1 and Elina Jidkova of Russia, 3-6 6-3 6-4. Marion Bartoli, the 10th seed and ranked 15th in the world beat her 6-3 6-7(5) 6-0 in the first round of the main tournament.

She was the 27th seed in the qualifying tournament for the U.S. Open and progressed through the first and second rounds of qualifying with 3-set victories over Alberta Brianti (6-2 3-6 6-3) and Youlia Fedossova (6-3 4-6 7-6) before falling in the final round of qualifying to the unseeded Shuai Zhang of China (6-7 2-6).

Following the U.S. Open, her next goal was to qualify for the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, a goal which remained unaccomplished as she lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament to Aleksandra Wozniak in straight sets, 6-3 6-2.

South then entered the qualifying main draw for the Hansol Korea Open, a tier IV tournament held in Seoul. She came through the first two rounds of qualifying before losing in the final round to Japan's Ayumi Morita, 7-5 6-3. However she was awarded entry into the main draw as a lucky loser but was unable to capitalize on this piece of good luck as she had to withdraw in her first round match against Lucie Safarova due to injury. The score was at 6-1 3-0.

Career Highlights

Titles

Singles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score
1.	March 2004	ITF Mumbai $10,000	Hard	Yan-Chong Chen	6–4 6–4
2.	April 2005	ITF Bath $10,000	Hard	Anne Keothavong	6-4 4-6 6-4
3.	January 2006	ITF Hull $10,000	Hard	Irena Pavlovic	6-4, 6-1
4.	July 2006	ITF Chengdu $25,000	Hard	Jing-Jing Lu	7-5 7-6(5)
5.	March 23 2008	ITF Sorrento $25,000	Hard	Christina Wheeler	7-5 6-7(6) 6-4

Doubles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score
1.	February 2004	ITF Tipton $10,000	Hard	Rebecca Llewellyn	Claudia Jans & Alicja Rosolska	2-6 6-1 6-4
2.	April 2005	ITF Bath $10,000	Hard	Surina De Beer	Ekaterina Kozhokina & Trudi Musgrave	6-2 7-5
3.	May 2005	ITF Bournemouth $10,000	Clay	Claire Peterzan	Anna Hawkins & Holly Richards	5-7 6-4 6-3
4.	May 2005	ITF Edinburgh $10,000	Clay	Rebecca Llewellyn	Leonie Mekel & Bibiane Schoofs	6-0 3-6 6-3
5.	October 2006	ITF Nottingham $25,000	Hard	Karen Paterson	Katie O'Brien & Margit Ruutel	6-2 2-6 7-6(1)
6.	October 2006	ITF Nantes $25,000	Hard	Rebecca Llewellyn	Sabine Lisicki & Irena Pavlovic	6-2 6-0
7.	June 2007	ITF Surbiton £25,000	Grass	Karen Paterson	Elena Baltacha & Naomi Cavaday	6-1 6-4
8.	July 2007	ITF Felixstowe $25,000	Grass	Karen Paterson	Jade Curtis & Rebecca Llewellyn	6-3 6-3
9.	July 2007	ITF La Coruna $25,000	Hard	Marina Erakovic	Andrea Hlavackova & Justine Ozga	6-1 4-6 6-4
10.	March 2008	ITF Sorrento $25,000	Hard	Monique Adamczak	Kai-Chen Chang & I-Hsuan Hwang	6-2 6-4
11.	May 2008	ITF Fukuoka $50,000	Carpet	Nicole Thyssen	Maya Kato & Julia Moriarty	4-6 6-3 14-12

Runner-Up

Singles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score
1.	May 2004	ITF Bournemouth $10,000	Clay	Elke Clijsters	3-6 6-1 6-2
2.	May 2005	ITF Edinburgh $10,000	Clay	Ekaterina Kozhokina	6-4 6-3

Doubles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score
1.	January 2005	ITF Tipton $10,000	Hard	Katie O'Brien	Surina De Beer & Rebecca Llewellyn	6-4 6-2
2.	January 2005	ITF Hull $10,000	Hard	Katie O'Brien	Irena Bulykina & Vasilisa Davydova	4-6 6-3 7-5
3.	February 2006	ITF Jersey $25,000	Hard	Katie O'Brien	Andrea Hlavackova & Matea Mezak	6-3 6-1
4.	February 2007	ITF Stockholm $25,000	Hard	Sorana Cirstea	Danica Krstajic & Olga Panova	6-2 0-6 6-2
5.	March 2007	ITF Gran Canaria $25,000	Hard	Claire Curran	Sorana Cirstea & Madalina Gojnea	4-6 7-6(5) 6-4
6.	April 2007	ITF La Palma $25,000	Hard	Arantxa Parra Santonja	Petra Cetkovska & Andrea Hlavackova	6-3 6-2
7.	October 2007	ITF Nantes $25,000	Hard	Caroline Maes	Sofia Arvidsson & Johanna Larsson	4-6 7-5 10-7
8.	May 2008	ITF Gifu $50,000	Carpet	Nicole Thyssen	Kimiko Date Krumm & Karumi Nara	6-1 6-7(8) 10-7
9.	August 2008	ITF Monterrey $100,000	Hard	Monique Adamczak	Jelena Pandzic & Magdalena Rybarikova	4-6 6-4 10-8