DFS Classic, Birmingham, 9-15th June 2003

 by Matt Donaldson

Is that top level womans tennis??? In the UK???

Yes thats right my friends. The rumours are true. The grass season is upon us as players eave behind the clay courts, and now must prepare themselves for green stained skirts, grazed knees and jumpers for goalposts (nope, a step too far there).

Anyway, let me open with something of an apology. I havent been as regularly visable as i have been previously over recent weeks. Due to the stresses of revision (or is that Tiger Woods Golf?), combined with working for a newspaper (thats right they let me loose on the public, even with the unfeasible amount of brackets i tend to be using of late) my attentions have been drawn away somewhat from Maria and tennis in general. Rest assured however that i now return, and will be fully committed to writing fantastic articles yet again!!!

Anyway, to the matter at hand. As i write this, i am still unaware as to how Maria did this morning in the qualifiers. I do know that she defeated a young British player yesterday (Saturday) in the form of Sarah Borwell, and this morning (Sunday), she was due to play Christina Wheeler. However, despite the tournament only taking place something like 50 miles up the road, i still dont know how she did. Nowhere on the web, and no reply on the phone lines!! C'est la vie mes amis.

What i can offer is a return to the old format of a little info on the tournament, then followed up by the draw and Maria's chances. If it aint broke, then why fix it, and a couple of months ago, the site was up in the top 5 visited on the network, so keep coming and checking it out. I got my sights on Dokic and Kournikova, and a good grass season could do the job!!!!! Anyway, less of my seemingly foolish attempts at world domination ( Ive got a plan that will fix Glyn good!!!!), and more on Maria this week hmm???

As i am still unaware, this is just gonna be a tournament info thing for the time being. Then when i find out how Maria did, then i shall write another predicting her progress.

So the UK then????

So after that somewhat surreal introduction, we come to the tourney info. The DFS Classic is a Tier III event, and it is the first tournament of the season on grass. I say this on most occasions with Maria, with the possible exception of Sea Island, that whatever happens, it will be an additional string to her bow in terms of experience. Very little is played on grass, and so any experience she gets will be really useful for the years to come.

The event has a total purse of the $170,000 dollars, so a drop down from the glamour of Roland Garros, but a increase from the 25k at Sea Island.

Unfortunately, the absense i have endured over the last couple of weeks have not changed anything, as official websites continue to be completely unhelpful (I can be bitter because the organisers gave Glyn a pass and not me!!!!!). What i can tell you is comically obvious. However, it is not all doom and gloom on the website. There is a lovely little section designated solely for the main sponsor, DFS, who apparently are the UK's leading upholstery specialists no less!!! No your impressed. Well as a resident of the UK, i am in a position to comment on such a claim, but i wont for fear of a libel case charged against the site (although i wasnt overly impressed by the range of sofa's there) (is it obvious that there isnt a great deal of information for me to work with here?).

Unfortunately that is all i have got to work with im afraid friends. I hope to find out if Maria won in the near future, and when i do another article will be written about that if she has won through to the main draw. Lets keep our fingers crossed, although the game has already been and gone, so we would be crossing fingers for no reason!!!

This has been a strange article hasnt it??? Hopefully you are suitably impressed with DFS and the tournament, and the British weather, and that you have had a bit of a laugh at this article.

Any questions or anything, complaints more likely following this piece can be directed to mattydonaldson@maria-sharapova.net