Glamour girl Olga's looking pretty good in west London!!

British involvment in the women's singles has long since evaporated, but Olga Barabanschikova's comprehensive victory over Amy Frazier on court No2 lifted the spirits of those in a small corner of nearby west London.

The Belarussian glamour girl hails from the other side of Europe but is an adopted citizen of Healing, having lived there for five years with her biritish coack Nick Brown. That partnership has since dissolved forcing Barabanschikova to seek move back to Minsk in September, but she retains a soft spot for these shores.

"Ealing was a nice, quiet areas and I enjoyed my time there, making some good friends", she said.

"When I was living there, I was thinking in English and even when I went back home to visit, I was reading english books and mentally translating from English to Russian."

Barabanschikova has been criticised in the past for lacking focus on the court but she showed no signs of old faillings when putting world No25 Frazier to the sword in 51 minutes.

Mixing up her opponent with deft drop shots and full-blooded drives, she broke in the forth and sixth games of the first set and never looked back sweeping to a 6-3, 6-2 win.

"My big problem in the past has ben my concentration" she said. "I can lose it quite easily. I really enjoy the game when I play well, but I hate it when I don't and I get really frustrated. I'm just a perfectionist. But I have been working with an English sports psychologist recently to improve my focus. I have started doing things like breathing exercices and they seem to be working. I was really confident throughout the game and was feeling good about my serve and shots."

Olga who had never reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam event, feels she has matured since her split with Brown.

"I am independant now" she said. "In the past I had everything, a manager and a coach and it was easy. Now, I have to do things for myself and it has given me a bit more fire. I am doing things for myself and not for people around me."

Frazier was generous in her praise of Barabanschikova, who fared rather better than her boyfriend Andre Medvedev, who before the championships had labeled them elitist and a waste of time. Medvedev crashed out in the first round against Jonas Bjorkman.

"Olga was outstanding and mixed her game up really well" said Frazier. "She was always in control and I always seemed to be off-balace"

Article written by David Hytner in the July 1st 2000 edition of the Daily Express.