El Tabakh goes out in style

Heidi El Tabakh didn't make it past the first round of the Rogers Cup, but her small run was certainly impressive. First she defeated top qualifying seed and up-and-coming player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and--for an encore--she took out Sania Mirza.

Today, El Tabakh had the misfortune of meeting Sam Stosur in the first round of the main draw, but that didn't appear to bother her. Stosur won, 7-6, 7-6, which tells you a lot about the match. In fact, El Tabakh held set points in both sets. No doubt, her inexperience hurt her in the tiebreaks, but she still made a good showing, breaking Stosur both times she served for the match.

El Tabakh uses wild card well

Heidi El Tabakh won the recent Rogers Cup playoff to determine who would get a wild card into the qualifying rounds. She got through her first qualifying round today by taking out the number 1 seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Pavlyuchenkova also failed to make it through qualifying in Cincinnati, where she was also the top seed.

Also going out in the first round of qualifying today was Michelle Larcher de Brito.