IT was a bad day for Great Britain at the Caversham Ladies $25,000 international tennis tournament at Les Ormes on Monday.

Of 24 British women in qualifying only two – Melissa Berry and Rebecca Fong – made it to today’s third round.

Those who fell included all five Channel Islands girls.

CILTA coach Rebecca Edwards, Sarah Jones and Laura Cuddon-Large exited in the early matches.

Later they were followed by 15-year-old Katie Gouyette, who crashed 6-0, 6-0 to the towering 6 ft 7 in American Sarah Riske, and Francesca Dubras (16) who lost 6-0, 6-1 to Britain’s Elizabeth Thomas – who was then beaten in three sets by Debbrich Feys of Belgium.

Said CILTA development officer and tournament director Hugh Raymond: ‘Unfortunately it reflects the state of the ladies’ game in Britain at the moment.

We just don’t seem to have the girls capable of playing at the top level coming through.

Our CI girls acquitted themselves well – but they were playing against girls who play day in and day out and train on the court and in the gym.

Their fitness levels are amazing.

‘The LTA have a robust development programme and there are a lot of young players coming through – but it will take time to bear fruit.’ Edwards pointed out: ‘It gave our Island players an insight into how professional these girls a few levels above them are – they are so powerful and well prepared and never give up.

But with a bit more experience our girls will be able to stay on court with them a bit longer.’ Meanwhile Pieter Theron of Guernsey, the CI’s sole survivor of the first two qualifying rounds of the men’s $10,000 tournament – one of those was a bye – went out 6-1, 6-0 to Emin Agaen of Azerbejan, the second seed in the qualifier.

Today the last matches to decide the final eight women who will go forward to the main draw of 32 were being played.

Meanwhile Riske (23) and Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia have already established themselves as stars of the future and will be looking to boost their ratings at Les Ormes.

Riske’s formidable presence on court has seen her rise from 892 in the world to 403 in the past two years on the American collegiate circuit.

And last weekend Shvedova, another 6 ft-plus girl who is just 17, beat the Caversham tournament top seed and 142 in the world Elena Betacha in the semi-final of a $25,000 tournament in Bolton.

This morning threw up a couple of shocks in the men’s main draw.

As the JEP went to press top seed Mark Hilton of Great Britain had comprehensively lost the first set of his match against fellow countryman Alexander Slabinsky 6-1, but had recovered to take the second 7-6 on a tie break.

And No 7 seed Conor Niland of Ireland had crashed 6-3, 6-0 to unranked qualifier Simon Harston.

Another qualifier, Agaev, progressed as he disposed of David Corrie 6-1, 6-1.

Scotland’s Jamie Baker beat Rasmus Norby of Denmark 6-3, 6-4.