ALL WAS not doom and gloom for British tennis in Southampton - for a change.

Granted there was the familiar story of home involvement disappearing after the second round in one of the top British ladies tennis events in the country, the $50,000 Challenger Indoor Tournament at the Hampshire tennis & Health Club.

And, of the top two British youngsters on view, one did not make it through qualifying and the other was beaten in straight sets in the first round of the main draw.

But the latter, Surrey's Hannah Collin, of which much was expected even before she defeated British number two Julie Pullin in a Challenger at Welwyn the week before, at least went out by a creditable 6-3 6-3 score to the eventual winner, the 29-year-old Belgian Els Callens, ranked number 77 in the world.

And the former, British junior Anna Keothavong from Essex, reached the final round of qualifying, beating on the way Romanian Magda Mihalache, ranked 719 world ranking places above her at number 242, and Dragana Zaric (Yugoslavia), who is 551 places better off.

There is not much of Mihalache, but she gives the ball a fearful belt, which she proved in reaching the final of the doubles event.

There she and Slovakian Zuzana Valekova, the number one seeds, were surprisingly easily despatched 6-3 6-3 by the British number two seeds Pullin and Lorna Woodroffe, in front of an appreciative crowd.

The tournament, in its fifth year at Southampton, is the third most important in Britain for women, behind Wimbledon and Eastbourne, and the standard continues to rise.

And the Hampshire club's tennis manager, Alison Illman, hopes exposure to that sort of play will rub off on young members of her club. Twenty youngsters, aged between nine and 15 - mainly from the promising ranks of the Invicta Squad at the club - were ball boys and girls at this year's event.

"They watch the tournament and it is something they remember," said Illman. "They see Anne-Gaelle Sidot, who won last year, is now up in the world's top 40 and it makes an impression on them.

"Sidot was great. She had a hit with them last year and gave them all £1. I am sure the tournament being staged here is good for them."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.