Mildura, 23 February 2011 | tennis.com.au

Teenage wildcard Ashleigh Barty has upset  No.1 seed, Kumiko Iijima of Japan  6-3 6-3 in their first round meeting at the Mildura Grand International.

Optus 18s National Champion, Isabella Holland (St. Lucia, Qld) also had a comfortable start to her Mildura campaign, defeating wild card Alison Shemon (Plumpton, NSW) 6-2 6-1.

In the men’s draw, Jonathan Cooper put up a fight against the No. 1 seed Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei, running away with the first set but Yang dug deep to seal a 2-6 6-1 6-3 win.

In the battle of the Queenslanders, the No. 8 seed Michael Look of Scarborough was too strong for qualifier Patrick Ganet, walking away with a straight sets win 6-4 6-0.

First round matches of the singles draw will continue on Wednesday with reigning champion Casey Dellacqua, who was sidelined with injury during late 2010, set to continue her comeback to international tennis when she plays Commonwealth Games silver medallist Olivia Rogowska.

In other matches, the No. 5 seed Sophie Letcher will meet Erika Takao of Japan, and Victorian Marija Mirkovic will play Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei.

The men’s singles action will also showcase more Australian talent when Matthew Barton (Collaroy, NSW) takes on fellow statesman James Duckworth (Gordon, NSW), and wild card Jake Eames (Amaroo, ACT) plays the Victorian No. 2 seed James Lemke of Camberwell.