TENNIS starlets, Claire Ricketts and Katharine Baker continued their learning curve on the gruelling tennis circuit this week at the LTA $10,000 event in Tipton, Hull.

The Watford-based pair train together at the highly-acclaimed Batchwood Tennis Centre in St Albans under the tutelage of the award winning duo of Mandy Franks and Liz Jones.

Baker, entered as a wild card, received a tough first round draw when she met the highly-rated Elena Baltacha in the first round. After losing the first set to love, Baker recovered to produce a much-improved performance to lead the girl, ranked 232 in the world, 5-4 in the second set, before going down 7-5.

Fifteen-year-old Baker, a pupil at Parmiter's School, also received a further boost to her promising career when Prince International announced that it would be renewing her sponsorship for another year, providing Baker with an unlimited supply of rackets, strings and luggage.

Ricketts, 16, a full-time tennis player, was forced to come through the qualifying rounds before entering the main draw.

In her opening match, the powerful right-hander had to recover from a slow start to come from a set behind to defeat Alice McKenzie in the first-round qualifying and then produced a superb performance to overcome Kelly Simpkin, ranked 738 in the world, 7-6, 6-1. Ricketts run ended in the third qualifying round when she was defeated by an Austrian girl, ranked 520, 6-3, 6-3.

Both girls travel to Bisham Abbey next week to compete in an ITF group two international event with both expected to take their place in the main draw and Ricketts hopeful of a seeding.