Liggan's little steps into the big time

Tennis: It's a small step. But it is in the right direction. Kelly Liggan, the Irish Federation Cup player, is in the main draw for Wimbledon. A little history. An Irish angle. A reason to be positive about Irish tennis. At last.

Liggan's baby steps into the doubles Grand Slam scene began last year when she lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Justin Henin-Hardenne and Elena Bovina. This year with her Spanish partner, Arantxa Parra Santonja, she again enters a Grand Slam for her first outing at SW19.

Liggan's ranking with Santonja is high enough for the two to be placed straight into the draw where they will face Spain's Maqui Serna and Australia's Alicia Molik in the first round next week. Liggan, having twisted her ankle on two occasions this year is looking forward to her piece of personal history of being the only Irish female player in the Open era to compete in the Wimbledon main doubles draw.

"I've been practising here for the past few days and that has been special," she says. "It has that great feeling when you walk in and you just want to soak it all up, the feeling and the atmosphere."

Based in Valencia, Spain, having been raised in the south of the country where she attended an international school, Liggan's home has always been there. Her mother is English and a father from Dublin gave her the Irish link, one she was pleased to take up and strengthen. It was playing for Ireland in the Federation Cup against Britain in May that she most recently turned her ankle in her match against Anne Keothavong.

Her current coach, Jose Luis Aparisi, is Spanish and he has also worked with male players inside the top 50, most recently Spain's David Sanchez, so a rise in her singles ranking is also a priority.

"It is quite nice that I'm making history. I think I made a little last year as the highest ranked Irish player at 80 (doubles). I played in the last round (one short of the main draw) of the 2003 US Open qualifiers and also the last round of the Australian Open qualifiers. I think the luck of the draw has a lot to do with it although I believe that you make your own luck.

"This year my singles ranking dropped because I twisted my ankle twice. So hopefully this time next year I'll be in the main draw of the singles as well. If I can get into the top 150, then I'll think of the top 100 and, if I can get that, I'll start to think of trying to get into the top 80. Little steps at a time."

Facing Serna and Molik, Liggan expects a difficult match. They have met before and although the two are strong performers, the Irish player is hopeful of going a few rounds on the grass.

"I started playing with Arantxa last year and we began to play well in Indonesian tournaments. We just played well together. Serna and Molik are good players and we expect it to be a tough match," she says.

The two players have a world ranking of 221, Liggan on 128 and Parra Santonja on 93. Liggan's first tournament back since the injury was at the French Open of four weeks ago, where she lost in the qualifiers while her partner, who is the fourth-ranked female Spanish player, faces Darin Safina, the sister of Marat Safin, in the first round this week in the main singles draw.

"I'll be excited," says Liggan. "This is my first time in the main draw at Wimbledon. It's nice." That about describes it.