It’s a big day! I’m at home in Sheffield for a couple of weeks and today I passed my driving test – first time! Come on! I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it – just not to call me between 10 and 1 – but I’m ready to tell everyone that I did it now! And passed!

I actually thought I’d failed about 10 minutes into it. I was coming up to a junction and a bus pulled out in front of me and I had to slow down really quickly. I wasn’t sure whether I should have pulled out around it, but the inspector said I did the right thing.

I’d been having a lesson every other day while I’ve been at home, but before that I hadn’t driven for about six months. It’s impossible to practice while you’re away. I was so nervous.

I’ve been hitting at the Hallamshire club in Sheffield while at home with my coach Dave and a Swiss girl we’ve been travelling with lately, Stefania Boffa. We’ve also been hitting with a Yorkshire coach, Jason Torpey, who is based at the club.

Since I last wrote I played the qualies at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami – a Tier 1 WTA event. I’d been told I might get a wild card into the qualifying (the cut-off was No.209 to get into the draw, so my ranking was too low to get direct acceptance) and it worked out which was great experience.

I had a fairly tough draw, against the fifth seed, world No.82 Tamarine Tanasugarn from Thailand, and I lost 6-2, 6-3. Despite the result, though, it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t play that great but I still created a lot of opportunities. If I’d played just a little better it could have been a lot closer or maybe even three sets. I can take confidence from the fact that she’s top 100, I didn’t play that great and it could’ve been a lot closer.

We were in Miami for four or five days so I hit a bit and watched some matches too. We got there two or three days before the qualies but it rained a lot leading up to the event so I probably only hit for about 45 minutes in the first two days. Not great preparation, but it was the same for everyone. I also hit with the British No.1 Anne Keothavong a bit. And I had some pretty cool locker-room neighbours – my locker was inbetween Daniela Hantuchova and Maria Kirilenko!

Having said that, I didn’t really get the chance to talk to the top players that were around. They tend to hit or play and then get off-site asap. The guys are a bit easier to talk to – they’re all easier going while the girls keep themselves to themselves. I chatted to Dmitri Tursunov and Vince Spadea who were both in our hotel.

Other than that, doubles has been going well lately. My Monte Carlo Tennis Academy doubles partner Ana Veselinovic and I won back-to-back $25,000 titles in the States in February and it was a shame I didn’t get to play doubles for a couple of weeks after that because of playing in Miami. My ranking has moved up after those two wins, though, and I’m now the third-highest British player in the women’s doubles world rankings at No.242.

It’s funny, I haven’t always been comfortable on a doubles court – I used to hate it. I was like a statue at the net, never moving or crossing. But because Ana and I were working on improving the same things together on the squad then we knew what each other would be doing in a match. The turning point was at a $25,000 event in Turkey in May last year. We made the final of that $25K on clay and the reason was that the academy coaches started fining us $10 if we didn’t cross at the net at least once a game! It worked!

I’m on the road again at the end of this week. On Thursday I leave for Mexico where we play three hard court events (one $10K and two $25Ks), then two more $25Ks in the US, one on green clay and one on hard. Then we’ll be back in the UK for one week’s training on grass and then into the first grass tournament of the summer at Surbiton.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

Fitzy