If Yvonne Doyle from Castleknock had any set plan as to when her tennis career should end for her day job in accountancy to begin, it is now likely to be subjected to revision following a career best win in the second round of the Irish Women's Open championships at Riverview yesterday.

Doyle's 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory over Syna Schmidle, a talented German ranked 388 places above her in the world rankings, was the sort of corner-turning success that inspires players beyond the 500 mark on the WTA computer to stick with it indefinitely.

Kelly Liggan, another member of the Irish squad, endorsed the Castleknock girl's view on rankings by showing greater mental strength to beat Britain's Lorna Woodrooffe, ranked 214 places above her.

Elsewhere, the top seed Surina De Beer from South Africa was given a fright by British youngster Hannah Collin, ranked 247 places below her. De Beer lost the first set, Collin not afraid to go for winners off either side. It took a lot of hard work by De Beer to survive 4-6 6-2 7-5.

Lucie Ahl, last year's champion from Devon, had a tough enough match against her compatriot Liz Jelfs before advancing 7-6 6-3.