NEW MALDEN'S Melanie South and former British No.1 Elena Baltacha will begin their pre-Wimbledon campaign on the grass courts of the Surbiton Trophy which gets underway at Berrylands on Saturday, writes Rob Eyton-Jones.

The 20-year-old Elena and 18-year-old Melanie are two of four British players to earn main draw wild cards to the $25,000 event, which officially opens the 2004 grass court season. The other two cards have been awarded to Amanda Janes (Essex) and Jane O'Donoghue (Lancashire).

Melanie, ranked nine in Britain and 467th in the world, has just returned from Turkey where she reached the semi-finals of a $10,000 ITF tournament.

Sutton's Tom Burn, the national junior champion, will be competing in this weekend's qualifying stages of the £50,000 Surbiton Trophy. A year ago in the qualifying rounds at Surbiton the then 17-year-old Burn held a match point against Aisam Qureshi, but the fifth seed from Pakistan clawed his way back to win 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3).

Burn, who has helped the David Lloyd Centre, Raynes Park, win their first four rounds of the KIA National League, says: "I hope to qualify for next week's event and make an impact on the draw. I also want to be ready for the Wimbledon wild-card play-off which this year will be a 24-strong draw, with the winner getting a wild card to the main event."

Many of the top names, including Greg Rusedski, see Surbiton as a springboard into the grass-court season. Greg will be trying to find his form after losing in the first round of the French Open this week. His rivals for the title include giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who beat Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon last year, defending champion Wesley Moodie and 2003 runner-up Alex Bogdanovic, also of Great Britain.

While many of the world's top 100 are still grinding out the long rallies on the red clay of Roland Garros, the Surbiton main-draw players have the opportunity to sharpen their serve and volley weapons on one of the closest surfaces to Wimbledon.

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Alexandra Stevenson is among the top women's seeds.

Stevenson, 23, from San Diego, California, sprang to fame in 1999 when she became the first qualifier to reach the last four before losing to eventual champion Lindsay Davenport.

Alexandra, whose single-handed backhand is one of the best in women's tennis, faces a very tough task.

Above her in the seedings are three players ranked in the world's top 100 top seed Kristiana Brandi (Puerto Rico), Akiko Morigami (Japan) and Claudine Shaul (Luxembourg).

Brandi, the defending Surbiton champion and world number 43, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2000.

Schaul goes into the event fresh from winning her first WTA title in Strasbourg last weekend. She beat four of the top five seeds, including a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 best career win over Davenport, the world number four, in the final.

The Surbiton Trophy runs from May 29 to June 5. For tickets call 020 8390 2243.