Anne Keothavong became the first British woman to win a main draw match at the US Open in 11 years yesterday when the Londoner beat Alexa Glatch, of the United States, 6-2, 6-2.

Anne Keothavong became the first British woman to win a main draw match at the US Open in 11 years yesterday when the Londoner beat Alexa Glatch, of the United States, 6-2, 6-2.

Keothavong's win was the first by a British woman at Flushing Meadows since Sam Smith in 1997 and the first away from Wimbledon since Scotland's Elena Baltacha reached the third round of the Australian Open in 2005.

Given the poor state that British women's tennis found itself in until very recently, that Keothavong's was ranked high enough to be able to play at the final grand slam of the season as of right was an achievement in itself. Beating Glatch simply confirmed that, at the age of 24, the British women's No.1 is enjoying a late but well-deserved bloom.

She happily admits that she is not in the same class as a player as her male counterpart, Andy Murray - who cruised into the second round, beating Sergio Roitman of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 - but Keothavong has led the trend among British women by improving out of all recognition in the past year, edging up the rankings to her current position of 87th. Her success is relative when measured against Andy Murray's ranking of six in the world, but it is still success.

"Obviously Andy's got the talent that the rest of us haven't, but it's all relevant to where we are at," she said. "Not everything is about the men. There are girls working hard, doing the same thing. We are all busting our backsides and we are all trying to achieve the same things."

Keothavong might have gained a little inspiration from eight-time gold medalist Michael Phelps, who prepared for the Olympics at a Californian university while Keothavong was playing a tournament there. "I'm like infatuated with the guy now," she said, with a girlish giggle. "I had no idea who he was. The whole Olympic swimming team was in the same hotel as us. I was having breakfast next to him, on the next table, but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything to him. I was just in awe of him."

Keothavong's reward for beating Glatch is a potentially difficult second-round meeting with the veteran Italian, Francesca Schiavone, but having dispatched Glatch with some aplomb, a reinvigorated Keothavong has fewer players to fear than she used to.

"This is where I want to be competing," she said. "I don't think the gap from where I am to where the top girls are is as big as I thought," she said. "Breaking into the top 100 took me it seems like forever, but I finally did it. Once you're kind of in it, in there and practising among the other girls, it doesn't seem like you are that far away. With a bit of luck and continuing to work hard, you can get your breakthrough somewhere. It's just confidence from that and knowing that you can stay with them.

She added: "I've had a few close matches against a few of the top girls this year and I think this summer has been a bit of a learning curve for me - it's the first time I've played back-to-back WTA events. It's been tough. I do believe that I can build on my ranking from where I'm at and hopefully break into the top 50 soon."

Yesterday's win should set her on her way. Thanks to Keothavong and the rest of her improving peers, the dark days for British women's tennis might at last be seeing a little light pour through.