TENNIS superstar Maria Sharapova may be the number one seed for next week's Aegon Classic in Birmingham, but county ace Jade Windley is hoping to gatecrash the party.

The former Horncastle Queen Elizabeth School pupil plans to drive to Birmingham today to sign in for the high-profile event.

For Windley, playing in the Edgbaston tournament would be a chance to rub shoulders with the great and the good of world tennis. For Sharapova and the rest of the world's elite, however, it is just another warm-up event to the world-renowned Wimbledon tournament.

"Birmingham is one of those events that the world's top players use to get ready for Wimbledon," explained Windley.

"Until I sign up, I don't know if I will be involved or not. I just have to sign in and then wait for the draw.

"If I'm in, I stay around, if I'm not I go home, it's as simple as that."

Getting into the qualifying stages at Birmingham would mean playing at least two tough rounds before winning a place in the first round draw.

But after that, the 20-year-old could well be drawn to play against any of the high-profile names on the entry list.

"It is at tournaments like this that you do bump into some of the biggest names in world tennis," Windley added.

"But I am quite used to that by now and I just say hello and treat them like anyone else.

"They are players in a tournament just like me, so I don't go around asking for pictures to be signed or anything like that."

Speaking from her base in Brighton, Windley reflected on a useful few days in Nottingham this week, when she won three qualifying matches before being knocked out in the first round proper by doubles partner Anna Fitzpatrick, 6-1, 6-1.

"I played well in the qualifying games, but my first round match with Anna was over pretty quickly and it wasn't nice," she added.

"I got on the court and just had no energy. The sun was sapping me and my legs felt dead.

"I think I had been mentally prepared to play the match the day before, but we were rained off.

"When we actually played the game, I just wasn't in the right state of mind. It will be something I will learn from though, there's no doubt.

"The week was well worth it because I clocked up some good ranking points during the qualifying rounds.

"It was disappointing, but Anna has been up as high as the 200s in the world rankings so it is certainly no disgrace."

Next Monday, Windley is due to sign in for the Wimbledon pre-qualifying tournament, when 16 women and 16 men will compete for just two places in the qualifying rounds for Wimbledon.

"Even if you get into the qualifying rounds for Wimbledon there could be £1,000 prize money and really good ranking points, so it's what we are all going for," she added..