NAOMI Broady may have lost her first match as a direct acceptance into a Grand Slam.

But the 26-year-old found a massive consolation in her 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 defeat to 2015 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Coco Vandeweghe in the French Open in Paris on Monday.

Former Woodhouse Grove pupil Broady, who broke into the world's top 100 in February, can finally pay off her tennis debts thanks to the 30,000 euros (£22,962) first-round prize-money.

Broady gave a good account of herself in a battle of hard-serving players who are over 6ft tall (Broady is 6ft 2in and American Vandeweghe 6ft 1in) on what used to be her least favourite surface, being a break up in all three sets.

British No 3 Broady began confidently and led 4-2 in the first set, only to lose the next five games, but recovered to win the second set and was 2-0 ahead in the third set, only for her 25-year-old opponent to again reel off five successive games.

Broady is a character, and her ambition as a child in Stockport stretched no further than being a checkout girl at a local supermarket, but now she can surely raise those ambitions, and admitted before playing at Roland Garros:

“Women’s tennis at the moment is so wide open but me and clay are official friends this year!"

"I want to be top 50. It’s quite hard for me. You hear a lot of the players say they dreamed about playing tennis and winning Wimbledon.

"I never had those sort of dreams when I was little, so I’m still trying to catch up with what I really want to do in this sport.”

She added: “I don’t really think I had any (dreams). Is that possible? I used to like supermarket checkouts, and now you can do it on your own in Tesco, so I’m living the dream, really.

"I used to love the buttons, when they do all the clicky buttons when you’re checking out. Used to love that .. . . obviously I’m an over-achiever.”

World No 79 Broady, whose strengths are her serve, athleticism and groundstrokes, has already beaten Sabine Lisicki and Ana Ivanovic this season and was delighted to win a round in Rome and Madrid in her clay-court build-up to the French Open.

Broady revealed: "As a family we did gymnastics, swimming, tennis – all sorts of different sports.

"But tennis just stuck really. I'm not entirely sure as to why, because I was rubbish as a junior, but we just kept going with it, and thankfully it's paid off."

The catalyst for Broady's rise came after Wimbledon last year when she decided to travel full-time with coach Andrew Fitzpatrick.

It was a big financial risk and, although it has clearly paid off, only once she picks up her cheque in Paris will she finally have turned a profit.

"I still owe quite a bit of money," said Broady, whose brother Liam is also a professional and played in the ATP Challenger at Ilkley last year.

"Until I get my prize money from here, I won't actually have made any money yet, so I think I might just go and cash my cheque and run straight to the bank with all my money and pay everyone off.

"This will be the first time I am in the black and I am so excited. Even with the results I've been having, I'm still losing money to pay for a coach full-time.

"People don't realise that it's the expenses that are so expensive. You're paying two flights a week, two hotel rooms. It's like paying for a holiday every single week of your life.

"Andrew and I have often had to share rooms, which isn't easy to do. I'm constantly sharing with other players, looking for cheap hotels. Hopefully after here I will still be looking for cheaper options but convenience will become more a part of what I'll choose to do."