British No.3 Johanna Konta has been awarded a wildcard into her home town tournament, the Aegon International at Eastbourne.
“I'm very privileged and thrilled to have received a wild card into the Aegon International,” said 22-year-old Konta.
“Eastbourne is my home and my local tournament so I hope to do the wild card justice. It's going to be great experience for me to play in the main draw at Devonshire Park for the first time.”
Konta joins world No.14 Sam Stosur – one of ten top 15 WTA Tour players to confirm for Eastbourne – as a wild card at the Aegon International.
World No.140 Konta has some experience of playing on local turf having reached the second round of qualifying at Devonshire Park in 2012, beating Stockport's Naomi Broady before losing a close match to then-world No.83 Elena Vesnina.
“It's a great facility and the courts are beautiful,” she said of Devonshire Park. “I'm going to really enjoy the opportunity of playing in front of my home crowd. I'm looking forward to it.”
A semifinalist at the Nottingham Challenge at the start of June, Konta has already claimed three top 100 scalps this season, world No.98 Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor at the Brisbane International, No.88 Yulia Putintseva at Estoril and No.82 Misaki Doi at Nottingham.
Konta has seven ITF titles to her name, the most recent coming at the $25k event at Rancho Mirage, CA in Feb. 2012, and has also posted some impressive Grand Slam performances. At Wimbledon last year she was twice two points from beating No. 30 seed Christina McHale in a dramatic three-hour 10-minute first round encounter played over two days on Court 17, eventually falling 6-7(4) 6-2 10-8.
And at the US Open seven weeks later Konta beat three higher-ranked opponents to qualify for the main draw where she upset world No.59 Timea Babos 6-2 7-5 in the first round and was unlucky to lose a close second round match against Olga Govortsova 2-6 6-2 7-5 having served for a place in the third round at 5-2 in deciding set.
A bumper crowd is expected at Devonshire Park this year with the tournament staging a Family Day on Saturday June 15, with free entry to the grounds and unreserved seating on Centre Court and Court One.
Legends Day on Sunday June 16 will feature a quartet of tennis greats competing in a Father’s Day tussle, former British No.1 Greg Rusedski facing off against Mark Philippoussis in singles before teaming up with former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport and two-time Wimbledon doubles champion Rennae Stubbs in a mixed doubles match.