The University of Bath is staging two consecutive weeks of International Men’s and Women’s Professional tennis, with the AEGON GB Pro-Series Bath from Saturday 12 to Sunday 27 March inclusive.
The ATP €42.5k Challenger Saturday 19 – Sunday 27 March particularly sees some top names, including Nicolas Mahut (France) who achieved world wide acclaim at Wimbledon 2010, when he was involved in that epic encounter with Jonathan Isner. The Frenchman, whose career high world ranking has been 40, was involved in the longest match in tennis history finally losing 70-68 in the final set. The match which lasted 11 hours 5 minutes set all sorts of records, a number of which are never likely to be beaten.
Dmitry Tursunov (Russia), who has enjoyed a career high world ranking of 20. Tursunov has won 6 ATP Tour singles titles during his career, including Sydney in 2008 and Eastbourne 2009, and is now working his way back up the rankings again after a serious ankle injury.
Gilles Muller (Luxembourg), has been as high as 59 and won nearly $1.5 million so far in his career. He reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2008, and is expected to lead the Luxembourg team when they play GB in the Davis Cup this July.
Dustin Brown (Germany) also promises to provide great entertainment to the crowd at Bath. The 26 year old who goes by the nickname of ‘Dreddy’ because of his dreadlocked hair, and wears neon shoelaces attracted a great deal of media attention in 2010. In January the German, who now lives in Montego Bay, Jamaica, achieved a career high world ranking of 89.
Mahut, Muller, Brown, and Tursunov all played in the main draw at this year’s first grand slam, the Australian Open.
There will be a number of British players in action over the two weeks.
The proposed schedule is:
Men’s $15,000 Qualifying 12 & 13 March
Main Draw 14-19 March
Women’s $10,000 Qualifying 13 & 14 March
Main Draw 15-19 March
Men’s ATP €42.500 Qualifying 19 & 20 March
Main Draw 21-27 March
Women’s $25,000 Qualifying 20 & 21 March
Main Draw 22-27 March
Entry for spectators is free throughout the two weeks, with seating on court for the Men’s ATP Challenger and Women’s $25,000 semi-final / finals week end on 26/27 March.
Tournament Director, Richard Joyner is delighted with the quality of entry.
"We are really hoping to get a good crowd at Bath, especially on the final week end when there is seating courtside. It’s not often players of the calibre of Mahut, Tursunov, Muller, Brown, and the rest of the field are playing in your own back yard. To watch this standard of tennis FREE of charge is something not to be missed."
Entry for spectators is FREE throughout the week, with daily updates on www.lta.org.uk
For further information please contact Tournament Director, Richard Joyner on: richard.joyner@lta.org.uk or 07971 141329.
For full ATP player profiles go to www.atpworldtour.com