The Aegon GB Pro-Series Barnstaple is an ITF Pro Circuit men’s $10k event, with the venue being an extremely popular destination for professional players over the past decade. It is the last of a series of three events in Britain, with men’s international tennis returning to North Devon, having staged a women’s event for the past few years.
Frederik Nielsen is the highest profile player in action having sensationally captured the Wimbledon Doubles title in 2012 as a wild card with Britain’s Jonny Marray. The 33 year old Dane currently plies his trade on the ATP Challenger & ITF Pro Circuits and returns to Barnstaple after a break of nearly 10 years, looking to capture his second singles title of 2016.
Rising Dutch player, Tallon Griekspoor, is the highest ranked player on the Barnstaple entry list. The 20 year old from Haarlem, has made a steady rise up the rankings since his debut in 2014 and last month reached a career high of 364. Griekspoor is part of a big tennis family with older brother’s Kevin and Scott also professional tennis players (Kevin also being in action in Barnstaple).
Of the 18 direct acceptances, there are currently 8 different nationalities represented in main draw, with Richard Gabb, the highest ranked British player. 24 year old Gabb spends much of the year travelling the world, but is based at the University of Bath and lives in Street, Somerset, so will be looking forward to competing close to home. Jonny O’Mara who reached the semi-finals at Loughborough last week (and won the doubles title with Scott Clayton), will be looking to go one step further and continue a strong finish to 2016.
Tarka Tennis Centre Director of Tennis, Chris Gill, commented, "Having a women’s event over the past eight years has been great and we’ve seen the best British players in Joanna Konta, Heather Watson, Naomi Broady, and Laura Robson regularly compete at Tarka as well as players who have gone on to be Grand Slam Champions in the form of Angelina Kerber (current world number 1) and Roberta Vinci as well as many others. We felt it would be a good time to have a change and the LTA have given us the opportunity to stage a men’s event in 2016."
Richard Joyner, Tournament Director, says, "The atmosphere at Barnstaple is always very good. Everyone is so pro-active in their support of the event which together with the facilities make it such a great week for the players and everyone involved." Joyner added, "It’s great that a former Wimbledon doubles champion is with us and the line-up is an excellent mix of younger, up and coming players together with some of the more established pro’s. Freddie has fond memories of playing here previously, and I know is looking forward to returning to Barnstaple after nearly 10 years."
Men’s qualifying for the Aegon GB Pro-Series Barnstaple is Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 November with maindraw Wednesday 9 to Sunday 13 November. The men’s singles and doubles finals are both scheduled for Sunday 13 November with the first final scheduled for 11.00am. Entry for spectators is free of charge for the qualifying event. For main draw ticket information please contact the Tarka Tennis Centre direct or go to www.tarkatennis.net.
As well as coming along to watch, you can also follow the scores through live scoring here whilst the updated entry lists can be found here