Monday at Sunderland Tennis Centre saw the completion of men’s qualifying with three Brit’s making it through a very strong draw which included 29 world ranked players.
In the battle of the big server’s Liverpudlian Harry Meehan produced an impressive display to dispatch top seeded Dutchman Kevin Griekspoor 6-4, 6-3, whilst another big server Richard Bloomfield also secured his place in main draw defeating Harry Skinner in straight sets. Clay Crawford completed the British trio of wins with a 6-1, 7-6(4) defeat of 6th seeded Rob Carter.
Qualifying for the Women’s $25k event started on Monday, with three North-East girls in action. Although Sabrina Bamburac and Farah Abdel-Aziz were beaten in straight sets, 17 year old Grace Dixon from Whickham pushed former top 200 player Lina Stanciute the full distance eventually losing out 6-4, 1-6, 6-7(6).
There were victories for 15th seed Manisha Foster who recovered from the loss of the first set to beat Dutch girl Demi Schuurs 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, whilst 8th seed Katy Dunne and 12th seed Lucy Brown also secured a place in the final round of qualifying, with straight set wins.
Tuesday sees the start of a very strong men’s main draw, which had a world ranking cut of 689. Top seed is British number 4, Dan Cox who has just returned from Australian Open qualifying, with 2nd seed Laurynas Grigelis, last week’s winner in Glasgow.
Play starts at 10:00am with free entry for spectators, and matches can also be followed through live scoring on www.lta.org.uk/aegongbpro-series.