Press Release
For immediate release
Tuesday June 9th 2015
BRITISH NO. 2 KONTA AND TOP SEED RAWANSKA PROGRESS AT AEGON OPEN NOTTINGHAM
British No. 2 Johanna Konta eased into the Aegon Open Nottingham second round along with top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who blasted her way past qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva 6-0 6-3.
In front of a vocal home crowd on the centre court at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, 24-year-old Konta broke the serve of seventh-seed Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova four times in her 6-3 6-3 win.
Konta, who has reach two semi-finals in Nottingham in as many years, had to wait an extra day to get her tournament underway after Monday’s rain delay.
Speaking on the delay, Konta, who will now face Monica Puig in the second round on Wednesday, said: “All of that is out of your control so you’ve got to roll with the punches. There was a lot of waiting around for both of us yesterday and even today there were quite long matches before us. But that comes with every tournament. I guess you could say that we’re used to it. I was expecting a tough match and that’s what it was. I’ve been having a good, healthy year so far and I’ve been able to play a lot of matches. I’ve enjoyed playing here for the past two years. I love the courts, I love that Centre Court, so I’m happy I got to play on that today and again tomorrow.”
Radwanska, the former World No. 2, took just over an hour to overcome Kudryavtseva, having claimed the first set in just 19 minutes. The former finalist at the Championships, Wimbledon, progresses to face Christina McHale of the USA on Thursday.
Speaking after her match, Radwanska said: “The first match is never easy, especially when you are on grass. It is good to have a quick match to stay fresh for the next one. I have the day off tomorrow and I really want to try and get five matches here.”
Tuesday’s action on centre court started with an enthralling three-set showdown which saw Magda Linette of Poland defeat former World No. 5 Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 4-6 7-4(4) in a grueling two hour 14 minutes encounter.
Linette, ranked 102 in the world, said: “Daniela played a really good second set and I’m happy that I could step up and show my best game in the third set. She is an unbelievable player, she has so much experience and has won many more things than me. So I’m really happy because it shows that I can play with those players and mentally that it makes me stronger.”
Hantuchova remained upbeat in defeat: “We were both playing really well given the cold and windy conditions. There are a lot of positives I can take from this match. Especially in the third set being down two breaks at 5-2, I never gave up and kept fighting for every single point. But she came up with some pretty good shots when she needed to. I have to say the condition of centre court was extremely good. Apart from Wimbledon, I don’t think I’ve ever played on such a good court, so it was a nice surprise.”
Meanwhile, British 20-year-old Katy Dunne went down 6-1 6-2 to Belarusian Olga Govortsova, who is ranked 173 places above the Hemel Hempstead-born wildcard.
Speaking after her defeat the young right-hander said there was more to the score line than met the eye: “I don’t think the score represented the match because I had a lot of opportunities, several deuces and game points so it was a little closer than it suggests. There is a lot that I can take from today and its great experience for me to face such good opposition.”
In other results, second seed Zarina Diyas battled past 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 7-6(5) 7-6(6) to book a meeting with American qualifier Sachia Vickery, who knocked out China’s Qiang Wang with a 7-6(2) 7-5 win.
Images for editorial use available here: http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/ltapubuser?nav=pr283645562
Tournament videos for use:
Tournament tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsqheMecZps
Tennis meets football - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx4SNwRNCtg
The Aegon Open Nottingham will see two tournaments take place in June, the women’s WTA event taking place from 6-14 June 2015, and the men’s ATP event being staged from 20-27 June 2015. Both tournaments will be an integral part of the new British grass court season, which in 2015 will see a three week window between Roland Garros and Wimbledon for the first time. The extended grass court season will enable some of the world’s elite players extra time to find their feet on grass and make the most of the best grass-courts in the country.
Tickets to the Aegon Open Nottingham are on sale now. Tickets start from just £15 for an adult and £5 for a child.
For more information and to purchase tickets please visit http://www.lta.org.uk/major-events/aegon-open-nottingham
For information on the hospitality packages on offer at The Aegon Open Nottingham head to http://www.lta.org.uk/major-events/aegon-open-nottingham/nottingham-hospitality/ or contact Elliot Sheasby on aegonopen@lta.org.uk
AEGON OPEN NOTTINGHAM - NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND
$ 250,000.00
8-14 JUNE, 2015
ORDER OF PLAY - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015
CENTRE COURT start 11:00 am
[5] A. Riske (USA) vs M. Lucic-Baroni (CRO)
M. Linette (POL) vs L. Davis (USA)
M. Niculescu (ROU) vs [Q] O. Govortsova (BLR)
M. Puig (PUR) vs [WC] J. Konta (GBR)
[WC] L. Hradecka (CZE) / F. Schiavone (ITA) vs J. Rae (GBR) / A. Smith (GBR)
COURT 3 start 12:00 noon
C. Dellacqua (AUS) / D. Jurak (CRO) vs [2] Y. Chan (TPE) / J. Zheng (CHN)
after suitable rest if needed - M. Niculescu (ROU) / A. Parra Santonja (ESP) vs [3] H. Chan (TPE) / A. Kudryavtseva (RUS)
RESULTS - JUNE 09, 2015
Women's
Singles - First Round
[1] [WC] A. Radwanska (POL) d [Q] A. Kudryavtseva (RUS) 60 63
[2] Z. Diyas (KAZ) d F. Schiavone (ITA) 76(5) 76(6)
M. Niculescu (ROU) d [3] V. Lepchenko (USA) 46 63 61
[6] C. Dellacqua (AUS) d S. Karatantcheva (BUL) 75 63
[WC] J. Konta (GBR) d [7] M. Rybarikova (SVK) 63 63
C. Mchale (USA) d [Q] J. Gajdosova (AUS) 64 63
M. Linette (POL) d D. Hantuchova (SVK) 62 46 76(4)
[Q] O. Govortsova (BLR) d [WC] K. Dunne (GBR) 61 62
M. Puig (PUR) d L. Hradecka (CZE) 76(5) 76(5)
[Q] S. Vickery (USA) d Q. Wang (CHN) 76(2) 75
Women's
Doubles - First Round
[1] R. Kops-Jones (USA) / A. Spears (USA) d C. Liang (CHN) / Y. Wang (CHN) 36 61 10-6
[4] C. Black (ZIM) / L. Raymond (USA) d J. Gajdosova (AUS) / A. Tomljanovic (CRO) 62 76(2)
S. Aoyama (JPN) / R. Voracova (CZE) d K. Date-Krumm (JPN) / D. Hantuchova (SVK) 63 61
C. Chan (TPE) / Y. Xu (CHN) d [PR] J. Husarova (SVK) / P. Kania (POL) 64 36 10-5
C. Chuang (TPE) / O. Savchuk (UKR) d G. Dabrowski (CAN) / A. Rosolska (POL) 63 61
- ENDS -
For media enquiries please contact:
Charlie Bosomworth; LTA Communications Officer
charlie.bosomworth@lta.org.uk
0208 487 7021 or 07932 276 053
Andrew Aloia; Aegon Open Nottingham, Press Officer
Andrew.aloia@gmail.com
07845 586290
Notes to Editors:
• The Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) mission is to get more people playing tennis more often, and its role is to develop, promote and govern tennis in Britain.
• Aegon is Lead Partner of British Tennis and is helping to transform the sport in this country. They’re supporting young talent through the Aegon FutureStars programme, as well as sponsoring the junior and senior GB Davis and Fed Cup teams and amateur and professional events. Aegon sponsor three world-class grass court tournaments; the Aegon Classic, Aegon International and Aegon Championships and will also sponsor the new WTA and ATP events in Nottingham from 2015. For further information visit www.aegontennis.co.uk
• For more information on tennis in Britain visit: www.lta.org.uk