A bumper summer of international tennis continues in Nottingham, with a men’s $15k event on the outdoor courts at The Nottingham Tennis Centre, from Monday 7 September to Sunday 13 September, with free entry to spectators.
Taking place on the back of The Nottingham Tennis Centre’s 25th birthday celebrations, the Aegon GB Pro-Series Nottingham is an ITF Pro Circuit men’s $15k event, which has seen a number of players since move on to the higher echelons of the game. All the world’s top players sharpened their professional careers at this level, and this year’s line-up sees a good blend of British and overseas players.
The 2015 event see’s 23 year old Henri Laaksonen arrive in the Midlands as the highest ranked player, and the Swiss number 5 will be looking for his first title of 2015, together with a jump back towards the world top 200, where he reached in 2013.
Whilst Croatian Mate Pavic, will be arriving in Nottingham on the back of competing in this year’s US Open doubles event. Having reached the last 16 in the doubles at Wimbledon, the 22 year old lefthander from Split, currently enjoys a doubles ranking of 55, and will be looking to use Nottingham to propel back up the singles rankings.
The British charge for the title will be led by a number of player’s with a local connection. The highest ranked Brit is Daniel Cox, who lives in Lincoln, whilst the next highest ranked is Daniel Smethurst, who is based at the Nottingham Tennis Centre. Josh Ward-Hibbert (Watnall), and Luke Bambridge (Plumtree) will also be in main draw action on the courts they were brought up on. As juniors both players reached the top 20 in the world, and Ward-Hibbert won the Australian Open junior doubles title, plus recorded the fastest serve by a junior at Wimbledon.
17 year old Marcus Walters, is also scheduled to appear at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Walters, who is based at the Centre where he started playing at the tender age of 2, gained his first pro ranking point on the Wirral earlier this year, and is now looking to make the transition from the junior game
(14&under national junior champion in 2012) to the professional game.
Tournament Director, Richard Joyner, said ‘This year the Nottingham Tennis Centre has already staged WTA and ATP pre-Wimbledon grass court events, the British Wheelchair Open Championships, together with the World Deaf Championships in July. The venue is once again proving to be a major venue for international tennis, and next week is another great chance to see some rising stars of the future.
Joyner added ‘The event is a great way to continue the celebration of the Tennis Centre’s 25th anniversary, and alongside the pro event will be an Aegon British Tour event, so there will be a lot of great tennis to watch’.
Men’s qualifying for the Aegon GB Pro-Series Nottingham is Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 September, with main draw Wednesday 9 September to Sunday 13 September. The men’s singles final is scheduled for 11.00am on Sunday 13 September.
Entry for spectators throughout the week is free of charge.
As well as coming along to watch, you can follow the action through live scoring, on
www.lta.org.uk/agbps
Whilst the updated entry list can be found at http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/men's-tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100035199