Tursunov is big draw on day one of top tennis tournament
Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, a former top 20 player who is coming back after injury, will be the big draw as today’s matches get underway at the AEGON ATP Challenger tournament at TeamBath.
Tursunov, seeded third, takes on Ruben Bemelmans of Denmark in the opening round as the fourth match on Court 1. Entry for spectators to the Sports Training Village is free of charge and this is the first time that the Village has hosted a Challenger event.
France’s Nicolas Mahut, who has climbed from 148 to 93rd in the rankings since his marathon match (183 games, 11-hour and five-minutes) against American John Isner at Wimbledon last year, is the top seed for the men’s singles event.
The impressive entry list for the tournament also features Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, world ranked 108. A former world number 59, he reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2008 until he ran into eventual winner Roger Federer. He is seeded fourth whilst Dustin Brown of Germany is the second seed.
Slovakia’s Miloslav Mecir, winner of the Chiswick Futures tournament last summer, has reached the main draw. He is the son of Miloslav, who made a piece of history in 1988 by becoming the winner of the first men’s singles tennis titles at an Olympic Games.
Russia’s Nina Bratchikova is the highest ranked player in the ITF Pro-Circuit women’s tournament running alongside the Challenger, at 132. She already has a title under her belt this year after winning the women’s singles at the $25,000 Rabat tournament in Morocco last month.
Notes
The University of Bath
The University of Bath is one of the UK’s leading universities. Our Mission is to deliver world-class research and teaching, educating our graduates to become future leaders and innovators, and benefiting the wider population through our research, enterprise and influence. Our courses are innovative and interdisciplinary and we have an outstanding record of graduate employment. We are ranked in the UK top 15 of universities in The Guardian, Times, Sunday Times and Independent national tables.
The University of Bath is a member of The 1994 Group representing 19 of the UK’s leading student-focused research-intensive universities. Established in1994 it promotes excellence in university research and teaching.
The University features world-leading sports facilities at the Sports Training Village which fully open to members of the public, as well as University of Bath students and staff. Its facilities are also used by individual athletes and teams training for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Team Bath MCTA Tennis Academy is one of the LTA’s four International High Performance Centre’s and is based at the University of Bath Sports Training Village. It offers a complete range of tennis from mini tennis for kids, recreational tennis through to performance tennis.
British Tennis
• AEGON is Lead Partner of British Tennis, and supports the game at all levels from grassroots programmes such as AEGON Schools Tennis and AEGON Parks Tennis, through to supporting British talent in the AEGON FutureStars programme and Team AEGON. It is also title sponsor for the British Tennis Series, of grass court tournaments, including the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club. For further information click here.
• The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is working to improve competitive opportunities for players of all levels and ages, including those aged 16-years-old and over, for example through the club v club AEGON Team Tennis competition, and events such as the AEGON GB Pro Series
• Increasing the number of junior players competing regularly, that is those players who compete six or more times a year, is also a key priority for the LTA. This has increased from 8,000 to more than 40,000 over the past four years, an increase of 450%.
