Tursunov takes men’s title in Bath

27 March 2011

Dmitry Tursunov beat Andreas Beck to win the AEGON GB Pro-Series in Bath today 6-4,6-4, despite admitting to a bout of early nerves.

“In the first set I was a little nervous and didn’t move too well”, said the Russian former top 20 player who is coming back from injury”.

“It was very important for me to play safe and not try and blast the ball everywhere until I could get hold of my nerves”.

Despite the nerves, the third seed took the first set 6-4, breaking the German in the ninth game with some superb returns off the German’s heavy serve.

The Russian certainly looked to have stepped up his game after yesterday’s semi-final, hitting with consistent power and accuracy off both wings. Beck, strong on the forehand, was sometimes vulnerable on his backhand side.

“He got a little thrown by a line call towards the end of the set and I took his serve straight after that”, said Tursunov.

The Russian raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set, breaking serve in the first and third games but Beck recovered his composure to fight back to 4-3 breaking Tursunov back in the sixth game.

Tursunov held his serve to go 5-3 up but the German then played a strong service game to stay in the match.

In the final game Tursunov aced Beck to set up three match points and pulled off a crowd-stunning, running backhand winner down the line to take the set and the tournament title by 6-4.

“I had some tough opposition today”, said sixth-seeded Beck. “It’s true I lost my way a bit at times but Dmitry played a good match. He was aggressive and solid and probably only made five mistakes in the whole match. He deserved it today”.

“I’ve really enjoyed my stay in Bath. It’s a beautiful city”, said Tursunov. “I like the Bath stone”.

 Tursunov collects his prize from sponsors AEGON

 Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele, the eighth seed, triumphed in the earlier women’s singles final against Marta Domachowska of Poland 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-2.

Both players had previously been in the world’s top 100 and the early phases of the match were tense with Domachowska using her consistent retrieving to great effect.

Voegele gradually found her power and range in the second set and then played aggressively and accurately to win the decider.

Britain also had a winner over the weekend when Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray were deserving champions in the men’s doubles event.

Tournament Director Richard Joyner praised the University of Bath during today’s prize-giving ceremony. “I’d like to say thank-you to the University of Bath for hosting us so well. Everyone’s done a fantastic job”, he said.

Team Bath head tennis coach, Barry Scollo, was pleased that the academy players based at the University of Bath had been able this week to drink in the atmosphere if a big event.

He said: “There’s definitely been a buzz around the place this week. It’s been very interesting for me as a coach and a great experience for the players here to see tennis of this calibre”.

“We also need to say a big thank-you to the academy players, the Team Bath Tribe players and the University club for providing helpers and volunteers as well as ball-boys and girls. The same goes for Ralph Allen, Monkton Combe and All Hallows’, Writhlington and Oakfield St John’s schools for providing a great team of ball-boys and girls who have worked long hours throughout the week”.

For further information contact the Team Bath Press Office at Matchtight Ltd on (01225) 383518 or (for this weekend) 07831 755351 or press@matchtight.co.uk

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 TeamBath 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 visit www.aegon.co.uk/tennis <http://www.aegon.co.uk/tennis <http://www.aegon.co.uk/tennis> >
• 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%.

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