Brief overview This was the inaugural edition of the tournament’s introduction due to an extra week between the French open and Wimbledon. It would be fair to say the tournament failed to attract as big names as the other UK grass court tournaments coming up in Birmingham and Eastbourne, however the quality of the tennis was never an issue. The tournament began with made the trip there to see the tournament kick off on Monday with with Belgian Yanina Wickmayer kicking us off with a straight sets win (6-4, 6-2) over 4th seed for the tournament Karin Knapp of Italy. It ended slightly later than scheduled due to rain taking out most of the weekend with 17-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh defeating Monica Niculescu of Romania in a pulsating 3 sets match lasting over 2 hours. Konjuh was very impressive throughout the week having knocked out seeds Casey Dellacqua and Alison Riske, the later she beat on Sunday when she was forced to play two games with rain ruling out play all Saturday. Niculescu path to the final wasn’t straight forward either as she had to overcome the much fancied number 1 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in 3 sets. The downside There was very few and nothing to do with the quality of the tennis just some farce surrounding the tournament. Firstly the prices were quite high given no day, not even finals day was anywhere near to selling out and this priced a number of tennis fans out the game. The tickets could’ve easily been cheaper had the event not been security heavy and if they got rid of the court escorts which quite frankly resembled something between KGB officers and men in black. The other disappointments was the car parking which was extortionate at £10 per day, luckily I used the bus. The food was also disappointing, not that it wasn’t very nice but from the price factor again with a hot dog setting you back £5 just because it’s got the word posh in it, that’s right a “posh hot dog”. Anyway apart from that it was a successful tournament and I would urge the organisers to review what I’ve mentioned above to make next year’s tournament even better. Highlights of the week The first highlight came on Monday, through an initiative by the tournament which saw the winner of each game launch signed tennis balls into each of the four stands. Luckily for my catching are decent so I was able to catch the ball that Yanina Wickmayer aimed in my direction, albeit I had to dive across two seats to get it which made it even more impressive. The catch was greeted with the announcer on court saying “good catch sir”. So after this Wickmayer soon became a favourite and a player to root for. The next highlights came in a series on the other weekday I attended, Wednesday which involved two American’s (not like that before you ask). After a certain matches I would seek the winning player out and get a picture (or the more modern term, selfie) with them. On that day I got the first one with Alison Riske, who I have to say comes across as the most genuine player on tour given her friendly nature with fans and her positive attitude on court. The other selfie was with upcoming American Lauren Davis who during the week won fans over with her never say day attitude saving numerous match points throughout the tournament before bowing out. The final highlight was along the same lines as the previous and it was a picture with the eventual winner of the Elena Baltacha Aegon Open, Ana Konjuh who definitely has a bright future. One thing I found all week and to an extent knew already was that the majority of female tennis players are so down to earth and an absolute credit to the sport and WTA.
Looking forward to next year.
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