Aegon Nottingham Challenge

Just spent a pleasant few hours watching some grass court tennis at the Aegon Nottingham Challenge.

http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/Nottingham-Festival-of-Tennis/AEGON-Nottingham-Challenge/

Saw Bemelans (BEL) beat Smethurst (GBR) and Sugita (JPN) beat Milton (GBR)

It may "only" be a challenger but IMO a high quality of play by all. Those that criticize lower ranked players and say they simply need to work harder to progress would do well to watch an event at this level. Again IMO the best player by far was Sugita. Solid rallying shots and had weight on both backhand but particularly forehand when needed. All players were using a lot of slice and were willing to approach the net. They knew they were on grass...

The event also has lots of activities for schools so it meant lots of children got a taste of pro tennis and also had some fun on court themselves. Overheard this from two boys aged 9 or 10. "That's Djokovic!" "No it isn't" said his more well informed friend incredulously "Djokovic has black hair" Ha ha! Also a teacher asking a little girl in a queue for the toilets "What have you liked best?" "Everything!" said the girl as she jumped up and down...

I intend to go tomorrow (weather permitting) and hope to see amongst others Donald Young who is scheduled to play. If anyone lives close to Nottingham I can recommend this event as a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Amazingly it's free including lots of free parking. This probably explains why the losers in the first round receive just 660 euros. Not quite the 23,000 + given to first round losers at Wimbledon.

Is this the same event?
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/tennis-ebden-wins-maiden-challenger-title-nottingham-154352963.html
Seems to have been the final yesterday but you were there today, are there 2 different events here?
The website is down at the moment or at any rate I can't get on it.

Yep, there's two challengers at Nottingham, running back to back.

It is two events running back to back. I wrote elsewhere about the quarter final I saw in the previous event where Evens lost to Ebden in straight sets. Both events have a WTA tournament running at the same time.

Until I think it was 2009 Nottingham had a 250 ATP event. Brighton stole it...

hawkeye wrote:Until I think it was 2009 Nottingham had a 250 ATP event. Brighton stole it...

Don't you mean Eastbourne? It used to be WTA-only tournament. Presumably it gets better attendance now with combined ATP & WTA event.

Oh yes I meant Eastbourne. Somewhere south anyway...

Thanks Hawkeye. It's only an hour away from me, or two at the absolute most, but not sure I can justify using a day's holiday for it and I am busy all weekend coming.

Watched the women's final on Sunday.

Elena Baltacha defeating Tadeja Majeric 7-5 7-6 (9-7). It really was an excellent match to watch. Also the sun came out (Hurray!) Majeric went up 5-1 in the first set and had several set points before Baltacha leveled the set at 5-5 and then broke and served out the set. She then went up 5-2 in the second set and had a few match points but Majeric saved them, leveled and took the set into a tie break. The tie break again swung both ways with a few set points and match points saved before Baltacha got the win.

This match meant so much to both players. You could see the tension but they both managed a high level of play. Was really pleased for Baltacha when she won. She broke down in tears. I believe she's been injured for some time and has had surgery. But during the match felt bad for her opponent as she was not getting much encouragement from the crowd even when she played some great tennis and was getting her mistakes cheered . At this level players are often on there own with no coach, family or anyone else to support them. Despite wanting Baltacha to win we applauded all Majeric's good play enthusiastically.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/22935389