AEGON International wildcards for Baltacha and Keothavong

Written by: Staff on 10th June 2010

AEGON International wildcards for Baltacha and Keothavong |

British No.1 Elena Baltacha and British No.3 Anne Keothavong have been awarded wildcards into the AEGON International (June 12-19, Devonshire Park, Eastbourne).

Baltacha, currently ranked No.63 in the world, kicked her grass court season off in spectacular style last week, winning the AEGON Trophy at Nottingham. She didn’t drop a set en route to claiming the title, her second ITF trophy of the year, defeating Carly Gullickson in the final.

The 26-year-old has enjoyed a stellar 2010 season so far, winning the Midland, USA, ITF title, reaching the third round at the Australian Open, quarter-finals at Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events at Memphis and Johannesburg and the third round at Indian Wells (where she upset No.7-seeded Li in the second round).

She says she is looking forward to returning to Eastbourne’s grass courts.

“Last year I had great opportunity to play Na Li,” said Baltacha, who lost a tight first round match against Li (CHN) at Devonshire Park last year before upsetting Alona Bondarenko (UKR) in the first round at Wimbledon.

“I always enjoy the week there, the grass plays very similarly to Wimbledon so I always end up staying the whole week and I just love it. I’ve got a lot of friends down at Eastbourne and usually the weather’s great there as well.

“I’ve got great memories from the AEGON International and I’m really looking forward to going into the tournament this year.”

Ranked No.155 in the world, Keothavong also made a promising start to her grass court season, reaching the quarter-finals at Nottingham’s AEGON Trophy.

On the comeback from a knee injury sustained at Stanford in July 2009, 26-year-old Keothavong has made a strong return to the professional ranks since February, reaching the semi-finals at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event at Memphis in February and the quarter-finals at Fes in April.

Nigel Sears, the LTA’s Head Coach of Women’s Tennis, said he was looking forward to watching both wildcard recipients play at the AEGON International.

“Bally has had an outstanding year so far and a tremendous start to the grass court season winning Nottingham last week,” said Sears. “She’ll be relishing the opportunity to test herself against some of the world’s best players at Eastbourne.”

And Sears said he had been impressed by Keothavong’s strong return to the game. “Ann has done just magnificently to come back from such a serious knee injury,” said Sears. “She has already shown great form this season since returning to competition and it won’t be long before her ranking is right back up there.”

The AEGON International takes place at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne from June 12 to 19, 2010. The tournament features some of the biggest names in men’s and women’s tennis including James Blake, Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki, Francesca Schiavone, Sam Stosur and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Tickets are available from www.seetickets.com/aegoninternational or from the Box Office: 0871 230 7131.

Topics: Aegon, Anne Keothavong, Australian Open, Carly Gullickson, Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, Elena Baltacha, Grass Court, Grass Courts, Great Memories, Head Coach, Indian Wells, Knee Injury, Lta, Professional Ranks, Quarter Finals, Sears, Semi Finals, Sony Ericsson Wta Tour, Wildcards