British No.2 Naomi Broady notched up one of the biggest wins of her career with a bruising 7-6(3) 6-0 win over World No.39 Alize Cornet in the opening round of the Aegon Classic Birmingham. Broady’s impressive win sets up a potential second round encounter with two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
“I was really trying to mix the ball up a lot today, use my slice and then hit the next ball as hard as I could, just to keep mixing up the pace and not give her a rhythm,” said Broady, ranked 111 in the WTA World Rankings. “Alize is great mover, she’s a very consistent player, so I knew if I played with a lot of rythmn then I would be playing into the way she wants to play. I tried to stay as far away from her game style as I could.”
With temperatures on court at Edgbaston Priory Club touching 29 degrees centigrade, Broady’s grass-court prowess allowed her to overcome a 0-3 deficit in the first set before she went up a gear in the second
Before she can think about Broady, Kvitova must first get past Lucky Loser Tereza Smitkova in Tuesday’s opening match on the Ann Jones Centre Court in what will be Kvitova’s first match on grass following her return to competition at Roland Garros.
British No.1 Johanna Konta makes her 2017 Aegon Classic Birmingham debut on Tuesday when she plays Lesia Tsurenko in a big to continue the run of form which took her to the final of last week’s Aegon Nottingham Open.
2015 Roland Garros champion and former Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza, seeded six in Birmingham, is up against Russian qualifier Elizaveta Kulichkova; while third seed Dominka Cibulkova and dangerous unseeded floater Lucie Safarova face off in one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of day two.
AEGON CLASSIC BIRMINGHAM – BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND
$885,040
JUNE 19 – 25, 2017
RESULTS – JUNE 19, 2017
Women’s
Singles – First Round
[2] E. Svitolina (UKR) d [WC] H. Watson (GBR) 62 57 63
[8] B. Strycova (CZE) d Y. Putintseva (KAZ) 63 63
N. Osaka (JPN) d L. Davis (USA) 61 26 76(4)
[WC] N. Broady (GBR) d A. Cornet (FRA) 76(3) 60
Women’s
Doubles – First Round
[4] A. Barty (AUS) / C. Dellacqua (AUS) d D. Gavrilova (AUS) / K. Siniakova (CZE) 75 61
S. Mirza (IND) / C. Vandeweghe (USA) d D. Jurak (CRO) / A. Rodionova (AUS) 62 64
D. Cibulkova (SVK) / G. Muguruza (ESP) d N. Hibino (JPN) / A. Rosolska (POL) 62 64
Women’s
Qualifying Singles – Third Round
Qualifying – [1] M. Vondrousova (CZE) d [6] T. Smitkova (CZE) 46 75 63
Qualifying – [2] C. Giorgi (ITA) d [8] J. Fett (CRO) 63 64
Qualifying – [3] S. Hsieh (TPE) d [7] I. Soylu (TUR) 63 63
Qualifying – [5] E. Kulichkova (RUS) d [4] S. Vickery (USA) 60 62
ORDER OF PLAY – TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2017
ANN JONES CENTRE COURT start 11:00 am
[LL] T. Smitkova (CZE) vs [7] [WC] P. Kvitova (CZE)
L. Tsurenko (UKR) vs [4] J. Konta (GBR)
[3] D. Cibulkova (SVK) vs L. Safarova (CZE)
[6] G. Muguruza (ESP) vs [Q] E. Kulichkova (RUS)
COURT 1 start 11:00 am
N. Hibino (JPN) vs K. Siniakova (CZE)
[Q] S. Hsieh (TPE) vs [9] D. Gavrilova (AUS)
[5] K. Mladenovic (FRA) vs Y. Duan (CHN)
Not Before 4:00 pm
D. Vekic (CRO) vs A. Riske (USA)
COURT 2 start 11:00 am
[Q] C. Giorgi (ITA) vs N. Vikhlyantseva (RUS)
[Q] M. Vondrousova (CZE) vs A. Barty (AUS)
C. Mchale (USA) vs C. Vandeweghe (USA)
S. Zhang (CHN) vs M. Linette (POL)
Topics: AEGON Classic, Alize Cornet, Birmingham tennis news, british tennis nes, Naomi Broady, Sports, Tennis News