Month: November 2021

8th November, 2021

UK Pro League Finals Preview

A thrilling 9 months of UK Pro League action looks set to come to a captivating conclusion over the next seven days as UK Pro League Finals Week takes place in Shrewsbury.

The UK Pro League brings together the British pro tennis player group competing in nine individual week-long qualifying events leading to a Finals Week where the Pro League Champion is decided.

Over half a million pounds of prize money is up for grabs across the season and all the action is broadcast live on BT Sport, The Tennis Channel and UKproleague.tv, with the Finals Week also broadcast live on free to air channel FreeSports (Freeview Channel 64 / Sky Channel 422 / Virgin Channel 553 / BT TV Channel 64 / TalkTalk Channel 64).

A host of top domestic talent will be on display in Shropshire, all of whom are looking to follow in the footsteps of US Open champion Emma Raducanu and Olympian Liam Broady, who won last year’s titles.

In the women’s draw, Emily Appleton enters the women’s competition as one of the 4 top seeds following a dominant campaign to date and lines up in Pool D alongside Nadia Rawson and British number 10 Beth Grey, one of three wildcard entries.

Two of the other seeded players enter as wildcards, world number 220 Lily Miyazaki, British Number 14 Eden Silva.  The fourth seed is Eliz Maloney who finished second in the UK Pro League Rankings after the 9 qualifying weeks.  She faces a tough draw with Sonay Kartal – the only player to win three qualifying weeks back-to-back – in her pool.

Week 9 winner Lauryn John-Baptiste dropped just one set during the final week of qualifying to secure her place at Finals Week in dramatic style and will hope to continue her momentum.  Her qualification means that she has also gained a main-draw wildcard for the first ITF Futures event held in the UK in 2022, earmarking her as one to watch.

 

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In the men’s draw, Julian Cash is seeded having secured top spot in the Pro League Rankings with an impressive Week 9 final win over Week 1 winner Josh Paris, who he beat in straight sets. Like John-Baptiste, the Week 9 win means he will also receive a main-draw wildcard in the first ITF Future event held in the UK in 2022.

Wildcards UK number 5 Jay Clarke and Davis Cup winner James Ward are two of the other seeds with Billy Harris seeded 4 having come second in the UK Pro League qualifying rankings.

 

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The pool matches take place between Monday and Wednesday, with the quarter-finals over the next two days. The semi-finals are then battled out on Saturday and the new champions will be crowned the following day.

Men’s Pools

Pool A: Jay Clarke, Josh Paris, Giles Hussey

Pool B: James Ward, Anton Matusevich, Sean Hodkin

Pool C: Billy Harris, Dan Cox, Charlie Broom

Pool D: Julian Cash, George Houghton, Henry Patten

Women’s Pools

Pool A: Lily Miyazaki, Freya Christie, Emma Wilson

Pool B: Eden Silva, Alice Gillian, Lauryn John-Baptiste

Pool C: Eliz Maloney, Sonay Kartal, Katie Stresnakova

Pool D: Emily Appleton, Nadia Rawson, Beth Grey

1st November, 2021

UK Pro League qualifying goes down to the wire

There was high drama as qualifying for the UK Pro League Finals Week went down to the final day of the final week.

Lauryn John-Baptiste needed to secure victory in Week 9 to have any chance of making Finals Week while she also needed Danielle Daley, who occupied the ninth and final qualifying spot, to not finish higher than sixth.
And it went down to the wire as John-Baptiste won the Week 9 event as her opponent in the final, Katie Stresnakova, retired in the second set.

 

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The Premier League of British tennis, the innovative format is the only domestic competition for the UK’s top professionals and brings them together for nine weeks of action to qualify for Finals Week at the Shrewsbury Club in November.
And with over half a million pounds of prize money up for grabs across the season all the action is broadcast live on BT Sport, The Tennis Channel and UKproleague.tv, with the Finals Week also broadcast live on FreeSports.

Sixth-placed Stresnakova had already confirmed her place at Finals Week and was one set up when she was forced to withdraw, retiring with John-Baptiste one game away from levelling the tie – at 5-1.
John-Baptiste’s place at the Shrewsbury Club was confirmed when Nadia Rawson beat Daley in a tight 5th-6th play-off, coming through 6-4 3-6 10-8.
Emma Wilson will also be making an appearance at Finals Week after she won the 3rd-4th place play-off by beating Holly Hutchinson 6-3 6-2 at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre.
In the women’s rankings, Emily Appleton had already secured top spot which guarantees her the number one seed at the Shrewsbury Club when action gets underway on 8th November.
Also set to feature in less than two weeks’ time are Sonay Kartal, the only player to win three qualifying weeks back-to-back, and Eliz Maloney who finished in second, almost 40 points behind a dominant Appleton.

Sonay Kartal, the only player at the UK Pro League to complete a hat-trick

Julian Cash secured top place in UK Pro League men’s rankings with a dominant victory in the Week 9 final.
Cash defeated Week 1 winner Josh Paris in straight sets, racing to a 6-3 triumph in the first before securing an early break in the second set as he pulled away to win 6-2.
Week 5 runner-up Cash picked up the 18 points he needed as the winner of the final week of qualifying, while Josh Paris moves up into third place as he takes home 15 points.
For Cash, the victory means he will head to the Shrewsbury Club on 8th November as the top-seeded men’s player.

 

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In the men’s draw, Billy Harris will now be the second seed at Finals Week having conceded top spot to Cash.
Meanwhile, Charlie Broom rounds out the nine qualifiers having kept hold of his place with Ewan Moore unable to overtake him, only making the 3rd-4th play-off – and going down in three sets to Dan Little – when he needed overall victory this week.