SURBITON, June 3, 2018
Hampshire’s Ella Taylor enjoyed the biggest win of her career when she defeated No. 6 seed Emina Bektas from the United States in the first round of qualifying at the Fuzion 100 Surbiton Trophy on Saturday.
The 22-year-old wild card, who is ranked No. 1144, booked her place in the final round of qualifying with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the world No. 277 in just 54 minutes.
“It feels great to get my first win at a £100k event and against a top ranked opponent. Today was a career-best win for me and I’m very happy I was able to achieve this on the grass in England,” said the former college player who graduated from Louisiana State University in 2016.
All-British clash in the men’s qualifying
Dan Evans (photo: Chloe Knott)
Dan Evans eased into the second round of qualifying with a straight sets victory over No. 4 seed Stefan Kozlov in only 50 minutes.
Evans, who continues his return to the sport following a 12 month suspension, needed just 50 minutes to defeat the 20-year-old US-American 6-1, 6-0 and will now face fellow Briton Neil Pauffley in the final qualifying round on Sunday.
Joining Evans in the final qualifying round is Hertfordshire’s Edward Corrie, who overcame No. 7 seed Christian Harrison from the United States in a tight match 7-6(4), 6-3.
“It was tough, I have played Christian a few times before and we always have really physical, hard battles and this was the first one which was two sets which was nice,” said Corrie.
“It’s the first match on grass so it always takes a while to get a feel for it but I found some big serves in important moments, particularly in the tiebreak, and that really helped get the momentum.”
More results
There was disappointment for Eden Silva from Great Britain, who led top seeded Australian Jaimee Fourlis 3-0 in the opening set before narrowly losing 7-6(10), 6-4 in one hour 44 minutes, but there was better news for Briton Emily Webley-Smith who knocked out the No. 8 seed Sophie Chang of the United States 6-3, 6-1.
The biggest casualty of the day on the women’s side was No. 3 seed Ellen Perez from Australia who fell to Abigail Tere-Apisah from Papua New Guinea 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-3.
In the men’s event, Jack Findel-Hawkins of Great Britian defeated compatriot Oscar Weightman 6-3, 6-2 to set up a final round qualifying clash against top seeded US-American Taylor Fritz, while No. 6 seed John-Patrick Smith from Australia was ousted by former world No. 51 Daniel Brands of Germany 6-3, 6-4 in just 48 minutes.
Main draw is out
Five top 100 players lead the €127,000 ATP Challenger singles main draw. World No. 86 Jeremy Chardy of France will face Liam Broady of Great Britain in the first round. Second seeded Australian Jordan Thompson will open his title bid against Ramkumar Ramanathan of India.
The tournament’s No. 3 Yuki Bhambri will take on Australia’s young gun Thanassi Kokkinakis and Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny will start his grass-court season against US-American Kevin King.
Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios were give wild cards into the doubles draw. Hewitt is playing with Alex Bolt, and Kyrgios will team up with Daniel Evans.
