Ana Bogdan provided a fitting finale to a week of top-class tennis at the University of Bath as she won the $25k Aegon GB Pro-Series women’s singles title.
The Romanian justified her billing as number one seed after overcoming the number two seed, Croatia’s Ana Vrljic, in a final that lasted more than two hours at the Sports Training Village.
Bogdan, ranked 161 in the world, won the opening set 6-3 but Vrljic hit back to take the second 6-4.
That was the first set that Bogdan had dropped all week but she responded brilliantly by winning the decisive set 6-1 to secure her third $25k singles title of the year.
The match concluded a week of high-quality competition which saw former Wimbledon and US Open junior champion Filip Peliwo of Canada win the $15k men’s singles title.
There were British winners in both the doubles competitions – Lloyd Glasspool and Joshua Ward-Hibbert lifted the men’s title, while Olivia Nicholls and former Team Bath Tennis player Sarah Beth Askew took the women’s crown.
And there was plenty for the home fans to cheer, with University of Bath student Emma Hurst producing two fantastic wins to reach the main draw of the women’s singles.
Team Bath MCTA’s Lisa Whybourn reached the women’s doubles final with Freya Christie and Richard Gabb was a semi-finalist in both the men’s singles and doubles competitions.
Barry Scollo, Director of Tennis for Team Bath MCTA, said: “It was a great eight days of tennis and congratulations to Filip and Ana on their well-deserved singles wins.
“It was particularly pleasing to see so many of our players involved all the way through the week. Emma’s two career-high wins were fantastic and it was great to see Lisa back on court and playing so well.
“Richard has been with the Academy for many years and that was the furthest that any of our players have ever progressed in the singles here in Bath, he played really well throughout.”
Photo above shows Ana Vrljic (serving) in Saturday’s semi-final against Jasmine Paolini
Report courtesy of the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd.
