By Philip James
Aegon Championships, The Queen’s Club, London; ATP250
After the excitement yesterday of Evan’s giant killing and Ward’s heartbreaking loss, there was less British action at The Queen’s Club today, with only Kyle Edmund to fly the flag.
The 18 year old, fresh from winning the French Open Boy’s Doubles title at the Roland Garros last week, put up a brave fight against 16th seed and world number 51, Grega Zemlja.
Edmund, ranked almost 400 places below his opponent dropped serve just once and pushed Zemlja to a tie-break in the second as he lost 6-4, 7-6(4) in an hour and 14 minutes.
Andy Murray, who received a first round bye, will open his campaign tomorrow against the man who knocked him out in round two last year, Nicolas Mahut, after the Frenchman won today.
Gerry Weber Open, Halle, Germany; ATP250
Dominic Inglot is Britain’s only representative at the Gerry Weber Open in Germany, where he and regular partner Treat Huey, safely reached round two today.
The pair, who reached round three at the French Open last week, fought back from losing the first set to German pair Florian Mayer and Simon Stadler to win 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-4.
Aegon Nottingham Challenge, Nottingham; Challenger Series
Though the ATP tour events were lacking in any British singles success today, David Rice had one the best wins of his career in round one of the Aegon Nottingham Challenge.
Rice, who won two futures tournaments in May to lift himself 190 places to 501st in the world, today beat Bradley Klahn, who is ranked 321 places above him.
Rice won a nail-biting third set tie-break to beat the American, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(11) and earn a second round tie against eighth seed, Go Soeda, first on centre court tomorrow.
The Challenger event also saw three British loses today as Brydan Klein, Joshua Ward Hibbert and George Coupland, all of whom came through qualifying, all exited to much higher ranked opponents.
There is also a strong doubles contingent in Nottingham, and heading the bill are the Skupski brothers, Ken and Neal, who won their first round match today.
The brothers breezed past Bobby Reynolds and Vasek Pospisil 6-1, 6-4 and will now face top seeded Nicholas Monroe and Marcelo Demoliner in round two.
The Skupskis are wildcard entrants, as they were at Aegon Trophy Challenger last week where they greatly impressed, defeating the first and fourth seeds en route to the final without dropping a set.
Though they lost in the final to Jamie Murray and John Peers, their performance saw younger brother Neal shoot up 144 places in the doubles rankings.
Birmingham-born Jamie Delgado and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden are seeded three but were taken to a Champion’s Tie-break by Americans Jack Sock and Steve Johnson before they eventually won 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.
They will face Australian pairing Chris Guccione and Jordan Kerr last on court two tomorrow while the Skupski brothers close play on centre court.