Americans Taking the Court in Aegon Championships from England
The Aegon Championships and the Aegon Classic got underway this week from The Queens Club in London, England and the Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham, respectively. A number of American players on both the men’s and women’s sides are taking the court in these two tournaments as some opened up on Monday, while a few are in action today.
Christina McHale, a New Jersey native, took down Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 7-6(7-5), 6-4 in her first-round matchup on Tuesday. The 22-year old American is one of four women from the United States that are in action in London Tuesday with two of them, Lauren Davis and Victoria Duval, battling each other in an all-American matchup later today.
McHale now moves into the next round and draws a tough matchup with second-seeded Samantha Stosur. An Australia native, Stosur is one of the favorites to win the tournament. She reached the fourth round of last week’s French Open before falling to eventual champion Maria Sharapova and will look to improve on her world ranking of 17. Also on Tuesday, Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic cruised past Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-4, 6-1, and 12th seeded Monica Puig of Puerto Rico came back of knock off Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele 6-7(3-7), 6-2, 6-2.
On the men’s side, Californian Bradley Klahn fell to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6(8-6), 2-6, 1-6 to end his tournament hopes. Klahn was only able to muster up three games in the final two sets as Baghdatis moves into a second round bout with top-seeded Stan Wawrinka who received a first-round bye. Second-seeded Tomas Berdych also received a first-round bye, and will face Australian James Duckworth in the second round.
In another all-American matchup, Sam Querrey took down Denis Kulda 6-4, 3-2 in a second round match. Kulda was forced to retire halfway through the second set due to injury. Querrey will now face off with the winner of Wawrinka and Baghdatis for a spot in the tournament’s fourth round.
Some other notable men’s players that played on Tuesday were seventh-seeded South African Kevin Anderson and ninth-seeded Marin Cilic. Anderson advanced past Daniel Evans of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3, while Cilic fell to Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 4-6, 4-6 to bounce him from the tournament.
