The City of Nottingham

Presents: The British Tour Masters 2014

• The Final show down of the year saw 32 Men and 32 Women battle it out on the courts of Nottingham for the crown of British Tour Master 2014.

Nottingham Evening Post

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Thursday 18th December 2014

beat Natasha Hilyer 6-1,6-0.

Semi - Finals The semi finals took place on the same day as

the quarter finals. The stamina from the athletes was immense, and the fight for the final places on the Sunday was the toughest tennis of their careers.

Neil Pauffley was up first against Richard Bloomfield. After being 3-0 down Bloomfield waved the white flag and retired from the match.

Soon after Joshua Goodall secured his place in the grand final.

Goodall hit three consecutive aces in the first game, as a warning to opponent Jake Munn’s that this final place had his name on it.

In straight sets Goodall became triumphant, beating Munn 6-3, 6-4.

Mariam Bolkvadze was first up in the Wom-en’s semi final matches against Kasia Pitak.

Pitak took the first game on Bolkvadze’s serve. She continued to make the Georgian player work around the court, creating long and excit-ing rallies.

It was clear in the final set Pitak couldn’t keep up with Bolkvadze’s energy on court.

Bolkvadze was the stronger player and was able to put away the ball and finish the long points.

In straight sets she took the match, defeating Pitak 6-4, 6-1.

Nottingham’s very own Freya Chrsitie had a far from easy semi final match against third seed Beth Askew.

Neither players could break the other’s serve to take the lead in the set. Consequently the first set went to an exhausting tie break. Both players battled it out, but Christie was victorious and took the set 7-6.

It was clear that Askew was feeling the physical toughness of the day and began to make costly mis-takes in the second set.

Christie did the home crowd proud and won the match 7-6, 6-2, to be a step closer to winning the title.

The Final Sunday 7th December

was finals day. The day the champions of the Aegon British Tour Master would be crowned.

The men’s match was first on court.

Both players looked strong and composed, ready to inflict damage on the other.

Goodall gave the first blow and was on good form to take the first set after being 4-1 up.

Pauffley knew what he needed to do and reacted, with his huge serve and knew exactly where to place the ball in court.

Winning five consecutive sets Pauffley set a high standard, but Goodall had fought excep-tionally hard to save three break points in the set.

The second set went increasingly more

in Pauffley’s favour. It was evident that Goodall was giving the

match his absolute all. Pauffley gave the final blow with a faultless

ball down the line to take the match and the title in staight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

“This victory really helps me for the start of nest year.” Pauffley said.

“I played really well in the matches here. In the end overall good performance and a good week.”

After being out prior the event for two months, due to a groin injury, Pauffley played

incredible tennis over the four days.

2015 is sure to be an even more successful year for Neil and hopefully injury free.

In the women’s finals Freya Chrsitie defended her title that she had won last year.

The battle was rife from the very first point.

Christie took the first set 6-4, with a huge never ending decuce in the fifth set.

Bolkvadze responded dominantly in the second set to make the final match a true battle between the two players.

The number one seed dropped only one game to the Chrsitie serve, 6-1, to equalise the standings.

Chrsitie wasn’t going to let go of her title so easy.

She took an attacking role , which caught Bolkvadze off her guard on several ac-counts.

It was clear Christie was determined to come out of the match with only one result.

The home crowd was behind her all the way on her journey to victory.

With a final serve and volley Freya Chrsitie had defended her title as Aegon

British Tour Master. No one was going to take away her title and

she had made it a clear message from the start of the tournament.

Bolkvadze was a worthy opponent, but the title was always going to be Christie’s on home soil.

After the match she said: “It was great to win the title for the second time, and the prize

The quest to become the British Tennis Master is an invitation not to be turned down in 2014By Kate Skillen

Nottingham hosted the end of year show down of the Aegon British Tour Mas-ters, which saw Freya Christie take

the Women’s crown and Neil Pauffley take the Men’s.

The four-day event in December consisted of 32 men and 32 women, who were invited based on their results on the tour throughout the year.

The finals saw number two seed Freya Chris-tie beat number one seed Mariam Bolkvadze 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.

In the Men’s number three seed Neil Pauffley beat last year’s champion, Joshua Goodall in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

Day OneFirst on court was number one seed Ashley

Hewitt, who suffered a shock defeat to by un-seeded Tom Hands. Hewitt got knocked out 6-1, 7-6, his comeback in the second set was close, but not close enough.

The seeded players in the Men’s tournaments were dropping like flies.

5th seed Keelen Oakly was forced to retire in his match against un-seeded Matthew Porter.

Norfolk’s Richard Bloomfield, a regular in the end of year finals, beat Omar Alawadhi in straight sets, 6-1,6-2.

It was all going to plan in the Women’s tour-nament.

Number one seed and ranked number 704 in the world, Mariam Bolkvadze swiftly saw off her opponent Amelia Stuart 6-4, 6-1.

Freya Christie came up against Yasmin El Sayed in her first round match. It was a short lived match as El Sayed had to retire after just the first game due to injury.

Earlier on in the day Beth Askew began her bid to win her fifth Aegon British Tour event of the year. She beat Yorkshire’s Serena Nash in straight sets 6-4, 6-1. After day one the 32 was whittled down to 16. Day two would see the competition get tougher as the battle continues.

Day Two Richard Bloomfield kicked off day two against

Marshall Tutu. Bloomfield had to break serve and come back from three games down, but came back to win a massive six consecutive games to take the first set.

The fight continued into the second set. Tutu didn’t want to give in and took the set to a tie break.

In the end it was Bloomfield who was victo-rious, winning 6-3, 7-6 to give him his quarter

final place. Number four seed Joshua Goodall was next

on court against Harry Skinner. Goodall was well on form to win in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Tom Hands continued his good run, high on confidence after beating number one seed Hew-itt on day one.

Hands beat Peter Ashley 6-3, 6-3 to secure his quarter final place.

Neil Pauffley had a tough battle on his hands against Clay Crawford.

In the longest match of the tournament, Pauf-fley had to break serve to avoid a tie break and take the set.

The second set followed along the same lines of the first. Almost every game went to a gruel-ling deuce and the set was decided by even more taxing tie break.

Pauffley kept composed and won the match 7-5, 7-6.

It was a good day in the Women’s tourna-ment.

First on court was number four seed Lucy Brown from Oxfordshire, who defeated Nicole Peterson 6-3, 7-5, to be the first of the women to secure her quarter final place.

Georgian player, Mariam Bolkvadze was next up and beat Lily Ghodrati from Surrey in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.

Beth Askew had a more than comfortable win against Louise Holtum.

Askew didn’t drop a game to win 6-0, 6-0.Freya Christie, took advantage of being on

home turf and also had an easy win against Dominique Covington, 6-1, 6-3.

Quarter Finals Third seed Pauffley was first on court in his

quarter final match against Suffolk’s Matthew Hough.

Pauffly who is returning from an injury, that saw him out of action for two months, promptly beat Hough 6-1, 6-1.

Richard Bloomfield caused upset against number two seed George Coupland, gaining his semi final spot after a 7-6, 6-3 win.

Number four seed Joshua Goodall had a nervy quarter final match against David Porter. Goodall had a comfortable start taking the first set 6-2.

Porter took Goodall by surprise and began an impressive counter attacking set, equalising the standings at 6-1.

Goodall pulled it out of the bag in the third set and took control to win the match, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

Mariam Bolkvadze also had a hard time on court in her quarter final match against Olivia Nicholls.

Bolkvadze had to overcome a strenuous tie break to take the first set 7-6, but Olivia contin-ued to fight and put the match on equal terms taking the second set 7-5.

Nicholls couldn’t match the stamina and pow-er of Bolkvadze who took the third and final set 6-1, to obtain her semi final place, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1.

Both Beth Askew and Freya Christie had speedy quarter final matches. Freya Christie beat Aimmee Gibson 6-0, 6-2, and Beth Askew

money will really fund some travel to pro events abroad.”

With the LTA cutting funds to aspiring stars, such as Freya and Neil, the importance of winning tournaments like these, become of increasing importance to the players as they aim to survive on the tennis circuit.

The LTA will only now fund players com-peting against the world’s best, so the yearning to win matches and tournaments especially in Britain, is greater than it ever has been.

But this could also mean that players on the British Tour are the next bundle of British champions to become household names, after Andy Murray and Heather Watson.

There’s certainly no shortage of British tennis talent.

Times are tougher in the world of tennis but the hunger to be the best is stronger than ever.

Director’s comment

LTA Tournament director Richard Joyner said:

“We’re delighted to be returning to Nottingham.

2013 was my first year as Tourna-ment director.

I have always been impressed with the warm welcome of the

club, together with the people of Nottinghamshire coming along to

support. I would like to thank everyone

at the club, our drivers, ball crew, tournament team, Nottinghamshire LTA, our title sponsors Aegon and

everyone involved for their support in putting this years event together. It is a great opportunity to see some of the stars of the future in action.

close up in the City of Nottingham.Nottingham is very popular with

the players on the ITF Circuit and over the years the event has attract-ed a high calibre of player of whom

have gone on to do bigger and better things on the ATP and WTA

Tour”

Nottingham Evening Post Nottingham Evening Post

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Thursday 18th December 2014 Thursday 18th December 2014

Ashley Hewitt number one seed at the finals. British Masters Champion Neil Pauffley

Joshua Goodall on the practise courts

Freya Christie looking to defend her title

Freya Christie defends her title in Nottingham Neil Pauffley newly crowned Men’s Champion

Beth Askew number three seed and finalist

The British Tour of 2014 has seen a number of aspiring British stars rise through the

rankings in their bid to join the world’s best.

The Tour started in Billesley in January with British number eight Daniel Smethurst winning the men’s tournament and Amy Bowtell winning the Women’s title.

In February in Corby, Joshua Goo-dall won his first title of the tour, and went on to win three more at Bolton, Fitnton and West Worthing.

Richard Blomfield, Nottingham Masters semi finalist, also had a suc-cessful year winning three British Tour titles including on turf in Norwich, then at Edgemaston and Graves.

British number ten, Dan Cox from Lancashire added two British Tour titles to his name.

In November he won firstly at Hull, beating David Porter in straight sets 6-0, 6-2.

He then went on to Loughborough to take the title there, beating Masters Champion Neil Pauffley from a set down, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Cox didn’t play in the end of years Masters event in Nottingham to play in an ITF event in Qatar, which he won. Nottingham’s Luke Bambridge had success in the doubles with Toby Martin in the Aegon GB Pro series but managed to win one British Tour event in Bournemouth in the Men’s Singles tournament.

After disappointments in Shrews-bury and Tipton, Joshua Milton won his first British Tour title in May at the Oxford event.

He beat George Coupland in the final 6-3, 7-5.

In Nottingham at the end of season Masters tournament, Richard Bloom-field was presented the Bonus Pool winner after finishing top of the table.

After all 40 Aegon British Tour tournaments have been staged the player at the top of the leader board win’s £1000.

On the Women’s Tour, Beth Askew had a most notable season winning three consecutive titles in May at Sut-ton, Hatfield and Connaught.

In September she won the event in Wrexham, beating Danielle Konotopt-seva, 6-3, 6-2.

She then reached the final of the Masters event in Nottingham but was defeated by Freya Christie.

Masters Champion, Freya Christie won her first event of the tour on the grass courts at Nottingham in June.

She then went on to win down the in Loughborough in November, show-ing that having a home crowd behind you can make all the difference.

British number four Tara Moore also made an impression on the Tour,

Men’s Tour Leader-board 2014

1. Richard Bloomfield - 77312. Neil Pauffley - 62503. Harry Skinner - 54304. Clay Crawford - 49805. Peter Ashley - 47866. Joshua Goodall - 40507. David Porter - 32458. Adam Skalsky - 31179. Joe Woolley - 303410. Keelan Oakley - 2992

2014 has been a year of triumph on the Aegon British Tour. With Joshua Goodall, Richard Bloomfield, Beth Askew and Freya Christie excelling this year, 2015 looks more exciting.

Nottingham Evening Post

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Thursday 18th December 2014

Women’s Tour Leader-board 2014

1. Mollie Crouch - 80782. Beth Askew - 74313. Aimee Gibson - 67014. Nicole Peterson - 60805. Grace Dixon - 54226. Nicola Geoge - 51617. Charlotte Pearce - 50828. Jasmine Asghar - 43509. Lisa Phillips - 421210. Lucy Brown - 3853

British Tour January/February2015

• Graves Club - 30th December - 4th January 2015• Billesley - 4th January - 10th January 2015• Loughborough - 12- 17th January 2015• Bath - 19th - 24th January 2015• Stirling - 26th - 31st January 2015 • Sutton -9th-14th February 2015• Corby - 16th - 21st February 2015

winning the event in Sutton. In straight sets she executed a

comfortable win against Francesca Stephenson, 6-1, 6-1.

The winner of the women’s Bo-nus Pool was Hertfordshire’s Mollie Crouch who finished with 8078 points, after playing a total of 21 events.

In 2015 a new Premier Tier will be introduced to the tour.

This will be incorporated into the professional international tour.

Players who reach last four of the main draw at a Premier Tier event, will receive enhanced points for the Aegon British Tour leader board.

2015 will encourage an even strong-er and competitive Tour and will sure to bring in larger crowds of support to experience the spectacular of British Tennis.