WTA June 8-14: Birmingham AEGON Classic Birmingham, GBR Edgbaston Priory Club INTL $220,000 56m/32q/16d outdoor: grass Live Scores WTA .pdf: draws & OOP - notes pics: Y!: sports     news BC - news ED | WTA Birmingham: radar - forecast # # # # # # # #

Tourney pages: Birmingham: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Birmingham 2008: #57 Kateryna Bondarenko 5'9" 132lb RH 2H-BH

    The Birmingham draws are not yet available as of this writing (qualifying draws are usually up on the Friday before the tourney begins, main draws on Saturday, sometimes later). The links are above for your convenience when the draws become available.

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  Birmingham, 2008:

    In Birmingham, England on Sunday, in the final of the DFS Classic, 21-year-old 12th-seeded # 57 Kateryna Bondarenko from Kharkov, Ukraine, won her first WTA singles final by narrowly defeating 18-year-old # 98 Yanina Wickmayer from Deurne, Belgium, 7-6(7), 3-6, 7-6(4) (Kateryna is shown holding Birmingham's historic hardware, the Maude Watson Trophy). Kateryna's prize is $31,000; Yanina's, $16,000.

    Yanina suffered a knee injury in the 2nd set, but finished the match after an injury time out. Yanina said: "I have never felt that much pain on a tennis court before... I've never had a knee injury and we'll have to look at it now and see what it is, but I'm hoping to still play in 's-Hertogenbosch and of course Wimbledon." AP story - WTA story

    Kateryna said: "In the important points against Yanina I was just trying to make as few mistakes as possible. I was trying to move her around but she was still running very well, despite her injury. I'm hoping to do well at Wimbledon now, but I'm very focused on my next tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch."

    Kateryna and Yanina also had played only once before: in a Fed Cup match in early February, on red clay indoors, Yanina defeated Kateryna 7-6(5), 6-1.
    Kateryna had never reached a WTA singles semifinal before this week. She has won 2 WTA doubles titles with her sister Alona, including this year's Australian Open doubles title, plus 2 singles and 2 doubles titles in ITF play. Kateryna's match record in 2008 is now 12-12.
    Yanina had never reached a WTA singles quarterfinal before this week. She has won 8 singles and 7 doubles titles in ITF tourneys. Yanina's match record in 2008 is now 32-10, mostly in ITF play.

    Also on Sunday, in the Liverpool International exhibition tournament, 17-year-old # 34 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco), defeated the 2007 Liverpool champ, 23-year-old # 61 Ashley Harkleroad from Wesley Chapel, Florida, 4-6, 6-4, (10-5). And in a "legends" match at Liverpool on Friday, 1997 Wimbledon champ Martina Hingis defeated 1998 Wimbledon champ Jana Novotna, 6-3, 6-4.

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WTA SCOREBOARD: Birmingham s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? DFS Classic,  Birmingham, England   tourney time:        = GMT +1 hour        = US EDT +5 hours        = US PDT +8 hours England News - UK News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Birmingham: The main draw for Birmingham has 16 seeds, with 8 1st-round byes. There are 8 qualifiers and 4 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Sunday.   click for broader view   Edgbaston Priory Club Latitude: 52.458128 Longitude: -1.91263 goto link for World Wind DFS Classic venue address: The Edgbaston Priory Club, Sir Harrys Road, Birmingham, England 2008: On Saturday, June 7, at Birmingham, player rep Naomi Cavaday, WTA rep Donna Kelso, and tourney ref Denise Parnell attended to the main draw... On Monday, Sorana Cirstea put on a tennis clinic in Birmingham... On Wednesday night, way out west at the Liverpool exhibition tourney, Caroline Wozniacki, Olga Savchuk, and others exhibited their musical skills...

Birmingham, 1st Round, Mon-Tues 11am loser's prize: $700 US; points: 1

Birmingham, 2nd Round, Tue-Wed 11am loser's prize: $1,350 US; points: 15

Birmingham, 3rd Round, Thu 11am loser's prize: $2,600 US; points: 30

Birmingham, QFs, Fri 11am loser's prize: $5,000 US; points: 70

Birmingham, SFs, Sat noon loser's prize: $10,000 US; points: 130

Birmingham, Final, Sun 1pm loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280

Birmingham, Doubles Final, Sun loser's prize: $5,800 winner's prize: $11,000 Birmingham, Qualifying Finals, Sun Jun 7 losers' prizes: q1 $190 1pt; q2 $360 6 pts; qualifier 10 points Birmingham, Withdrawals

    The 4-week chlorophyll court season begins this week at Birmingham, followed by Eastbourne and s'Hertengobosch next week, and then the Wimbledon fortnight.

    Birmingham is the tourney that may have the lowest total prize $ to # of players ratio of the WTA Tour. The 56 players in the main draw (and 24 more who lost in qualifying) are there to get some time in playing on grass to prepare for Wimbledon, more than for the $200,000 prize money. Next week at Eastbourne, the last week before Wimbledon, there will be about half as many players, and over 3 times as much prize money.

See also: QuickShop: Sporting Goods - Martina Hingis - Anna Kournikova

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2009 WTA Schedule with links & photos

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2008 WTA Player Videos page.

WTA PhotoRankings: the current top 20 Women's Tennis rankings with player photos, links, and bio info.