Aegon British Tour Masters 2012 Preview

The season ending AEGON British Tour Masters is being held on the indoor courts of the Nottingham Tennis Centre from Thursday 29 November-Sunday 2 December, with a total prize money pot of £20,600 up for grabs. The four day event promises to have some great tennis on show with 16 world ranked men, and 5 world ranked women in the draw.

The men’s singles draw sees Davis Cup players, British No.3 Josh Goodall (world ranked 246) the top seed, and British No.5 Dan Evans (296) seeded second. The remaining men’s seeds are Richard Bloomfield (407), Tom Burn (558), Nick Rosenzweig (768), Marcus Willis (951), Olly Hudson (1030), and Myles Orton (1155).

The women’s singles draw is headed up by Anna Fitzpatrick, with Harriet Dart (recent Aegon GB Pro-Series Edgbaston finalist, and based at Nottingham Tennis Centre) the number 2 seed. The remaining women’s seeds are Jess Ren, Aimee Gibson, Danielle Konotoptseva, bonus pool winner Yasmin Clarke, Natasha Hillyer, and Nicole Peterson.

The Aegon British Tour Men’s Bonus Pool for 2012 has been won by Tom Burn, who accumulated 8,896 points over 2012, with 2011 Bonus Pool winner Andy Fitzpatrick finishing in second place with 5,365 points.

Yasmin Clarke has won the women’s Bonus Pool for a second consecutive year.

This year the winner of the women’s bonus pool went down to the wire, with the quarter-final match in the final event of the year at Loughborough between Clarke and Emilia Banos-Gregorians deciding top spot.

Banos-Gregorians, who had led for much of the year, went into Monday’s quarter-final with a slender 112 point lead. Remarkably the winner of a quarter-final receives 115 points more than the loser, which with Clarke winning 61 64, meant the 22 year old from Derby edged three points clear. By going on to win the Loughborough title, Clarke finished the year with a massive 10,816 points, with Banos-Gregorians in second place on 10,478.

The trophy and £1,000 Bonus Pool payment will be presented to Tom Burn and Yasmin Clarke in Nottingham at the Aegon British Tour Masters.

Play at Nottingham starts at 9.00am on Thursday, with the singles finals scheduled from 10.30am on Sunday 2 December. Entry for spectators is free of charge.

For any queries on the Aegon British Tour Masters please contact richard.joyner@lta.org.uk or 07971 141329.

The draw and match times can be found on the homepage of www.lta.org.uk under ‘Latest British Results’, with regular score updates on twitter through @BritishTennis #BritishTour