Pro tennis arrives in the city
The UK Pro League, the televised national tennis competition that helped US Open finalist Emma Raducanu develop her career last year, has arrived at the Team Bath Sports Training Village from September 13-19.
Team Bath Tennis is hosting Round 7 of the 2021 competition, which is being broadcast live and sees some of the UK’S aspiring professional players compete in a round-robin format and play-offs to secure League Ranking Points as they endeavour to qualify for the end-of-season UK Pro League Final.
The inaugural tournament, which was known as the UK Pro Series, took place in 2020 to provide players with a chance to compete again after lockdown and saw Raducanu take the women’s title while Liam Broady, coached by Team Bath Tennis’s Dave Sammel, was crowned as men’s champion.
Topping the rankings after six rounds this year are Julian Cash in the men’s event and Emily Appleton in the women’s.
Barry Scollo, director of tennis at Team Bath, said: “We are really looking forward to hosting the UK Pro League, it promises to be a really entertaining week of tennis. We saw last year how the competition can provide a platform for talented young players to develop their game and make a name for themselves. UK Pro League provides great domestic competition, which has been much needed, with the right financial incentive for these aspiring pros.”
Each week 12 men and 12 women are divided into four pools of three players who play each other in a round-robin format. Matches are the best of three sets, with the third played in a first-to10-points tie-break format if required.
The top two players from each pool progress to the knockout stages, while the third-placed players meet in another round-robin stage to decide places 9-12. League points are then awarded at the end of the week based on the final finishing positions.
No spectators have been allowed in the Sports Training Village but the tournament is being shown live on BT Sport Extra, on Tennis Channel International and online at www.ukproleague.tv.