AEGON International Guest Blog - Thursday 21 June

Words By Gabriella De Feo.

Cloudy skies cast over dry courts as my mum and I arrived for the quarter finals of the AEGON International Tennis Championships in Eastbourne.

Much to my delight (and my mum’s), the complimentary tickets I had won as a result of my blog entry were for centre court; we knew we were in for an exciting day.

Numerous rounds of applause echoed around Devonshire Park as British ladies doubles Laura Robson and Heather Watson were taking part in their match against top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. The British pair eventually lost the quarter final 6-4 7-6 (3) but that didn’t stop the support from the British crowd, who remained vocal throughout the day.

A further ladies’ doubles quarterfinal took place despite the weather, with Anna-lena Groenefeld and Klara Zakopalova of Germany and the Czech Republic respectively, defeating Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Zheng Jie of China, 6-4 7-5.

Devonshire Park was a sea of blue for the tournament, with Marion Bartoli of France taking on Lucie Safarova in the first quarter final of the day. The defending champion came through with a 6-4 6-2 victory, which included a sensational eight aces, undoubtedly showing she is on top form in the run up to Wimbledon. The French star will face Tamira Paszek of Austria, following her 6-0 6-4 victory over Bulgarian Pironkova Tsvetana on Court 1 today. Bartoli is definitely the favourite for me to defend her ladies’ singles title at Eastbourne as she seemed so comfortable at Devonshire Park, taking just 73 minutes to move one step closer to retaining her crown.

The rain in Eastbourne was getting heavier and more frequent. More than 2 hours later and it was number 5 seed Angelique Kerber and Ekaterina Makarova’s turn to take to centre court. The Russian fought strongly despite the regular rain delays but could not match the level of Germany’s Kerber. Makarova won a break point in the first set, however the German went on to comfortably win it 6-2, despite pressure from the Russian. Kerber continued to play strongly in the second set, taking an early lead of 2-0. Despite a long rain delay in the second set, the in-form Eastbourne champ wrapped up the match with a 6-2 6-4 win in just 59 minutes.

The final ladies’ quarterfinal saw Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic come out on top against Anastasia Pavlyunchenkova of Russia, with a hard fought victory of 6-3 7-5.

The rain continued to interfere throughout the day, with both Andy Roddick and Fabio Fognini’s quarter final being postponed until tomorrow as well as Philipp Kohlschreiber and Andreas Seppi having to put their efforts on hold as well.

Though the weather was miserable today, my mood certainly wasn’t as I was able to enjoy a day of tennis (albeit with several rain breaks in between!) and gain valuable experience in what life is like working as a sport journalist.