Mind the Gap - Hannah Bridges Age Difference to Make Main Draw
Pictured: British player Hannah Klugman in action during her second qualifying round victory at The Shrewsbury Club. Picture: Richard Dawson Photography.
Rising British star Hannah Klugman defied a 23 year age gap against her opponent and is excited to be in the main draw of the Budgen W100 Shrewsbury. The talented 14-year-old produced a fine performance to beat experienced Turkish player Pemra Ozgen in straight sets at The Shrewsbury Club today. At 37, Ozgen had been playing on the tour as a pro for four years before her opponent was even born!
Klugman progressed 6-4, 6-3 against a player with a career-high world ranking of 182, and will now face Poland's Gina Feistel in the first round of the ITF World Tennis Tour event tomorrow.
"It was a great match,” said Klugman. "I really enjoyed it and I've loved playing here. The crowd’s really good. I’m excited to play again.”
Klugman reached the quarter-finals of the US Open Junior Championship girls’ singles last month, having teamed up with Isabelle Lacy earlier this year to progress to the girls’ doubles final at Junior Wimbledon.
Now she’s pleased to be playing in Shrewsbury: "It’s my first time here and it’s a lovely tournament,” she said. "The venue’s really nice, they treat us really well, so I’m happy to keep going.”
On being in the main draw, Klugman added: "I’m really excited - it’s the first time in a main draw of a 100K."
Reflecting on the year and the progress she’s made, Klugman said: "It’s been a good year. I finished the year with making quarters at the US Open Juniors.
"I got really lucky to play in the Wimbledon qualifiers, the main one, and I made the final of the doubles in the juniors, so overall it’s been a really great year. I’ve really progressed, so, yes, I’m really happy.”
The two other Brits to reach the second qualifying round in Shrewsbury both lost today.
Katherine Barnes was beaten 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 by French player Emma Lene, while Alice Gillan lost 6-3, 7-5 to Feistel, Klugman’s next opponent.
The draw for the first round of the main draw was held during a sponsors and players’ party at The Shrewsbury Club tonight, with matches, both singles and doubles, to be played either tomorrow or Wednesday (10am start both days).
Harriet Dart, a regular member of Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team and currently third in the national rankings, leads the British challenge in Shrewsbury and is one of ten Brits in the main draw
This week’s number four seed, Dart has been handed a first round meeting against French qualifier Nahia Berecoechea.
Lily Miyazaki and Katie Swan, currently fifth and eighth respectively in the British rankings, are also playing in Shrewsbury this week.
Miyazaki, who recently reached the second round of the US Open, faces Emily Appleton, another British player tomorrow, with Swan paired against fifth seed Dalma Galfi from Hungary in tomorrow’s opening match in the DMOS People Arena.
Top seed Viktorija Golubic, a silver medallist playing doubles alongside Belinda Bencic at the last Olympics, has been drawn in round one against British teenager Isabelle Lacy. These two met at another W100 in Ilkley during the grass court season this summer with Lacy pulling off a shock win. Can she repeat the upset tomorrow?
Golubic, a member of the Switzerland team crowned Billie Jean King Cup champions in Glasgow last November, reached the Wimbledon singles quarter-finals in 2021 and is currently ranked 101, having been as high as 35 last year.
French player Oceane Dodin, ranked 116 in the world and the champion of lower level Shrewsbury tournaments in both 2014 and 2015, is the second seed and faces Katarina Stresnakova from Slovakia in the first round tomorrow.