The 15th edition of the Liverpool Hope International Tennis Tournament launches at the Hilton Hotel, Liverpool. Tournament director Anders Borg with the cup. Picture by Jason Roberts
Liverpool International Tennis Tournament is about to get everyone in the mood for tennis ahead of Wimbledon fortnight and fans can look forward to a fabulous line-up of up and coming and established WTA and ATP players combined with the ever popular legends of tennis.
The tournament gets underway at Liverpool Cricket Club on Thursday for four days of play, including Ladies Day on Friday, semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.
For the first time, this year, there will also be a style contest on Friday with players scouting best dressed spectators - men and women - to win some top prizes.
But of course the highlight will be the on-court action, so if you’re planning to go along who will be taking part in the Liverpool Hope University International Tennis Tournament this year?
Women players
Sofya Zhuk of Russia at the French Open
Sofya Zhuk : Sofya is a Russian junior tennis player who won the 2015 Wimbledon Junior Girls title and is tipped for a great future.
Wang Quang : Wang started playing tennis aged nine and won the junior’s tennis championship in China for two years running. Since then her biggest career win has been at the 2013 Malaysian Open where she beat top seed and world No.10 Caroline Wozniacki in the first round. Wang made her Grand Slam debut at the 2014 US Open and is currently ranked 80 in the world.
Vera Lapko : Belarusian tennis player Vera is currently No 1 in the world on the ITF junior ranking. She has won one singles and one doubles title on the ITF tour in her career and won the girls’ singles title at the 2016 Australian Open.
Melanie Stokke : Norwegian player Melanie has won three singles and two doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career as well as representing Norway at the Fed Cup.
Anastasia Detiuc : The 17-year-old from Moldova has an ITF ranking of 24, a career high of 22 and a great two-handed backhand.
Andrey Rublev competes at a previous international tennis tournament held at Liverpool Cricket Club
Andrey Rublev : Russian tennis starlet Andrey has been ranked number one on the junior side by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) since last June and has been predicted as future world number 1 by tennis superstar Bjørn Borg. He is returning to Liverpool after he reached last year’s final.
Damir Dzumhur : Born in Sarajevo, Damir has recently beaten Rafael Nadal in Miami and Thomas Berdych in Monaco Finals. After beginning to play at the age of five, he is now coached by his father Nerfid, who has been running a tennis school since 1994.
Akira Santillian : Akira from Tokyo was one of the best juniors in the world last year has started his first year on the ATP Tour in great form with tennis pundits predicting a very bright future ahead of him.
Rajeev Ram : The 32-year-old American is one of the most experienced on the ATP Tour. He has reached the semi-finals in doubles at the US Open and the quarter-finals at the other three grand slams. He has also won two ATP singles titles at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in 2009 and again in 2015.
Legends
Mansour Bahrami : Now 60 years old, Iranian Bahrami’s showmanship has made him a long-standing and popular figure in Liverpool where he’s appeared eight times. A successful doubles player, he reached the French Open doubles final in 1989 with Eric Winogradsky.
Barry Cowan : Southport-born Barry is best known for taking Pete Sampras to five sets at Wimbledon in 2001. He won his first ever SW19 singles match against Mark Hilton in straight sets, setting up a dream second round match against Sampras. Sadly after taking it into a final set, Sampras won the fifth 6–3.
Former British number one Jeremy Bates
Jeremy Bates : Brit player Bates was ranked UK number 1 in 1987 and again from 1989 to 1994, reaching the ATP world ranking of 54 in 1995. He won two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles with tennis partner Jo Durie, one singles title and three men’s doubles titles before captaining Britain’s Davis Cup team.
Peter McNamara : Aussie McNamara won five singles and 19 doubles titles during his professional career, reaching his highest singles ATP ranking in 1983 when he became world No.7. He is also the former coach of Bulgarian tennis professional Grigor Dimitrov.
Jan-Michael Gambill: American Gambill made his professional debut in 1996 earning a career-high singles ranking of world No.14 in 2001. Gambill reached the quarter-finals of the 2000 Wimbledon. He featured in the inaugural Liverpool international where he lost to Marat Safin in the final.
Xavier Malisse : Nicknamed X-Man, he is only one of two players from Belgium (the other is David Goffin) to have been ranked in the top 20 of the ATP tour, with a career-high singles ranking of world No.19. Xavier is a former Liverpool champion .
