Baker, Golding and Broady awarded AEGON Wild Cards
7th June 2012
British players Jamie Baker, Oliver Golding and Liam Broady have been awarded the three remaining main draw wild cards into the AEGON Championships, which begins at The Queen’s Club on Monday.
Baker has fought back from a life-threatening virus he contracted four years ago and recently reached a career-high ranking of No.206 after winning a Futures event in Mexico. The 25-year-old from Glasgow also reached the semifinals of the Bath, Knoxville and Astana Challenger tournaments over the last 12 months and is currently one place lower at No.207.
Golding won the US Open junior tournament last September, and is now making his way in the senior game. The 18-year-old is currently ranked No.487, just below his career high of No.483. He has won two Futures tournaments this year, in Bournemouth and Newcastle. The British player put in a creditable performance in his debut at the AEGON Championships last year when he went down 6-3, 6-4 to the 2007 runner-up, Nicolas Mahut.
Broady, the current World No.3 in the junior rankings, will make his first appearance in an ATP World Tour-level tournament when he lines up alongside defending champion Andy Murray and former World No.1’s Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt at the AEGON Championships. Partnering Josh Ward-Hibbert, Broady won the Australian Open junior doubles in January and the Orange Bowl late last year. He also reached the finals of the Wimbledon junior singles in 2011.
Leon Smith, Head of Men's Tennis at the LTA, said: “All three players have, in different ways, shown skill and determination to develop their games over the past 12 months, and I am confident they will all look to seize this opportunity to shine at such a prestigious event.”
Also entered into the main draw are last year’s runner-up Jo Wilfried Tsonga, the 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, and the World No.8 Janko Tipsarevic. Mardy Fish, the 2010 runner-up, has been forced to withdraw from the tournament because of fatigue.
The AEGON Championships will be broadcast live, every day from 11th-17th June, on BBC Television and Eurosport.