Alicia Dudeney dominates to claim singles crown at Lexus British Pro Series Birmingham

After overcoming fourth seed and last year’s singles champion Mika Stojsavljevic in the semi-final, Dudeney’s route to her fourth title on home soil had one final obstacle in French eighth seed Manon Leonard, who had beaten compatriot Jessika Ponchet in the other semi-final.

A closely fought first set saw just the one break of serve fall in Dudeney’s favour in the seventh game of the set, with neither player giving the other many chances on their serves.

The Brit then went on to recover from a break down to eventually seal a 6-4, 6-3 victory in an hour and 26 minutes - marking her sixth title of the year.

After the match, Dudeney said, "I think it's been a great week, I think I've played really well, had some great matches, and it's my first tournament indoors again after the summer, so I was really happy with the way I played this week.

Manon’s really tough to play against, she throws in a lot of variation, she has incredible hand skills, so it was definitely a challenge playing against her, but I tried to play my game and I think I played well and handled it well.”

In the doubles, Jodie Burrage won her second title of the year, sweeping aside the competition alongside Australian Lizette Cabrera, also without dropping a set. After defeating top seeds Esther Adeshina and Angella Okutoyi in the semi-final, Burrage and Cabrera then took down second seeds Victoria Allen and Stephanie Visscher 6-4, 7-5 to seal the silverware.

After the match, Burrage said, “It's been a really good week and I think we played really well together. Obviously being here in Birmingham it’s a really nice club, one of the best ones in the UK, so we've had a great week and yeah carry it on to the next one.”

Following the singles final, LTA Tournament Director Jennifer Hodgkiss said, “It's been a fantastic week of tennis at the wonderful Edgbaston Priory Club. Congratulations to British singles champion Alicia Dudeney and doubles winners Jodie Burrage and Lizette Cabrera. It's been brilliant to see such strong British performances, and a huge thank you to the club and everyone involved for making the tournament such a success.”

International tournaments such as the Lexus British Pro Series Birmingham are part of the LTA’s Performance Competitions Calendar (PCC) which provides significantly enhanced opportunities for British players at each age and stage of the performance player pathway on home soil.

This week, women's international tennis heads west to Wales, as the Lexus Wrexham Open, a World Tennis W100 tournament that is biggest event outside of the summer grass court season, takes place at Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre. Meanwhile, the men head to Redbridge in Essex this week, for a World Tennis M25 tournament.