Interest and awareness of the AEGON Barnstaple continues to grow ahead of 2010 Tournament

Web stats for the official Tournament website (barnstapleopen.net) have shown continued growth, with over 1 million hits coming from nearly 10,000 unique visitors since its refresh last year.

The stats (For the period Mar 09 – 19 Aug 10) are: Unique Visitors: 9,297 Visits: 23,869 Hits: 1,009,978

Colin Gibbs, from TEAM TARKA’s promotion team said: ‘This is great news! It shows that the message is getting out there and interest in the Tournament is now reaching well outside the North Devon area. We start our local promotion campaign in a couple of weeks and our hope is that these figures convert into ticket sales during September, so we can give the players the audience support and size they deserve, and put some well deserved funds back into the Tarka coaching programmes.’

Regional law firm Brewer Harding & Rowe joins
Team Tarka/AEGON Barnstaple Sponsors

We welcome Brewer Harding & Rowe as Sponsors of both Team Tarka and the AEGON Barnstaple. They join a superb portfolio of regional and national Sponsors for the Tournament, and will give a well needed financial boost to Team Tarka's grass roots coaching programmes.

Sue Carter, Partner with Brewer Harding & Rowe said: ‘The firm is very pleased to be Sponsoring a growing event in Devon that will bring much interest, enjoyment and future investment to our local Community. We are all very much looking forward to the start of the Tournament.’

Tickets on sale now for the 2010 AEGON GB Pro-Series Barnstaple

Tickets for the 2010 AEGON Barnstaple go on sale today, starting a summer promotion aimed at increasing spectator numbers from across the South West region.

Uplifted after last years highly successful Tournament to the top GB Pro-Series slot with a prize pot of $75k, and only 3 tournaments behind The Championships, Wimbledon in status, it is hoped that this higher level of prize money will attract more top 100 overseas players to come and compete against the best of the British Women for the Dartington Vases, increased prize money and valuable ranking points.

Many of the players who have taken part in the Tournament since its launch in 2008 have now moved into, or around, the World's top 100 ranked players. So we hope to see both new and familiar faces returning to North Devon later this year, including Sweden’s Johanna Larsson (now up to a career best of 102), to defend both of her 2009 titles (Singles and Doubles Champion!) which she won in a spectacular afternoon’s tennis with Britain’s Anna Smith (GB7), our second British Champion.

Colin Gibbs, from TEAM TARKA’s promotion team said "All the profits from the hosting of this Tournament go straight back into the coaching of Tennis here in North Devon; for children from all backgrounds and walks of life. There has been a lot of talk recently about the state of British Tennis and the lack of success at the Grand Slam events. So by coming along to this Tournament, Tennis fans can support the majority of the top British Women trying to improve their world rankings, and at the same time help TEAM TARKA to continue to provide the great coaching programmes that have already resulted in four TEAM TARKA players reaching Number 1 in Devon rankings over the last year........... and possibly a future world number one or Olympic champion!

Regional and National Sponsors join to support Team Tarka host uplifted 2010 Tournament

TEAM TARKA are pleased to announce that all of last years lead Sponsors have re-signed to support this years AEGON GB Pro-Series Barnstaple.

We also welcome two very influential additions on board, Tennishead and Wilson as part of our annual Team Tarka Sponsorship Programme.

A mix of old and new Sponsors will provide a welcome and added boost to the year round needs of the Venue, with all lead Sponsors choosing to add Team Tarka Sponsorship to their packages, seeing the ‘Tennis for all’ culture at Tarka as a positive and progressive way to try and boost British success in the sport in the years to come.

Chris Gill, Director of Tennis at Tarka said: "All Team Tarka Sponsors allow us to offer North Devon children the opportunity to 'have a go at tennis', whether that is through one of our grass roots initiatives or helping fund some of our local talented players develop their games to their full potential.

Many of our current county, regional and national standard players have all benefitted from this financial support and is a crucial part of how far their games can develop.

Team Tarka are pleased to be associated with these companies as they help us develop our players from the ages of 5 through to 18. There is no better way for companies to assist in helping youngsters than to encourage them to get involved with sport."

Team Tarka’s lead Sponsors for 2010 are:

• Raise Marketing - Will continue to manage the marketing of the Tournament and production of the promotional material for both the APSB and Team Tarka.
• Dartington Crystal - Our Trophy Sponsor, will supply the stylish winners and runner-up replicas.
• Brend Hotels – Will provide the hospitality, player's and official's accommodation and year round support.
• Golds Heath & Beauty – Have provided vital financial support to help with media and production costs.
• North Devon District Council - Will help with the costs of the expanded, interactive Kids Zone and advertising to local Children and Schools.
• Parkwood Leisure - Fund the Venue costs associated with the hosting of the event.
• Tennishead – Have donated national advertising space and are Sponsoring the Tennishead Zone – our expanded Childrens/Schools days facility to run alongside the main APSB event along with prizes for the draw, and fastest serve competitions as well as ongoing Team Tarka support and publicity for the Performance Squads.
• Wilson – Have supported the venue for the last two years and will continue to provide essential equipment to the Tarka Programmes from grass roots to Performance levels.
  

$75k Tournament uplift formally confirmed by the LTA

After another successful year, Team Tarka have received the news we have all been waiting for. The LTA have now officially confirmed the new top tier Pro-Series slot for Barnstaple . The $75k prize money on offer to WTA players from the Sony Ericsson Tour, now makes the event the 4th= most prestigious professional Women's Tournament in the UK; 3 Tournaments below The Championships, Wimbledon and the largest indoor Tournament in the South of England.

The LTA said:

"The 2009 AEGON Pro-Series event in Barnstaple was a great success with a strong contingent of British players, including the 2009 Junior US Open winner Heather Watson and her doubles partner Laura Robson. It was excellent to see British player Anna Smith lifting the doubles trophy with her Swedish partner Johanna Larsson."

"The extensive coverage the tournament received was testament to its success and reached out to a whole new audience across the South West of England."

"Next year's event is set to be bigger and better than ever with the announcement of the uplift of the event to the $75,000 level. This will attract even higher ranked players which can only benefit the competition and also the sport in Britain ."

The Lawn Tennis Association
November 2009

To see and hear some of the great media coverage, and to relive the final game and victorious moment for Johanna Larsson in the Singles Final (click on the BBC Devon Finals Day clip), please go to the Watch & Listen/Revisit section of this website.

Larsson produces superb performance to claim Barnstaple singles title

JOHANNA Larsson says she is delighted to have broken her losing sequence in finals and clinch the AEGON Pro-Series Barnstaple singles title.

The World No.242 went into Sunday's showpiece event at the Tarka Tennis Centre having lost her six previous finals.

But Larsson smashed that record with a stunning performance to beat third seed and pre-match favourite Pauline Parmentier 6-2, 6-2.

Larsson said: "I think I played really good yesterday (in the semi-finals) and I just tried to keep it up today. I felt good in my body and when it's the last day you just want to give it your all. I tried to do that and I'm really happy."

"It's amazing to break my losing run in finals. It's my first win at this level as well so I'm really happy about it."

Larsson proved to be a favourite with the fans during her week in North Devon and she had plenty of support at the final.

The Swede took little time to claim the first set 6-2 after breaking her French opponent three times.

Larsson got lucky in the first game of the second set when her return of serve on break point clipped the top of the net and dropped on an exasperated Parmentier's side of the court.

And from there on the unseeded player never looked back.

Larsson said: "The support was brilliant. I liked the kids with the Swedish flags, it made me really happy when I saw them and then they were just waving them about during the match."

"I didn't go for every shot today because I was not as tired as I felt yesterday, so I just tried to stay in the rallies."

"I'm really happy. I will definitely come back next year to defend my title if I have the ranking to qualify."