• Aegon Classic

Keothavong suffers early Aegon exit

ESPN staff
June 10, 2013
Anne Keothavong's Wimbledon preparations took a blow with first round defeat to Alison Riske in Birmingham © PA Photos
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Anne Keothavong suffered defeat in the first round of the Aegon Classic, losing out to American qualifier Alison Riske 7-5 6-2 in just over 90 minutes on the newly-named Ann Jones centre court.

World No. 211 Keothavong, who was handed a wildcard for the Birmingham tournament, struggled with her serve and made four double faults as she succumbed to 22-year-old Riske.

The Brit came out second in a tight first set, but offered little resistance as Riske, 44 places above Keothavong in the world rankings, comfortably took the second to ease into the second round.

The Londoner, who bowed out in the second round to Jie Zheng last year, recently failed to make the French Open following her qualifier loss to Eva Birnerova and will now look to Eastbourne in order to prepare for Wimbledon.

British wildcard Melanie South was also beaten in her first round match, losing 6-4 6-2 to sixteenth seed Magdalena Rybarikova in less than an hour.

Elsewhere, defending champion Melanie Oudin crashed out at the first hurdle, losing 6-3 6-1 to qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic.

Madison Keys had to come from a set down against Lesia Tsurenko to book her place in the second round. The American clinched victory on a tie break, finishing up 3-6 6-3 7-6(3) to advance.

Tenth seed Su-Wei Hsieh was beaten 6-2 6-3 by Jamie Hampton, while 11th seed Ayumi Morita suffered a second set bagel in her 6-4 6-0 defeat to qualifier Alison Van Uytvanck.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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