More grass - Birmingham

The lead up to Wimbledon continues this week with tournaments in Halle, Queens Club (London), Birmingham and Mallorca.

Firstly, winners of last week’s titles are:

Nottingham:

Caroline Garcia (1) defeated Donna Vekic (2) 2-6 7-6(4) 7-6(4)

Stuttgart: 

Matteo Berrettini defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime (7) 6-4 7-6(11),

‘s-Hertogenbosch:

Adrian Mannarino defeated Jordan Thompson 7-6(7) 6-3

Alison Riske defeated Kiki Bertens (1) 0-6 7-6(3) 7-5

This week:

Nature Valley Classic Birmingham - a WTA Premier category tournament, on Grass, in Birmingham, Great Britain, 17-23 June 2019.

Defending champion:

Petra Kvitová (4) who defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková 4-6 6-1 6-2

The following players withdrew after entering but before the main draw was published:

- Bianca Andreescu replaced by Yulia Putintseva 

- Danielle Collins replaced by Jennifer Brady 

- Camila Giorgi replaced by Evgeniya Rodina 

- Madison Keys replaced by Barbora Strycova 

- Petra Kvitová replaced by Ekaterina Alexandrova 

- Garbiñe Muguruza replaced by Johanna Konta 

- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova replaced by Margarita Gasparyan 

- Carla Suárez Navarro replaced by Kristina Mladenovic 

Naomi Osaka, world number 1, is top seed.

The other seeds are all in the top 19

There are no byes

First round results 

- Margarita Gasparyan defeated Elina Svitolina (4) 6-3 3-6 6-4

- Hsieh Su-Wei defeated Aryna Sabalenka (5) 6-3 2-6 7-6(1)

- Barbora Strycova defeated wildcard Heather Watson 3-6 6-3 6-4

- Johanna Konta defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-2

- Evgeniya Rodina defeated Kristina Mladenovic 6-2 2-6 6-4

- Wildcard Karolina Pliskova (3) defeated Mihaela Buzărnescu 6-3 6-4