Aegon Championships at Queen's Club 2017: British youngster Cameron Norrie gets wild card
Norrie, 21, "excited and grateful"; Johanna Konta makes progress in Nottingham
Thursday 15 June 2017 17:13, UK
Britain's rising star Cameron Norrie has been awarded a wild card to the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club, which begins next week.
Norrie has yet to play in a full ATP World Tour event but has recently broken into the world's top 250 after a string of impressive results on the challenger circuit, including a final in Aptos last year and a semi-final in Hawaii in January.
The 21-year-old, who upset world No 71 Malek Jaziri in Surbiton last week, will mix it with a whole host of big names at the ATP 500 event, including top seed and defending champion Andy Murray, as well as Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic. Juan Martin del Potro and Nick Kyrgios.
"I'm really excited and grateful to have been given a wild card into the Aegon Championships," said Norrie. "It's a great opportunity for me to show what I can do and to find out where I am level-wise in one of the biggest and best tournaments in the world."
Great Britain's Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, said: "Cameron is a player with exciting potential. Now he's turned pro he can fully commit to developing his tennis towards Tour level. This wild card gives him a chance to accelerate his progress and see where he's at against the best players in the world,"
Kyle Edmund, ranked 44, has gained direct entry into the draw for the first time after the withdrawal of Diego Schwartzman through injury.
In other news, Johanna Konta advanced to the Aegon Open quarter-finals in Nottingham after the British No 1 beat Yanina Wickmayer 6-4 6-1 in 75 minutes.
World No 2 Simona Halep has withdrawn from next week's Aegon Classic in Birmingham due to a right ankle injury while Heather Watson, a first-round loser in Nottingham, and Naomi Broady have been handed wildcards.
The event at Edgbaston has had a host of high-profile withdrawals including Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Monica Puig with world No 3 Karolina Pliskova also pulling out with an elbow problem.
For those on the move, we will have Queen's Club, Halle and Wimbledon covered via our website skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad, or follow our Twitter account @SkySportsTennis to join in the conversation. Who will win The All England Club titles this summer? Have your say...
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