Artois Championships Wild Cards For British Trio

Britain’s Jamie Baker has been awarded the final Artois Championships wild card and will line up alongside a world-class field at the Queen’s Club in London next week.

Baker, ranked No.252 in the world, reached the final of a challenger event in Waikoloa earlier this year, and won a British futures tournament.

The 20-year-old from Glasgow broke into the Top 250 for the first time last month, and will hope to build on a successful year at the Artois Championships.

Baker joins fellow Britons Alex Bogdanovic and Richard Bloomfield, who have also been awarded wild cards into The Artois Championships.

Both players have made impressive strides in recent months, with Bogdanovic reaching a career-high ranking of No.112 by winning a challenger tournament in Valencia and reaching a final in Cardiff. Bloomfield broke into the top 200 for the first time this year, and is currently up at No.189 following a final appearance at the challenger event in Wrexham.

They will line up alongside a world-class field that includes the current French Open semifinalists Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, three-time winner Andy Roddick, Britain’s Tim Henman, and top-ten players Fernando Gonzalez and Ivan Ljubicic.

“Alex has worked very hard to be just outside the main draw cut for the Artois Championships, with Richard not far behind, so they both thoroughly deserve their wild cards,” said the LTA Head of Men’s Tennis, Paul Hutchins.

Igor Andreev, a quarterfinalist at the French Open this week, and promising Croatian Marin Cilic received two of the other wild card invitations. A fifth and final invitation will be awarded before the start of the Artois Championships.