Birmingham, England – Rising American Jamie Hampton was an opening-round upset winner, while defending champion Melanie Oudin was sent packing Monday at the $235,000 Aegon Classic, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.
The world No. 42 Hampton subdued 10th-seeded Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-3, while Croatian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic drilled the struggling American Oudin 6-3, 6-1 at Edgbaston Priory Club. Hampton made a surprise run into the round of 16 at the French Open last week. Oudin defeated former world No. 1, 2007 champion and 2005 runner-up Jelena Jankovic in last year's Birmingham finale.
In other Day-1 action involving seeds, Belgian qualifier Alison Van Uytvanck took out No. 11 Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-4, 6-0, No. 13 Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia overcame Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. and No. 16 Magdalena Rybarikova of the Slovak Republic dismissed British wild card Melanie South 6-4, 6-2. Rybarikova titled here in 2009.
In other action involving Americans in Birmingham, Madison Keys came back to beat Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Bulgarian grass-court specialist Tsvetana Pironkova leveled Lauren Davis 6-2, 6-1; Czech Kristyna Pliskova battled back to best Coco Vandeweghe 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5; and qualifier Alison Riske erased British wild card Anne Keothavong 7-5, 6-2.
The top seed here is Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, who will open her stay against Tomljanovic.
This week's winner will collect $40,000.
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