The final round of qualifying completed at the Nature Valley Classic on Monday and the first round of the main draw kicked off. Our photographer Jimmie48 didn’t make it to the qualifying matches which saw Iga Swiatek, Viktoriya Tomova, Kristyna Pliskova and Lauren Davis make the main draw, but he attended some fire matches in the first round, including the day’s big upsets — Margarita Gasparyan victory of fourth seed Elina Svitolina and Hsieh Su-Wei‘s triumph over fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Third seed Karolina Pliskova progressed past Mihaela Buzarnescu in straight sets, while seventh-seeded Johanna Konta celebrated a confident win in front of her home crowd by beating Anett Kontaveit in the first round.
Interestingly, while awaiting her Tuesday’s singles match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Venus Williams, wearing her Love Leopard collection, teamed up with Harriet Dart in doubles, but they lost their opener to Nadiia Kichenko and Abigail Spears.
My favorite are all the smiling photos of Donna Vekic, who has arrived in Birmingham a day after playing the final in Nottingham.
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE 2019 NATURE VALLEY CLASSIC:
