Alex Gough & Sarah Fitz-Gerald To Compete In 2006 Dunlop British Open Masters

Welsh No1 and former world No4 Alex Gough and Australia's five-times world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald have both announced that they will be competing in the Over-35 competitions at the forthcoming 2006 Dunlop British Open to be staged at the University of Nottingham from 15-18 September.

The entry of both players - combined with a 23% increase in the number of masters competing in the championships - reinforces the status of the British Open as the world's most prestigious event. It will also undoubtedly prove a major attraction for the sport's longest standing tournament and for leading British sports brand Dunlop, the event's title sponsor and racket sponsor of both players.

Alex Gough, the reigning Welsh National Champion and current World No18 - the highest world-ranked over 35-year-old - is his country's most successful player, having earned over one hundred international caps from seven World Team Championships and fifteen European Team Championships.

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, who withdrew from the Women's World Tour in February 2003 after winning every honour available to her, will defend the Over 35 title which she won in convincing style last year in Manchester.

"The entries of Alex Gough and Sarah Fitz-Gerald, and an overall 23% increase in the number of masters competing in the championships, is a major boost for everyone involved in the 2006 Dunlop British Open, and complements perfectly the unrivalled men's and women's fields headed by the respective world number ones and World Champions Amr Shabana and Nicol David," said Tournament Promoter Paul Walters of internationalSPORTgroup.