The Rothesay Open Nottingham began today with first round wins for GB’s Heather Watson and favourite, first seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in the women’s competition, whilst the men’s opening two matches saw Brit-born Arthur Fery’s match with Steve Johnson Jnr of the US halted by the weather, whilst Sho Shimabukuro of Japan beat another American in Aleksander Kovacevic to reach round two.

The day started in blazing sunshine and that’s how it stayed until a late afternoon downpour and thunderstorm halted play, weather this week is otherwise expected to be good with tickets still available on the LTA website here for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (both Saturday and Sunday have sold out).

The men’s competition which was won by Dan Evans last year will this year include superstar Scot Andy Murray as he enters the field as number one seed with a match against Joris De Loor of Belgium.

Two-time former Wimbledon champ Murray currently ranked 43 in the world has opted to play in the tournament ahead of participating in Germany at the Stuttgart Open to cut down on his travel ahead of a competitive grass court season which also includes Queens ahead of the world-famous British Championships in SW19.

Back in blighty, todays winners included Greek world number 8 and former world number three Maria Sakkari who saw off China’s Wang Xiy in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 whilst home crowd favourite Heather Watson beat Germany’s Jule Niemeier 6-4, 6-3.

Another Brit, Sonay Kartal was beaten by Poland’s Magdelena Frech whilst fourth seed Croat Donna Vekic beat Spain’s Cristina Bucsa in three sets.

Tomorrow, last season’s women’s champion Beatriz Haddad-Maia of Brazil kicks off her campaign against Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, one to watch out for is Harriet Dart who plays Canada’s Rebecca Marino whilst world no19 Magda Linette of Poland takes on Olivia Gadecki of Australia.

Finally in the men’s competition, Brits in action include German born Jan Choinski who takes on Frenchman Hugo Grenier with the winner set to take on Andy Murray in round two. Ryan Penniston takes on Italy’s Mattia Belluci whilst George Loffhagen faces Finn, Otto Virtanen.

Women’s First Round Results: Maria Sakkari 6-2, 7-6 Xiy Wang, Sonay Kartal 3-6, 7-5, 2-6 Magdalena Frech, Alycia Parks 6-7, 2-6 Zhu Lin, Zhang Shuai 1-6, 4-6 Tatjana Maria, Jule Niemeier 4-6, 3-6 Heather Watson, Cristina Bucsa 2-6, 6-4, 1-6 Donna Vekic.

Men’s First Round Results: Sho Shimabukuro 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 Aleksandar Kovacevic.

*Main image @mariasakkari tennis star Maria Sakkari posing with the Robin Hood statue.