Hewett and Boulter crowned champions in successful week for British stars
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Another fantastic weekend for Brits at home and abroad, here is our round-up of all the action.
Hewett and Boulter headline British Success
Alfie Hewett and Katie Boulter rounded off a successful weekend for British tennis players, with Hewett winning in Rotterdam and Boulter claiming the W60 title in Grenoble.
On home soil Alastair Gray was crowned champion at the ITF World Tour M25 tournament with Sonay Kartal lifting the W25 trophy at Edgbaston.
In Holland at the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Rotterdam Hewett defeated Gustavo Fernandez from Argentina 6-3, 6-1 to become the first three-time champion in the 14-year history of wheelchair tennis tournament.
Katie Boulter won in three sets against Anna Blinkova 7-6(2), 6-7, 6-2 to record her joint best career victory to win the ITF W60 tournament in Grenoble, four years after winning her first in Fukuoka.
Lloyd Glasspool & his doubles partner Harri Heliovaara reached back-to-back ATP Tour finals on Sunday, but lost out to the top Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer who claimed their first ATP Tour title 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Dallas Open.
Eliz Maloney and her partner Andrė Lukošiūtė from Lithuania won the Ladies Doubles at Edgbaston with the British duo of Josh Paris and Anton Matusevich claiming the men's title at Shrewsbury.
Brits triumph on home soil
Edgbaston W25 Review
In Edgbaston, Sonay Kartal (Sussex) won the biggest title of her career in defeating fellow wildcard and Brit, Talia Neilson-Gatenby (Leicestershire) 5-7 6-3 6-2 to claim the W25 singles title. This is Kartal’s third ITF World Tour singles title, but her first at W25 level. Kartal, who won the final in 2 hours 13 minutes, had an impressive run, defeating the number one seed, and WTA top 150 player Lesley Kerkhove (Netherlands) in the first round, and then only dropped one set ahead of the title match. Kartal, will see her ranking improve approximately 300 spots to 530 in the world in just five tournaments. Neilson-Gatenby should enter the rankings at around 850.
In the doubles, Eliz Maloney (Dorset) and her partner Andrė Lukošiūtė (Lithuania) upset the top seeded Americans Quinn Gleason and Catherine Harrison to win the doubles title 7-6(4) 3-6 10-8. This win was Maloney’s first ITF World Tour doubles title. In the previous round Maloney/Lukošiūtė defeated the fourth seeded British pair Jodie Burrage (Surrey) and Freya Christie (Nottinghamshire) in straight sets.
Shrewsbury M25 Review
Alastair Gray (Surrey) claimed his third M25 ITF singles titles with a 7-5 6-1 defeat over fellow Brit Harry Wendelken. This is his first win after breaking into the ATP top 500. Wildcard, Wendelken (Cambridgeshire) defeated several higher ranked players and had an impressive run to reach his first M25. But Gray, having played consistently well all week, managed to get the better of him before being presented with the trophy for becoming champion by LTA president David Rawlinson. It was the first all-British singles final in an ITF men’s tournament at The Shrewsbury Club since Dan Evans beat Marcus Willis in 2013. After winning the title Gray said “I think it was a little bit of a scrappy match. Maybe both of us were a bit nervous coming into the final. I think I served very well which kept me ahead, but, yes, I’m happy to come through.” “Harry played some good tennis, but I just think I got some of the more important points of the match.” Gray will quickly be back in action as he is due to compete in this weeks M25 tournament in Glasgow.
In the all British men’s doubles final, Josh Paris (Middlesex) and Anton Matusevich (Kent) claimed the title over Oscar Weightman (Middlesex) and Harry Wendelken (Cambridgeshire) 6-4 6-4. In just their second tournament as a team, after reaching the final of the M25 Loughborough, Matusevich / Paris made the final by defeating the third seeds Britons Henry Patten (Essex) and Mark Whitehouse (Surrey) 6-4 6-1. For Matusevich, it was a second Shrewsbury triumph in quick succession after winning the UK Pro League men’s title in Shropshire last November.
Bolton ITF Wheelchair - More success to come?
At the Bolton ITF 3 Wheelchair Tennis Tournament Brits Dermot Bailey and Lucy Shuker maintained their fine form on the penultimate day of tournament as they reached the men’s and women’s singles finals, respectively. Both finals will take place later today.
Related Links
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