British No 2 David Phillipson has finished runner-up in the men's singles at the Korea Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Korea.
World ranked No. 17 this week, Phillipson put up a promising effort in his first ever ITF1 Series final on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, but was narrowly beaten by Japanese top seed and world No. 8 Satoshi Saida.
Phillipson started confidently, finding the corners of the court time and time again in the first set as he and Saida completed the first eight games of the match level at 4-4. However Saida broke in the ninth game and then held serve to close out the set.
It was a different story in the early part of the second set as Phillipson charged out of the blocks. With his backhand slice doing the damage, he hit winner after winner en route to a 4-1 lead. However, Phillipson was unable to maintain his level and Saida began to claw back the deficit, an array of confidently placed shots eventually seeing him through to a narrow 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Phillipson is now one of several British players moving on to next week's Daegu Open, another ITF 1 Series tournament in Korea, which begins on Tuesday.
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