20/10/13
Paul Stewart won the men's consolation singles at the ITF Futures event in Montfermeil.
Stewart bowed out of the main draw to Frenchman Laurent Everaert after a 6-4, 4-6 6-2 loss but recovered well to defeat another French opponent, Geoffrey Schivi, to win his consolation semi-final 6-1, 6-4. The Brit then produced another confidence-boosting performance to defeat his Dutch doubles partner Pim Palmen 6-4, 6-1 to justify top seeding for the consolation event.
Stewart and Palmen made a winning start to their men's doubles campaign, defeating Frenchman Pascal Chessel and Konstantin Schmaeh of Switzerland 6-4, 6-3. However, their challenge came to an end against French top seeds Sebastien Husser and Thomas Vinatier, who won their semi-final against Stewart and Palmen 6-3, 6-2 en route to winning the doubles title.
Luz Esperanza Merry found the higher ranked and more experienced French player Evelyne Claverie too strong for her in the first round of the women's singles, as Claverie prevailed 6-1, 6-1 before going on to beat the top seed and reach the semi-finals.
Merry made a good effort in her bid to reach the consolation final after taking the opening set off another higher ranked Frenchwoman. However, her opponent Juliette Watine eventually fought back to beat Merry 6-7, 6-1, 6-4 and then went on to win the women's consolation singles.
Merry partnered Switzerland's Gabriela Buehler for the women's doubles, but the duo had an early 6-3, 6-3 loss to Claverie and her compatriot Pauline Helouin.
17/10/13
Paul Stewart and Luz Esperanza Merry play their second ITF Futures tournament in successive weeks as they fly the flag for Britain in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris.
Stewart is currently just two places shy of his career best men's singles ranking of No. 64 after reaching the semi-finals at the Wrexham Wheelchair Tennis Tournament. He has also moved up to his career best men's doubles ranking of No. 96 this week after winning his first NEC Tour men's doubles title in Wrexham.
Merry, who is just a week away from her thirteenth birthday, has also attained career best senior women's singles and doubles rankings of No. 101 and No. 94 this week after playing just the fifth NEC Tour event of her career in Wrexham.
She will hope to build on the kind of form she produced in August in Belgium, where she won her first junior singles title and reached her first senior women's singles final and won her first senior women's doubles title.