26/01/14
Alfie Hewett claimed his third successive boys’ singles title today at the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters in Tarbes, France, after a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Martin de la Puente of Spain.
The world No. 1 ranked junior ended the tournament having won both the boys' singles and boys’ doubles titles for three straight years.
While 16-year-old Hewett became the second player on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme to win the boys' singles title when he first triumphed in Tarbes in 2012, he is the first Brit to win the boys’ title three times after current British men’s No. 1 Gordon Reid claimed back-to-back wins in 2008 and 2009.
Hewett dropped just three points in the first four games of the final as he took a commanding 4-0 lead and despite dropping his serve to de la Puente in the fifth game he soon wrapped up the opening set.
Sixteen-year-old Hewett broke de la Puente’s serve twice en route to a 3-0 second set lead and then regrouped to serve out the match
“I’m really happy to become the first Brit to win the title for the third time after a tough week and I'm delighted to make it a hat-trick of titles in the doubles too,” said Hewett. “It’s a great tournament and always a pleasure to play here. I knew Martin would be a tough opponent after he took me to three sets in our round-robin match, so I just kept myself calm when he came back at me in the second set and I’m very proud to retain the title.
“This is great preparation for my first senior tournament of the year, an ITF 1 Series event in Rotterdam in a couple of weeks.”
Earlier in the tournament Hewett had beaten de la Puente 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 in the first of his three round-robin group matches. He went on to defeat American Chris Herman 6-2, 6-2 and beat South Africa’s Thato Tsomole 6-3, 6-1 to finish top of his group. Hewett then won 11 games in succession en route to winning his semi-final against his Austrian doubles partner Nico Langmann 7-5, 6-0.
On Saturday’s penultimate day of play Hewett claimed the boys’ doubles with Langmann. The duo had beaten their South African opponents Sean de Hilster and Tsomole 6-3, 6-3 in their semi-final and clinched the title after defeating Dutchman Carlos Anker and Herman 6-1, 6-3.
In 2013 Hewett won his second boys’ doubles title in Tarbes partnering Herman and Langmann is the third different player with whom the young Brit has won the prestigious doubles titles since 2012.
All round-robin group match and finals results
25/01/14
Alfie Hewett claimed the Junior Masters boys’ doubles title for the third successive year on the penultimate day of play in Tarbes, while also moving into the boys’ singles final for the third year in a row.
Hewett won the doubles with his third different doubles partner, teaming up with Austria’s Nico Langmann to defeat Dutch player Carlos Anker and American Chris Herman 6-1, 6-3. In 2013 Hewett had won his second Junior Masters doubles title partnering Herman, beating Anker and Langman in the final.
Hewett will face Spain’s Martin de la Puente in Sunday’s boys’ singles final after recovering from a slow start to beat his doubles partner Langmann in the semifinals. After falling 5-2 down to Langmann, Hewett reeled off 11 games in a row to prevail 75 60.
Hewett will now aim to beat de la Puente for the second time in four days after they met in their first round-robin group match.
24/01/14
Alfie Hewett eased through to the boys’ singles semi-finals and the boy’s doubles final on the second day of play in Tarbes.
Hewett beat South Africa’s Thato Tsomole 6-1, 6-3 to finish unbeaten at the top of his round-robin singles group and will go on to play his Austrian doubles partner Nico Langmann in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Hewett and Langmann later clinched a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Tsomole and his fellow South African Sean de Hilster in the doubles semi-finals.
Hewett and Langmann will face Carlos Anker of the Netherlands and Chris Herman of the USA in the doubles final as Hewett attempts to win his third successive Junior Masters doubles title with his third different partner.
23/01/14
Alfie Hewett won both his Group 1 round-robin singles matches on the first day of play in Tarbes, beating Spain’s Martin de la Puente and American Chris Herman.
Hewett recovered from a difficult second set in his first match of this year’s tournament against de la Puente and eventually secured a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 victory over a player he also beat in the round-robin phase of last year’s event.
Hewett then upped his level as he faced Herman, the player he beat in the 2013 semi-finals, and clinched his second win of the day 6-2, 6-2.
Hewett will now play South African Thato Tsomole in his final round-robin match on Friday as he bids to progress to the semi-finals with an unbeaten record.
21/01/14
Alfie Hewett attempts to reinforce his position as the world No. 1 junior player in the boys’ singles rankings by winning his third successive Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters singles and doubles titles in Tarbes.
Hewett secured a significant breakthrough performance in Tarbes in 2012 when, as a 14-year-old he won a thrilling boys’ singles final. He beat Argentina’s Agustin Ledesma, a player then ranked some 85 places higher than Hewett in the senior rankings and aged almost four year older, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(7) to become just the second Brit to win the Junior Masters boys’ singles title. Hewett also partnered Ledesma to win the boys’ doubles title.
Shortly after becoming world No. 1 ranked junior in January 2013 Hewett returned to Tarbes and reached the semi-finals of the boy’s singles for the loss of just one game in his three round-robin matches. He then beat American Chris Herman in the semi-finals and dropped just one game to Dutchman Carlos Anker in the final. Hewett also partnered Herman to win the boys’ doubles.
Hewett will bid for a singles and doubles hat-trick this year and partners Austrian Nico Langmann as he tries win his third Junior Masters doubles title with his third different partner.