28/07/14
Brits clinched three titles in Berlin as Alfie Hewett claimed the men’s singles and doubles and Ian Payne won the quad singles to earn his first international senior title.
Louise Hunt also finished runner-up in the women’s doubles, while Payne and Richard Green were runners-up in the quad doubles at a highly successful tournament for players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme.
Top seed Hewett, Ed Holt and Paul Stewart were all drawn in the same quarter at the top of the men’s singles draw, with Hewett opening his campaign with a 6-0, 7-5 in over Stewart, while Holt defeated his higher ranked Swiss opponent Herbert Keller 6-0, 6-1 after a confident start.
However, it was British No. 4 Hewett who advanced to the semi-finals after beating Holt 7-6(3,) 7-5 before the 16-year-old world No. 1 ranked junior gained an even tighter but impressive victory in the last four after edging out Poland’s former world No. 3 Tadeusz Kruszelnicki 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(4). Hewett wrapped up his second ITF 3 Series singles title in a month after again beating Polish opposition, this time outplaying Kamil Fabisiak for a 6-2, 6-3 victory
Hewett and Kruszelnicki, the second seeds for the men’s doubles, defeated the all-Polish duo of Jerzy Kulik and Albin Batycki 6-2, 6-2 to move into the semi-finals before clinching a deciding championship tie-break to beat Fabisiak and the Slovak Republic’s Marek Gergely 4-6, 6-1, (12-10) and book their place in the final. Hewett and Kruszelnicki clinched the title with a 6-2, 7-6(3) victory over Austria’s Martin Legner and Steffen Sommerfeld of Germany.
Green and Payne were the second and third seeds, respectively, for the quad singles and after winning their first round matches they met in the quarter-finals, with third seed Payne advancing 6-4, 6-1 to earn his place in the final against Germany’s Marcus Laudan, a contest that Payne edged 7-5, 6-4 to clinch his first international quad singles title.
Payne and Green were narrowly edged out in a five-way round-robin contest in the quad doubles, winning two of their matches without dropping a game while defeating Italy’s Alfredo di Cosmo and Austria’s Peter Tatschl 6-3, 3-6, (10-6). The decisive match came against brothers Marcus and Maximilian Laudan, with the German duo prevailing 7-6(3), 6-4.
After a first round bye Hunt and Colombia’s Johana Martinez, the second seeds for the women’s doubles, eased past Austria’s Margrit Fink and Russia’s Polina Shakirova 6-3, 6-1, but their title ambitions were ended by Germany’s Katharina Kruger and Charlotte Famin of France as the top seeds claimed the final 6-2, 6-0.
British No. 3 Hunt made a fine start to the women’s singles, defeating young Dutchwoman Diede de Groot 6-2, 6-2 and beating Christine Schoenn of France 6-1, 6-2, but the third seed slipped to a 6-3, 6-0 loss to top seed Kruger in the semi-finals before Kruger went on to take the title.
German Open Draws