Luz Esperanza Merry continued the run of success of British players at the Junior Masters as she claimed the girls’ doubles title and reached the girls’ singles final in Tarbes.
Merry partnered Russia’s Viktoriia Lvova to win the girls’ doubles as the duo earned a commanding 6-3 6-0 victory over Switzerland’s Nalani Buob and Turkey’s Aysegul Zararsiz. Merry follows in the tracks of Paralympians Jordanne Whiley and Louise Hunt, who have previously won the girls’ doubles title.
Merry, No. 2 in the girls’ singles world rankings, eased through her first two singles matches, beating Zararsiz 6-0, 6-1 and world No. 3 Buob 6-2, 6-0 to ensure her place in the final ahead her last round-robin match against world No. 1 Lvova.
Merry went on to take the opening set against Lvova before the top seed recovered to earn a 5-7, 6-1 6-3 victory, with the two players already assured of meeting again in Sunday’s final.
Merry threatened to take Lvova to a deciding set again when she gained an immediate break at the start of the second set of the final, but Lvova eventually clinched the title 6-3, 6-3.
Ian Payne also represented Britain in the boys’ singles and doubles. Payne, who competes in the sport’s quad division, performed admirably and pushed Argentina’s Facundo Palacio hard in their opening round-robin contest before Palacio edged to a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory.
Payne also had eventual finalists Martin de la Puente of Spain and Artur Saitgareev of Russia in his round-group, with de la Puente earning a 6-0, 6-1 win over Payne en route to winning the title, while Saitgarreev won his round-robin match against Payne 6-1 6-1.
Payne and Saitgareev also came up against the eventual champions, de la Puente and Nico Langmann of Austria, in their boys’ doubles semi-final. De la Puente and Langmann advanced 6-2, 6-3.