A1 doubles Duo make Thailand F3 doubles final
Berkshire No1 Marcus Willis & his doubles partner Kent No1 Lewis Burton have reached their 6th consecutive pro Futures doubles final of 2014 this morning. Tomorrows F3 Thailand doubles final will be a repeat of last week’s final vs. Chung & Nam of South Korea. Last week’s winners Chung & Nam have dropped sets on the way to this week’s final whilst in contrast the "all British duo” have been more solid winning all their matches in straight sets.
Manager Gary Lewis is quoted as saying we have had a great start to our 2014 doubles campaign and are keen to put the record straight after a slip up in last week’s Thai F2 final which went down to a tight tie break after the we won the first set.
The lesson to doubles pairs at all levels is make sure you stayed focused and do not let your opponents back in after winning the first set and then you don't have to worry about the “tie break lottery " of course it's nice on a personal note when it happens the other way round as in my Kent mixed doubles league match vs. southwood last weekend when we won the champs tie break after losing the first set.
Marcus & Lewis are now the 3rd highest ranked all GB doubles pair and have the best Doubles win ratio in the Country with a whopping 87% but the Skupski brothers Ken and Neal are the No1 all GB pair in the world ATP rankings .
Without taking anything away from the tremendous achievements of a huge array of British men’s doubles talent e.g. Dominic Inglot, Jamie Murray, and Jonathan Murray, the Skupski brothers have shown in the last 12 months what a well-balanced, focused all GB pair is capable of achieving and it’s an act that we are keen to follow and emulate.
Ross Hutchins after a serious illness is also making a serious comeback with Davis cup Doubles player Colin Fleming and so it's all looking very bright for the future of British doubles and their role in continued Davis cup success.
These British doubles success stories are a huge inspiration to my young doubles pair who are keen to reach the top 100 and represent their country one day.
On the singles front Lewis reached his first SF for 6 months last week which was great news and now Marcus has reached his first semi-final of 2014 and plays T Saito of Japan tomorrow morning. Marcus overcame Saito earlier this week in the QF of the doubles and is keen to emulate the feat in the singles and reach his first singles final of 2014 tomorrow morning.