Berkshire No.1 Marcus Willis and Kent No.1 Lewis Burton claimed their 1st futures doubles title at their first time of asking at the ITF F1 Futures in Israel. They have now won 7 futures doubles titles as a pair, with 6 of those titles coming in the latter stages of 2013 more than any other doubles pair. With current form the all British duo are on course to win at least 2 doubles titles per month in 2014.
In their first outing, Marcus and Lewis faced home pair Dekel Bar, and Daniel Skripinkin. The British duo took the first set 6-0, before the Israeli pair mounted a shock comeback to take the match into a championship tie-break, which Marcus and Lewis went on to win 10-5. They then cruised relatively comfortably to the final dispatching all of their opponents in straight sets.
In the final, they come up against the unseeded Shonigmatjob, Shofayziyev and partner Anton Zaitsev from Uzbekistan and Russia respectively. Manager Gary Lewis told the A1 Pharmaceuticals duo that they could not take this pair lightly as they had just upset the odds knocking out both the 2nd and 3rd seeds before reaching the final. In what was an entertaining match Marcus and Lewis triumphed in a tough 2 sets to kick start their winning run in 2014.
Marcus commented after the victory “Lewis and I are in good shape and we are fit and ready to win more titles, we had an excellent training block with Matt Smith up in Surbiton and he has really got us prepared for the upcoming programme, this is our first tournament of the year so it’s great to start the year with a title and as a pair we will continue to improve as the year progresses”
A1 Pharmaceuticals have been providing both the players with Nutritional drinks, most noticeably Fresubin protein energy 2kcal which has been used by the players to boost protein and recovery.
When the rankings are updated after the Australian Open, the pairs combined rating will climb into the 200-300 regions and with more challengers on the agenda, if these 2 pro’s keep racking up the points they will be on course to achieve their main goal which is to qualify for the Wimbledon 2014 main draw.
Marcus Willis and Lewis Burton will remain in Israel to compete in the F2 and F3 Futures, with the aim of adding more doubles title to their already respectable tally.
Left to right : Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis in their new personalised Kit sponsored by A1 Pharmaceuticals and Fila