Marcus Willis and Neil Pauffley produced solid performances in Friday’s semi-finals to set up an all Berkshire clash in the men’s singles final of the Aegon GB Pro-Series Felixstowe.
Willis was first on court in an all-British match against Liam Broady who took out the top seed in the final eight.
Both players each started with a love service game. In the third game Willis took advantage of a couple of unforced errors to break the young Lancashire player early in the set.
Broady faced break points again in the seventh game but fought hard to hold on forcing Willis to serve for the set at 5-4. A double fault at 30-30 handed the younger Brit an opportunity to break back but Willis stayed strong to save it and go on the win the first set 6-4.
In a second set that lasted exactly one hour, it was Broady who broke early, and with the advantage of serving first, went on to take a 5-2 lead. The momentum then switched back to Willis who came back and levelled the second set at 5 all.
With Broady saving two break points in the eleventh game the set then went to a tie break. Willis raced to a 4-0 lead and at 6-2 had 4 match points. Broady saved the first match point on his own serve, and then saved a second on Willis’ serve. It was third time lucky for the elder Brit as he held his nerve to claim the match 6-4, 7-6(4).
In the second semi-final second seed Neil Pauffley, faced Italian Stefano Napolitano. The 18 year-old Italian had already taken out the third seed and eighth seed en route to the final four and took an early 2-0 lead breaking Pauffley in the first game. The Briton was not swayed and came back strongly taking the next consecutive five games and at 5-3 served to take the first set in 48 minutes.
After an exchange of breaks mid-way through the second set, each player held serve to take the second set to a tie break. From 2-2 in the tie break the Briton stayed cool under pressure and reeled off five points in a row to reach his second final of the year to face fellow countryman Willis.