Marcus Willis and Sam Barry reached the Tipton men’s singles final after hard fought but contrasting victories on Friday.
No.2 seed Willis continued the rich vein of form on both the singles and doubles court. In his semi-final against the big serving Luca Vanni, 23 year old Willis skilfully turned the match round after losing the first set 3-6.
Mixing slice and power off the backhand side, Willis neutralised his Italian opponent to capture the second set 6-2, and quickly established a break in the decider. Vanni saved a match point on his own serve at 3-5, and threatened a break with Willis serving for the match at 5-4. However, Willis remained unflustered at 0-30 on his own serve, and when a Vanni forehand found the net at 40-30 the Brit secured a second successive singles final appearance, for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.
The David Rice vs. Sam Barry semi-final witnessed a remarkable first set which lasted nearly two hours. One game alone on the Barry serve at 4-3 lasted 25 minutes, and although top seed Rice secured a break back at 5-4, Barry gritted out the ensuing tie-break 9-7. After a brutal first set, the second set was a relatively tame affair, with the Irish No.3 securing his first pro singles final appearance of 2014 winning 7-6(7), 6-1.
The men’s doubles final saw Lewis Burton & Marcus Willis secure their fifth doubles title of the year after defeating top seeds Dave Rice & Sean Thornley in a thrilling match. Yet again the scoring format in doubles illustrated the fine margins involved. Rice & Thornley served for the match at 6-4, 5-4, and with no ad scoring found themselves serving with a match point, which was also a break point for their opponents. A nick on the net gave Burton & Willis an essential break, which they never looked back from, and secured their first title of the year in Britain 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-6.
Watch Willis and Burton post match interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNuD0LwyrBk
Willis and Burton with the Doubles Trophy