A1 Pharmaceuticals Tennis Academy duo Marcus Willis and Lewis Burton earned their 6th doubles title as a pair last week and their 8th of the year after capturing the ITF Futures Greece F20 in Crete last week.
Marcus Willis joins Josh Goodall in sharing the honour of winning 11 titles in a single year the highest by any GB player in the 15 year history of the ITF futures. Marcus's total of 11 included 3 pro futures singles titles & 8 doubles titles.
The A1 Duo got through a very tough semi-final, triumphing in the decisive set tie-breaker against the 3rd seeds Jankovic from Serbia and Russia’s Karlovskiy, to reach their 8th doubles futures final in just over 2 months.
The final was an exciting showdown between two in-form doubles pairs. Marcus and Lewis claimed a hard fought victory in straight sets 6-4, 7-6, against the no2 seeds Serbia’s Cacic and crowd favourite Jakupovic from Greece.
Marcus Willis went on to comment “I would like to thank my sponsor A1 Pharmaceuticals plc. and a huge number of people who have supported me including my parents, Manager Gary lewis, and coaches Matt Smith, Chris daw, Ricky Ingram and doubles partner Lewis Burton".
.Marcus went onto say “it has been an unbelievable year, I am a bit disappointed that this is my final tournament of 2013 as I would have liked to made history by exceeding Josh’s incredible record but equally it was very satisfying. My main focus now for the rest of the year is to get prepared for 2014 and take it to the next level.”
Another doubles title for the pair which is likely to come in Jan/Feb 2014 would take both players into the 200-300 range in the ATP world doubles rankings sufficient to make main draw in most challenger events.
Manager Gary Lewis said “This has been an excellent year for Marcus and his doubles partnership with Lewis Burton but I am confident that we can build on this success and move forward and consolidate in 2014. The support team is now at full strength after the recent appointment of Matt Lewis and the A1 Pharmaceuticals sponsorship has been expanded to support arguably one of GB's most promising doubles partnership".
Marcus and Lewis will now enter an intensive training block prior to commencing their 2014 campaign in January which will include challenger and higher ranked events. The doubles partnership will be wearing FILA tennis wear throughout the 2014 campaign which has been generously subsidised by Paul Siviter with Fila branding.
Marcus Willis and Lewis Burton