In form A1 Pharmaceuticals tennis academy Duo Berkshire No.1 Marcus Willis & Kent no1 Lewis Burton reached their 4th consecutive doubles final at the ITF Pro Futures in Meshref, Kuwait. They had already picked up 3 ITF pro futures titles in a row at Sheffield, Roehampton and Kuwait during September and came very close to bagging a 4th at the Kuwait F2.
When the ATP rankings are next updated Monday 7/10/2013 Marcus Will climb to a min No.381 singles & Lewis Burton No.382 doubles an average ranking in the 380s would make them No.1 or No.2 seeds in most pro futures Doubles competitions.
Manager Gary Lewis and Founder of the A1 Pharmaceuticals tennis academy said “We are keen to help develop and indeed support strong all British doubles pairs and are highly committed to raising the level of competitive team tennis in the UK. A1 has built arguably the strongest all GB ATP ranked squad in the country in its bid to raise the level of Mens Team tennis in the UK. This means that players of the prowess of Marcus Willis & Lewis Burton and many other GB Top 25 ATP players will be competing next spring in Aegon team competition and National indoors (premier) men's doubles rather than being lost to French & German club league . This will increase the numbers of GB ATP players playing Aegon & national (premier) indoors team tennis which in the long run can only benefit British team tennis. Gary went on to say that “5 of the top 7 GB earners in pro top tennis are doubles specialists.
The British have always had a prowess in doubles which has its roots in our club tennis and it's a tradition that I am keen to exploit at international level particularly after a player has hit a wall in a bid to make a living from singles. Why not be inspired by Colin Fleming, Jonathan Marray and Jamie Murray as some of the world’s best doubles players. Its particular important that we continue to produce top doubles pairs in our bid to challenge successfully for Davis cup honors”.
The Promising A1 Duo breezed through the early stages of the F2 in Kuwait dropping just 3 games in their first 2 matches. They then came up against a well organised all Chinese Pair in the Semi-final who made life difficult in a tight 1st set where the British pair eventually prevailed 7-5, they then found their feet to take the 2nd and final set emphatically 6-0 reaching Marcus’s 5th consecutive Pro Doubles final and their 4th as a partnership in only 4 weeks. The doubles duo then faced world ranked No.165 Ruan Roelofe from South Africa and Frenchman Tak Khunn Wang in a close fought Kuwait F2 doubles final.
The Brits started the brightest taking the 1st set 6-4. However after competing in so many events over the last 2 months, the British Pair were a little jaded. Roelofe and Wang battled back to secure the 2nd set 6-3, and then just edged the championship tie-break 10-6.
