7th seed Dan Smethurst retained his Aegon GB Pro-Series Sunderland title with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of David Rice on Saturday.
Smethurst used his big forehand to good effect throughout the 1½ hour match, and has had a highly impressive start to 2014 with a title to go with his runner-up slot in Glasgow last week. The 23 year old has now won 10 consecutive singles matches in Sunderland, having also won the title last March, and with Sunderland being the venue he gained his first pro ranking as a 17 year old, says ‘he has a good feeling whenever he comes to the Sunderland Tennis Centre, and always seem to do well here’.
There was also British success in the women’s doubles, when un-seeded pair Jocelyn Rae & Anna Smith comprehensively beat Agnes Bukta & Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-1 in under an hour. This was the pairs 3rd consecutive title together, and after the match said ‘ We’re really pleased with the form we are showing, and now hope to play some higher level events [$50k+] to really push on with our ranking over the next few months’ When asked Rae added ‘this is also a really nice way to celebrate my call up to the GB Fed Cup squad for Hungary’.
Sunday’s women’s singles final is a repeat of the first round of Australian Open qualifying earlier this month with former world junior number 1, An-Sophie Mestach, playing Swiss player Viktorija Golubic. Both players will be vying to capture their first title of 2014.
Play starts 11.00am with free entry to spectators.