In a unique environment, the last three days were played alongside the Tennis Europe 12U Winter Cup, which was jointly hosted by Sunderland City Council and Everyone Active.
The men’s singles final saw 5th seed Sam Barry, defeat top seed and former world number 154 Maxime Teixera, in a titanic three set battle.
The French player who has appeared in the main draw of the French Open on two separate occasions, had been in impeccable form all week, reaching the final without the loss of a set, and when capturing the first set 64 looked on course for his 6th career professional singles title, however, Barry who was also looking for his 6th singles title, had other ideas.
The 24 year old from Limerick produced some strong serving, which clearly started to rile his Gaelic opponent. After levelling the match at one set all there was nothing between the two in the decider, and it was no surprise when the match went to a final set tie-break. It was the Irishman who edged it for a 46 63 76(3) triumph, and within minutes of the presentation finishing was in a taxi to Leeds/Bradford airport to catch a flight for an ATP Challenger event in New Delhi.
Sunday’s women’s singles final had equal drama. 21 year old 4th seed Kathinka Von Deichmann, who had beaten top seed Katy Dunne (GBR) 76(5) 62 in the semi-final, whilst
2nd seed Manon Arcangioli (also 21), had ended the highly impressive run of British wild card, Maia Lumsden 67(2) 64 76(5) in her semi-final.
Von Deichmann, from Vaduz in Liechtenstein, lists grass as her favourite surface, which is well suited to her highly varied style of play. The 21 year olds highly effective use of slice mix of pace, and volleying ability, certainly make her a tricky opponent. She seemed to be sailing to the title when leading 63 51 and holding two match points, but Arcangioli who had demonstrated her grit and determination when overcoming Lumsden the previous day, once again dug deep winning six of the next seven games, and saving 4 match points in the process.
The first few points of the ensuing tie-break, were certainly going to be crucial, and so it proved with Von Deichmann leading 30,41,52 before securing victory on her sixth match point 63 76(2).
This was the Liechtenstein players seventh career title, and first of 2016.
The doubles events saw Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) & Emilie Francati (Denmark) defeat top seeds Harriet Dart (GBR) & Manon Arcangioli (France) 63 46 [10-5], whilst Andrea Vavassori (Italy) & George Von Massow (Germany) beat Lloyd Glasspool & Josh Ward-Hibbert (both GBR) 75 63 for the men’s doubles title.
From a local perspective, Sunderland teenager Daniel Bennett (17), a wild card, produced a good run in qualifying before losing in the final round to the experienced American Raymond Sarmiento.