Alfie Hewett’s broken new ground yet again this week after the Cantley 17-year-old retained the men’s singles title over the weekend at the German Open in Berlin to earn another career best ranking.
Hewett became British men’s No. 2 for the first time two weeks ago after winning his fourth singles title of the year in Turin, where he beat Dutch world No.7 Maikel Scheffers in the semi-finals. That victory saw him break into the world’s top 15 in the senior rankings for the first time and the City College student upset Dutch world top 10 opposition again in Berlin en route to his latest triumph, which has seen him jump two places to No.14.
The world No. 1 junior started the men’s singles as third seed and beat Austria’s Dan Kleckner 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals before an impressive 6-3, 6-0 win over Poland’s Tadeusz Kruszelnicki, the former world No.3 who took Hewett all the way to a final set tie-break in last year’s semi-finals in Berlin.
This time Hewett faced top seed and world No. 10 Tom Egberink in the last four and produced another solid performance for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win and his second victory over the Dutchman this season after beating Egberink to win his first ITF 2 Series final in Rome in May.
“I knew coming into the tournament that I would go back up to 15 if I got to the semis and to 14 if I won and I thought whoever won my semi-final would most likely win the tournament, so beating Tom and back up my win over him in May probably meant more to me than winning the final,” said Hewett, after clinching one of three titles in Berlin for players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme.
Hewett found himself a set down in the final against second seed Frederic Cattaneo, but dug deep to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, beat Cattaneo for the second time this season and seal his third ITF 2 singles title of 2015.
“I played so well in the first set of the semi-final against Tom and it was over in about 20 minutes and was some of the best tennis I’ve played this year before he came back in the second. So I’m really pleased with how I closed it out,” added Hewett, who was unable to add the men’s doubles title after Cattaneo and Egberink combined to beat the young Brit and Martin Legner of Austria 6-2, 6-1 in the doubles final.
“The men’s singles final started later than we’d anticipated because the previous final went on for a long time, so I made a slow start, but once I got going I know I could beat Cattaneo.”
Hewett will now contest his third ITF 1 Series event of the year in Il de Re, France, next month.
“Before Turin I said I was struggling with my singles game, but winning there gave me a great confidence boost and I feel like I’m back to playing like I want to be playing now. I’ve defended most of the points I had to defend from 2014, so I can go into the rest of the season with nothing to lose.”