Somerset’s Richard Gabb has found more success on the Futures Tour circuit to go with his doubles victory at the Aegon GB Pro-Series Bournemouth recently.
Alongside partner Marcus Daniell of New Zealand, Gabb won the doubles draw of the ITF Futures tournament on the hard courts of the Golden Coast Hotel in Marathon, Greece.
The pair were playing as the third seeds of the draw and were able to make a solid start to their tournament campaign with a 6-4 6-3 win over Greek pair, Mikos Konstantinos and Verbis Athanasios.
The second round was far for easy as the duo were pushed all the way to a deciding champion’s tie-break by Alexios Halebian, USA, and Karkos Kalovelonis, Greece, Gabb and Daniell had come from a set down and from within a handful of points from defeat to level. They then took the decider to win 4-6, 7-6(6), 1-0 (10-4).
Another close encounter followed against second seeds from Australia, Colin Ebelthite and Nick Lindahl. After sharing the first two sets with their opponents, the match was finally won by Gabb and Daniell in the decider, completing a 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (10-4) victory.
Ironically, the final was their most straightforward match of the tournament in terms of score line. The pair recorded a 6-1, 6-1 win over South African duo Keith-Patrick Crowley and Tucker Vorster to claim the doubles title.
During the previous week, an impressive run in both the singles and doubles at the Aegon GB Pro Series Edinburgh showed that Gabb was continuing his good form shown at Bournemouth’s West Hants club the week before.
He finished as runner up in the doubles alongside Jonny O’Mara, GB, after being beaten by second seeds Mathew Short and Marcus Willis 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8) in a tense thriller of a final. Gabb and O’Mara beat the top seeds Luke Bambridge and Dan Smethurst in the semi-finals 6-4, 6-2.
Gabb also made the quarter-finals of the singles draw, he beat doubles champ Marcus Willis in the first round 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 and Italian Erik Crepaldi 6-2, 6-1 in the second round before going down 6-2 6-1 to the Belgium fourth seed Alexandre Folie in the quarter-finals.
Click Here for more information on the ITF Futures Tour event in Greece
Click Here (singles) and Here (doubles) for more information on the Aegon GB Pro-Series Edinburgh
By Harry Lund