Broady and Farquharson take title in Tunisia
7th February 2010Liam Broady & Tom Farquharson have won the Grade 2 ITF event in Sfax, Tunisia.
The pair, who were third seeds for the event, came through the first round against Russian partners Neymatov & Vaks 6-4, 6-3. They were then made to work hard in the quarter-final.
Having taken the first set 6-4, their opponents Masar (SVK) & Pavic (CRO) reversed the score in the second before the Brits sealed a 6-4, 4-6 [10-6] win.
In the semi-finals they faced Tomas Hanzlik (CZE) & Wojciech Lutkowski (POL) but Broady & Farquharson always looked in control and sealed a 6-3, 6-3 win to secure their place in the final.
The final saw them take on tournament fourth seeds, Tim Nekic (GER) & Antun Cehar (CRO), a close first set was finally closed out by the British pairing 7-5 before they took the momentum and dominated in the second set to secured a 7-5, 6-2 and with it the Grade 2 title.
Having reached the semi-finals Anna Smith was unable to progress to the final at the AEGON Pro-Series event in Sutton, a women’s $25k event.
She claimed her semi-final appearance with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 victory over Mona Barthel (GER) and faced third seed, Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) for a place in the final.
Hlavackova ,who is ranked 176, took her place in the semi-finals by beating Heather Watson 6-3 6-3 in the quarter-finals. Smith made a great start and took the fight to her opponent and she won the first set 6-2 in just over half an hour.
In the second though Hlavackova took and early lead and was 4-1 up before Smith started to work her way back into it. But come back she did and brought it back to 5-5 but was unable to keep the momentum and Hlavackova levelled the match at one set all. Hlavackova’s experience told in the third set and she raced to a 4-0 lead, before finally closing out a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 win.
In the final, which is at 12noon on Sunday, she will face qualifuer Mallory Cecil who in the other semi-final took under an hour to beat Lina Stanciute (LTU) 7-5 6-1. In the doubles Naomi Cavaday had joined up with Anna Smith to reach the final where they faced Eirini Georgatou (RUS) & Valeria Savinykh (GRE), neither pair had lost a set on the way to the final and the final proved to be an equally tight affair.
Having lost the first set 7-5, the British pair came out fighting in the second set and took it convincingly 6-2 to take the tie into a match tie break. In it Cavaday and Smith were two points from victory when leading 8-6 in the match tie-break but were unable to force home their advantage and Georgatou & Savinykh reeled off four points in a row to seal victory.
In Florida, USA, Paul Bishop teamed up with Christian Guevara, who actually knocked him out the singles event, to reach the semi-finals of the $10k doubles event. The pair beat the American pairing of Edwards & Hansen 6-1, 6-2 to take their place in the semi-final where faced top seeds, Daniel Garza (MEX) & Eric Nunez (USA) for a place in the final.
Bishop and Guevara started well and took the first set 6-4, before the seeing a reverse of this score in the second set as Garza & Nunez began to get back into it and take it to a match tie break. The experience of Garza & Nunez began to show and they closed out the match 4-6, 6-4 [10-6].
The AEGON British Tour event in Graves Andrew Fitzpatrick has taken the men’s title whilst top seed Sam Vickers has taken the women’s.
Having looked comfortable all week, Vickers was pushed in the final against sixth seed Aimee Gibson. Vickers took the first set 6-3 before Gibson played her way back into the match in the second set and secured it by the same margin to take the contest to a deciding set.
The experience of Vickers showed in the final set as she ran secured it 6-1 to complete a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win and with it the title.
In the men’s draw Andrew Fitzpatrick completed a fine week which saw him not drop a set on the way to the title. Fitzpatrick had completed wins over Max Jones, the second seed, in the quarter-finals before comfortably beating Robert Hodel 6-2, 6-1 to take his place in the final.
There he faced David O’Leary who had knocked out top seed Kyle Brassington to reach the quarter-finals before then dispatching fourth seed Ashley Hewitt in the semi-finals.
In the final it was Fitzpatrick who looked the more assured as he ran out a 6-2, 6-0 winner.