Abbie savours biggest victory of her career
WARD WINS DOUBLES AT THE BRITISH OPEN WHEELCHAIR CHAMPIONSHIPS
LOUGHBOROUGH University student Abbie Breakwell served up the biggest win of her career at the LTA’s British Open Wheelchair Championships in Nottingham, writes Marshall Thomas.
Breakwell, 19, claimed her first senior international singles title at the Nottingham Futures, beating French top seed Zoe Maras 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 14 minutes.
Nottingham-born Breakwell, who trains at Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club and is a former Loughborough College student, also won the doubles title with Maras.
Kegworth teenager Dahnon Ward, 16, also enjoyed success, teaming up with Ben Bartram to beat Mark Langeveld and Andrew Penney 6-3 6-1. in the Futures men’s doubles final.
But Ward was well beaten by his doubles partner in the singles final.
British No.3 Bartram, the LTA’s Junior Player of the Year, claimed his third title at the Futures level by defeating Ward 6-4 6-1.
Norfolk teenager Bartram clinched a very competitive first set before running away with the second set in dominant fashion.
“It’s amazing to win this title in front of a home crowd, it’s a great feeling,” said Bartram.
“It definitely inspires me to keep pushing on and I feel like I’m ready for the next level of tournaments now.
“I’m just looking forward to the rest of this year.”
Elsewhere, Great Britain’s Gordon Reid and Belgian partner Joachim Gerard narrowly lost against Martin De La Puente of Spain and Nicolas Peifer of France 6-3 3-6 10-8.
In a compelling match that was in the balance throughout, a deciding championship tie-break seemed the inevitable way to decide the final.
A thrilling end to the match saw De La Puente and Peifer fight off a late comeback from the 2017 Australian Open champions to clinch the decider and claim the title.
Reid said: “It was a tight one in the end but they deserved it.
“It’s not very often I get to play with anyone other than Alfie (Hewett) so it’s nice to play with a guy with a bit longer arms. It was good fun.”