Cape Town, South Africa – Three of the four top seeds that contested Saturday’s singles finals emerged victorious at the ITF Young Seniors World Individual Championships in Cape Town, South Africa.
Two of the victorious top seeds, Jasper Smit (Men 35) and Marcus Hilpert (Men 45), will be taking their championship titles back to The Netherlands. The only other top seed to land a title was Spaniard Roberto Menendez Ferre in the Men 40 division.
The lone top seed to fall on Saturday was Slovenia’s Barbara Mulej who was forced to retire injured in the Women 40 final against unseeded Celine Regnier of France, who led 5-1 at the time of the stoppage.
Throughout the week, Smit played well within himself and never dropped a set en route to the Men 35 final. It was much the same in the final where he defeated Frenchman Benoit Foucher 6-1 6-1.
It was a cruel fate for the unseeded Foucher who toppled seeded players in each of the four rounds ahead of the final.
There was another winner’s medal later for Smit, who partnered by countryman Martijn van Haasteren won the Men 35 doubles final 6-3 6-2 against the French pair Alexandre Martinatto and Steeve Noblecourt.
Men 45 winner Hilpert won 6-3 6-1 against third-seeded Canadian Taras Beyko who capitulated somewhat in the second set after a brave fight in the opening set.
Hilpert was on the winner’s podium again later in the day when he and fellow countryman Bart Beks won the Men 45 doubles final 6-4 6-2 against the Spaniards Jonathan Garcia and Mario Perea.
Menendez Ferre, however, was the only top seed winner on Saturday to drop a set. In the Men 40 final he was given a scare by Great Britain’s Luke Milligan who halted the Spaniard’s victory march by taking the second set by a convincing 6-1 margin to force the contest into the extra set.
However, Menendez Ferre regained his touch to down the Brit 6-4 1-6 6-2 in the end.
The Women 45 winner, second seed Ana Salas-Lozano of Spain was the other singles champion to be extended. All week she appeared to be playing well within herself but did not look all that invincible when her clash against 4th seeded Eva Haslinghuis of the Netherlands got under way.
Haslinghuis was off to a great start taking the opening set 6-3 but she was not able to retain her grip on proceedings as the match progressed.
She failed to live with Salas-Lozano relentless pressure in the remaining sets and that saw the Spaniard home 3-6 6-3 6-2.
This result also marked Spain’s second singles title on the day.
In the remaining singles shoot-out, the small German contingent’s support was divided as two of their countrymen reached the Women 35 championship match.
In the end, the fourth-seeded Gitte Moeller prevailed over unseeded Andrea Fischer 6-4 6-2.
In the penultimate round, Fischer caused quite a stir when she downed the top-seeded Canadian Christina Popescu in straight sets.
The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the all South African Women 45 final in which the third seeds Lettica Venter and Annerie Wessels relied on a tiebreak to record a 4-6 6-2 [10-5] win over Rene Plant and Rosanne Duke.