Cape Town, South Africa – Straight-set wins were the order of the day when the singles contests got under way on Sunday at the ITF Young Seniors World Individual Championships in Cape Town.
Many of the players across the six categories had the benefit of experiencing the local conditions after representing their countries at last week’s ITF Young Seniors World Team Champs in the ‘Mother City’, as Cape Town, South Africa’s oldest city is an affectionately nicknamed.
One such player was Brendan Zackey who started off his Men 40 singles campaign on a winning note when he downed German Ferdinand Fahlke 6-2 6-3 at the Western Province Cricket Club courts.
Zackey, a Johannesburg entrepreneur, played for South Africa at the same venue last week where he had five singles outings. Coming from South Africa’s Highveld he’s had to adjust to conditions at the coast.
“I had the benefit of being fully acclimatised since I’ve played on at least five of the six courts at the Men’s 40 event last week,” said Zackey, who previously campaigned on the ATP Tour. “I was off to a fine start to lead 5-1 although it was a battle adapting serves to the varying sun and light conditions at the two ends.
“The second set didn’t quite go to plan as I suffered a break of serve after taking a 4-1 lead. Somehow both of us dropped serves later in this set but my earlier lead provided the platform for me to close out the set, and the game, at 6-2 6-3.”
At the Kelvin Grove Club courts, Germany’s Alexander Klec was subjected to a marathon duel against Manuel Pinto de Abreu Portugal before he triumphed 6-7 6-1 6-2.
It was hard on Klec who had only arrived in Cape Town 24 hours earlier from Munich. He said he found local conditions vastly different from those in Europe and on top of that, he was just returning to action after a three-month lay-off as a result of illness.
“It was a great gesture on the part of the ITF to give me a wild card and I want to do well at this event,” said Klec. “Having prepared on indoor courts, I soon found out that ball bounces much higher here on the outdoor courts.
“The higher temperatures were also a factor because it can be tiring playing in the heat.”
Klec surrendered the first set but it gave him a chance to work out his tactics for the rest of the match.
“At the start of the second, I slowed down the game a fair bit although he tried to make me run a lot.
“I was quite happy to do that (run) and once I managed to wrest the initiative, I moved him around. As the match progressed, I started serving much better and I noticed halfway through the second set that he was tiring.”
Over at the Western Province Tennis courts, Okan Okyay from Ankara, Turkey, said he was exhausted after his 6-2 6-3 singles win over Australian Tim Thomas in the Men 45 division.
Okyay was still reeling from the effects of a near five-hour singles encounter last week when he represented Turkey against Ireland.
“I’m just taking game by game because I’m still suffering from that long match,” Okyay said afterwards. “The set went with serve after four games but then I broke him and soon I was 4-2 up. That’s when I changed tactics and played lots of slice and topspin.
“He (Thomas) did try to pressure me but he wasn’t doing too well with the return of serve.
“In the second set, I used my ‘weapon’ – the serve and had two breaks to go up 4-1. That’s when fatigue set in and it became a fight for me but I kept thinking about my game right until the end.”
Most of the tournament’s top seeds will be in action at the three venues on Monday.