The first of the three ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournaments that are scheduled to take place on Lankan soil came to a close on the 7th of February.
The tournament which commenced on the 2nd of February and was hosted at the Queens Club courts featured the likes of talented players from a host of countries including Portugal, France, Serbia, Austria, India, Pakistan, Germany, Chinese Taipei, Sri Lanka and the United States of America.
The men’s singles event was won by the Portugese top seed Rui Machado. Machado who has a world ranking of 278 played calm and collected tennis from the outset of the tournament which was evident in the fact that he did not drop a single set en route to the title. The biggest upset of the event was staged by the unseeded German Jonas Luetjen who won a thrilling three set match against the bottom seed from Chinese Taipei Liang Chi Huang 7-5 3-6 6-3. However he was stopped in his tracks in the semi final as he lost out to the fourth seed Jan Satral 6-3 6-4. Satrals win secured him a place in the finals where he was set to take on Rui Machado. The Portugese player proved to be too much for Satral who was overpowered with a straight set score line reading 6-3 6-3 in favour of the top seed.
Machado had an opportunity to make a clean sweep of the tournament as he and his partner Jose Checa Chelvo from Spain set up a finals showdown against the German pairing of Daniel Altmaier and Tom Schonenberg. The unseeded Germans staged a huge upset in the semi finals when they defeated the top seeded pairing of Chih Jen Ho and Jui Chen Hung from Chinese Taipei 6-0 6-1. They carried their good form into the finals in order to oust Machado and his partner 6-7 (6) 6-3 11-9 in what was undoubtedly the match of the tournament.
The second tournament of the three tournament series is scheduled to begin on the 9th of February and will be worked off at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.
