Champions crowned at Birmingham Open tennis
The first grass court tournament of the British tennis summer has come to an end.
Ben Jones and Joshua Paris clinched the men's doubles title on finals day at the LTA’s Lexus Birmingham Open, but it wasn’t meant to be for Arthur Fery in the singles.
Jones and Paris defeated India’s Anirudh Chandrasekar and Japan’s Takeru Yuzuki 6-4 7-6 in a hard-fought contest at Edgbaston Priory Club, as they were only broken once across the match.
The home heroes had been pushed all the way in their semi-final, but were more dominant in the championship decider and brought home the victory in their coach Asa Sumner-Keen’s first ever week on Tour.
Paris said: “Ben and I are really good friends so it’s nice to share the victory with him and hopefully we can carry on and get more wins throughout the rest of the grass. It’s a really nice tournament, so I’m really happy to get the win.”
Jones added: “We’ve had an amazing week here in Birmingham. Everyone has been super friendly and welcoming, apart from the fact we only played one match on Centre Court but that’s okay. Thanks for the support and it’s been a great week.”
Jones will reach a new career high doubles ranking of 149, while Paris will crack the top hundred before the pair head to Ilkley next week.
Unkind summer showers had affected play across the week, which meant Fery's semi-final with Yunchaokete Bu was decided on the same day as the subsequent final.
The Chinese player took the first set 6-2 but the British number seven roared back 6-3 in the second. But Fery was unable to repeat his heroics when the pair met in Miami qualifying, and Bu progressed to the afternoon’s final instead, winning the final set 6-3.
He the proceeded to come from a set down to beat defending champion Otto Virtanen and clinch the title.
Women’s top seed Alexandra Eala underlined her fearsome credentials with a comeback win against fifth seed Nikola Bartunkova.
Over two hours and 38 minutes, the Filipino won 5-7 6-3 7-5 and will be grateful to put her first-round French Open loss to Iva Jovic behind her.
It marked a drastic improvement from her appearance in Birmingham last year, when she was undone in the first round by eventual finalist Linda Fruhvirtová.
For the latest updates on the British summer grass court season, visit the LTA website, lta.org.uk
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