Jamie Murray & John Peers begin with a win

By Glenys Furness

  • Jamie Murray and John Peers secure first win
  • Kyle Edmund claims title in Argentina
  • Dan Evans claims title in Knoxville

 

London, UK – Jamie Murray & John Peers start their World Tour Final campaign with a tough three set win. In South America Kyle Edmund won his first clay challenger of 2015 in Argentina. James Ward made the second round and Alex Ward lost in qualifying, whilst in North America Dan Evans won on the hard courts in Knoxville

Murray & Peers started their first appearance at the World Tour finals with an impressive victory over the Australian Open Champions.  The Brit/Aussie pairing were drawn against Fabio Fognini & Simone Bolelli in the opening match of the season ending event. The fourth seeds showed confidence from the start, with a set point in the 10th game that the Italians saved the set went to a tiebreak. Murray & Peers held their nerve to seal the breaker 7-5.

Set two did not get off to the best of starts for the fourth seeds and they were soon down 1-4 before fighting back to 3-4. An error from Murray allowed the Italians to break and level the match. This meant that a match tiebreak would decide the winners of the first match. This was a tight affair with the pairs going toe to toe until the fourth seeds secured a mini break at 10-9 to leave them to serve for the match. Peers won the point with a wonderful smash that was just too much for the Italians.

On the Challenger tour and Ken Skupski & Neal Skupski made yet another final. In Bratislava the brothers had defeated the top seeds Jonny Marray & Mate Pavic in a very tight match that went the distance. Handed a walk over into the semi final the Skupski brothers made light work of their opponents, taking the match in straight sets. The final proved to be another close match with the Brits losing the first set on a tiebreak, before getting the break of serve in the second set to level the match. The match tiebreak proved a step too far as the Brits lost 5-10.

In Argentina Edmund dropped only one set on the way to the title and that was in the first round. The Brit was the highest seed left as only three advanced from the first round. Edmund had little difficulty reaching the final where the Brit took out the only other seed in straight sets. James Ward also lost one set in the first round as he progressed into round two. The Brit was not able to progress any further as Christina Garin defeated Ward with only two breaks of serve. At the same tournament Alex Ward (no relation to James) was defeated in qualifying. Both James and Alex teamed together for the doubles and moved into the quarter finals with a hard fought three set win. Due to timings the Wards had to hand a walkover to their opponents as Alex had to play qualifying in Montevideo.

In Kobe Australia Brydan Klein was seeded eight, the Brit won the first match for the loss of three games. Unfortunately in the next round Klein was defeated in straight sets. Klein also played doubles here but drew the top seeds in the first round. The Brit lost the first round match in the doubles also in straight sets.

Over in Knoxville Evans lost only two sets on the way to the title. One in the first round and the other in the final. The Brit took out the second seed in round two for the loss of five games. The final saw Evans lose a very close first set, before finding his game to serve a breadstick in the second set to level the match. The final set saw just one break of serve as the Brit claimed the title. Daniel Smethurst had made it through qualifying before losing the first round in two very close sets. Liam Broady defeated the seventh seed in straight sets first round, reaching the quarter finals before losing in straight sets. Joe Salisbury played doubles with David O’hare but lost in the first round.

Alex Ward lost the first round qualifying in Montevideo earlier today, whilst Smethurst & Darren Walsh won their qualifying round in Champaign

Brits are in action next week in London, Montevideo, Champaign & Yokohama.

FOLLOW BRITWATCH – SPORTS IN GENERAL, BRITS IN PARTICULAR!

Facebook Twitter
Instagram Vine