By Philip James
David Rice won the Marathon Futures hard-court tournament in Greece today to add to Dan Evans‘ title in Bastad, Sweden yesterday.
Rice, 24 years old and ranked 691st in the world, did not drop a set all tournament, including beating in round two the top seed, Fabrice Martin who is ranked 424 places above Rice.
Rice beat American Alexios Halebian 6-3, 7-5 in the final; Halebian had come through two qualifying matches to make the main draw and defeated another Brit, Josh Goodall in the semis.
Rice is 26th ranked Brit but is likely to rise up the rankings if he can repeat performances like this week.
The women’s final in Athens also featured a Brit, as 20-year-old Lucy Brown faced top seed Anett Kontaveit.
Sadly Brown could not overcome her opponent, who is 368 places higher, losing 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
At the hard court Futures tournament in Belconti, Turkey Jack Carpenter beat Tom Farquharson in the semis but lost in the final.