SA’s Connor Doig wins Curro J200 ITF tournament
South Africa’s Connor Doig and Maayan Laron, from Israel, were crowned the boys’ and girls’ champions of the J200 International Tennis Foundation (ITF) Tournament, which concluded at Curro Hillcrest on Saturday.
The event brought together highly-ranked u18 players from across the world, which was a big boost for the sport in South Africa.
Officially sanctioned by Tennis South Africa, the tournament was the latest to be hosted by Curro Holdings at Curro Hillcrest. It will be followed by a J300 ITF event, also at Curro Hillcrest, from 16 to 21 September.
Boys’ Final
Doig (16), who hails from Westville, took out Australia’s Ty Host (17) 6-0, 7-6, after settling in quickly and capturing the first set in double-quick time. It was a set of contrasts as unforced errors cost Host, while Doig could do no wrong.
Credit to Host for a gritty and determined effort in the second set. He broke Doig early to establish a 3-0 lead, which opened up the possibility of the Australian forcing the contest into a deciding third set. However, he continued to be plagued by unforced errors, and his good work was undone as Doig broke back and held serve to level at 3-3. The players shared a few more breaks before they headed into a tie-break.
With the match on the line, some close line calls bothered Host, who fell away as Doig raced to a 7-0 win in the tie-break to claim the set 7-6, and with that, the title.
“It’s the first time I have played Ty and he is a strong player,” Doig said afterwards. “He came back well in the second set and I had to dig deep to stay in the set, let alone go on and win.
“This is my biggest tennis win to date and I hope to stay on the same level next week.”
It was a case of what could have been for Host. “I took some time to settle and that’s just nerves. I started the second set well but credit to Connor for how he fought back,” he said.
Girls’ Final
It was an all-Israel girls’ final as Laron (17) took on fellow countrywoman and No. 2 seed Mika Buchnik (17) in a match of attrition that lasted just short of two hours, with Laron earning a 7-5, 6-2 victory.
The clash saw more service breaks than holds and rallies of 15 or more shots were the norm.
The first set lasted an hour and 15 minutes as fortunes swung back and forth like a pendulum, with each service break being immediately nullified by another.
Leron edged 6-5 ahead after another service break and when she managed to hold her serve, she had closed out the set 7-5.
It was a case of more of the same in the second set, with Laron enjoying two early breaks to open up a 3-0 advantage. That proved to be too much for Buchnik to make up.
“It was a tough, tiring match and I had to work hard and concentrate. I have played Mika before and have now won our last two matches,” Laron said. “I’m in the right place heading into the coming week’s J300 tournament.”
Buchnik, while satisfied with her week’s work, was frustrated with her loss. “Maayan is like a wall as she just keeps getting the ball back. It was a hard match and mistakes at vital times cost me,” she said.
Buchnik had to be content with another runner-up finish in the girls’ doubles, with the Russian pair of Anna Bazderova and Ksenia Smirnova beating Buchnik Anna Maria Fedotova (Dominican Republic), the top seeds, 6-1, 6-3.
In the boys’ doubles final, the third seeds, Nikolai Barsukov (Germany) and Jacob Olar (USA), beat second seeds, Ivan Lutkin (Russia) and Kriish Tyagi (India), 6-0, 1-6, 11-9.
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