Fernandez, De Groot and Vink victorious at French Riviera Open
Gustavo Fernandez ended his wait for a first ITF Super Series singles title since 2019 when he edged a dramatic conclusion to the men’s singles final at the French Riviera Open.
Diede de Groot and Niels Vink maintained their unblemished Super Series records on the 2023 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour to claim the women’s and quad singles titles.
Less than a week after Tokito Oda became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam men’s singles title at Roland Garros, the 17-year-old’s 23-match winning streak since winning his first Super Series title at the Cajun Classic in March came to an end after a stellar semi-final performance from Martin de la Puente kept the Spaniard in the hunt for his first Super Series singles title.
De la Puente, who ended 2022 as year-end No.1 in men’s doubles, secured his first career win over world No.1 Oda in five attempts 6-1 7-6(6) to set up Sunday’s title decider against his doubles partner Fernandez at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy.
So far it’s been a ground-breaking season for De la Puente after the 24-year-old earned his first career win over Fernandez to win his first ITF 1 singles title at the Tram Barcelona Open. In fact, he had endured 12 successive straight sets losses to the Argentinian before the start of this year, but their fourth successive three set match of the season turned into something of an epic.
De la Puente had match points on five occasions at 6-5 up in the final set but his maiden Super Series title proved elusive and despite recovering from 4-0 down to 6-6 in the final set tie-break, It was Fernandez fired down an ace and then an equally emphatic forehand winner to wrap up a 6-2 6-7(4) 7-6(6) victory after two hours and 51 minutes.
“It’s my fourth final here. I lost the other three so I’m very happy and proud. I’m going to take a good rest and enjoy (this win),” said Fernandez, for whom a second clay court title in France in the space of three weeks was a welcome change of fortune after an early season battle contending with illness.
Despite his obvious disappointment at coming so close to victory, De la Puente is rewarded in this week’s world rankings with a new career-best men’s singles ranking at No. 5, while Fernandez returns to world No.3
While Oda’s 23-match winning streak came to an end against De la Puente in the men’s semis, arguably more significant was the near-end of De Groot’s winning streak that went past 100 matches at Roland Garros.
De Groot came within two points of losing a singles match for the first time since February 2021 when she met Kgothatso Montjane in the quarter-finals, but eventually regrouped to progress to the last four 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2.
De Groot has been taken to a deciding set three times this year by world No. 2 Yui Kamiji, but any prospects of Kamiji extending the world No.1 once again were short lived after the Japanese player was forced to withdraw in advance of this year’s final in Biot due to an arm injury,
De Groot has now claimed the women’s singles title at all four Super Series tournaments this season – the Melbourne Open, the Cajun Classic, the Japan Open and the French Riviera Open – while fellow Dutch player Niels Vink has exactly the same record in quad singles.
The only difference for Vink in Biot was that for the first time this season his opponent in a Super Series final was not fellow Dutchman Sam Schroder.
Guy Sasson beat world No. 2 Schroder 5-7 6-1 6-4 in the semi-finals and the Israel threatened to beat both of the world‘s top two ranked players as he opened up a 3-0 first set lead over Vink. However, the top seed soon found his range and wrapped up the eighth Super Series title of his career 7-6(6) 6-2.
Schroder returns to No. 1 in the quad doubles world rankings after he and Vink beat Heath Davidson and Robert Shaw 7-6(5) 6-3 to make it three successive French Riviera Open doubles titles together.
Meanwhile, Tom Egberink and Stephane Houdet ensured that their first men’s doubles title together was an important one after the fourth seeds edged out second seeds Joachim Gerard and Oda 6-3 4-6 (10-7) in a thrilling final.
The women’s doubles final was also decided in a match tie-break as Kamiji and Montjane defeated top seeds De Groot and Jiske Griffioen 7-5 1-6 (10-5) to reverse the outcome of last year’s final against De Groot and Aniek van Koot.
Having added their second Super Series title as a partnership to the Roland Garros title they won a week earlier, Kamiji and Montjane are now unbeaten in five tournaments and 14 matches this season.