Guinard wins first title of 2021, while Crawford continues to climb

Manuel Guinard won his first title of the year – and eighth overall on the ITF World Tennis Tour – after defeating Lucas Catarina in the final at M25 Angers.

Guinard’s tournament-win was his first since he triumphed at M25 Vogau in August last year – when he became the first men’s champion since the resumption of the ITF World Tennis Tour following its six-month suspension after the initial Covid-19 outbreak.

Guinard, who defeated Catarina 7-5 6-4, has won six titles on clay, including three at M25 level and sits at No. 326 in the ATP rankings – 42 spots off the career-high 284 he attained shortly after winning in Vogau last year.

Elsewhere, Oliver Crawford continued his good form of late, winning his second title in his last three tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour at M15 Cairo.

The 21-year-old American, who defeated Pole Daniel Michaelski 6-2 5-7 6-3, has won 14 of his last 15 matches having also collected the title at M15 Pune and finished runner-up at M15 New Delhi. He now has four ITF singles titles to his name – with his latest win his first on clay.

Christopher Heyman added an 18th ITF title to his trophy cabinet following a three-set win over Fabian Marozsan at M15 Antalya. The victory was the 27-year-old Belgian’s seventh tournament win on clay – and denied Marozsan a third career title.

Fellow 27-year-old Christoph Negritu also collected silverware, with the German claiming his second career title – and first since September 2018 – at M15 Monastir.

Negritu, who has played exclusively in the Tunisian city in 2021, went all the way to the title on his ninth attempt at the M15 tournament this year after defeating Brazilian Igor Marcondes 6-2 6-2.

Former world No. 165 Aldin Setkic won his 28th ITF singles title - but first in over four years – on Croatian soil at M15 Sibenik.

Setkic, from Bosnia and Hezegovina, last won a clay title in Turkey in July 2015, but ended his long wait for a tournament victory on the surface after beating Austrian David Pichler 7-6(5) 6-3.