Kamiji, Peifer and Vink net Ile de Re titles
Yui Kamiji, Nicolas Peifer and Niels Vink claimed the women’s, men’s and quad singles titles as the 2019 Toyota Open International de L'ile de Re came to an end on Sunday with a fourth women’s singles title for Kamiji and a fifth men’s title for Peifer at the ITF 1 event held off the west Coast of France.
Kamiji made it four Ile de Re titles in five years as the world No. 2 completed a hat-trick of crowns with a 4-6 6-0 6-3 victory over world No. 8 Zhenzhen Zhu.
Top seed Kamiji’s sixth women’s singles title of 2016 came after defending champion dropped her first set of tennis to her Chinese opponent. However, in their first meeting since last October’s’ gold medal match at the Asian Para Games, Kamiji finished strongly to seal her fourth ITF 1 crown of the season.
Peifer wrapped up his fifth Ile de Re men’s singles title as he extended his unbeaten career record against Dutch second seed Tom Egberink to 26 matches.
All four of Peifer and Egberink’s 2019 matches have been closely-contested affairs, but as they met in their first final of the season, Peifer held firm for a 7-5 6-4 victory, his third title of the season and his first at ITF 1 level.
While Peifer beat Spain’s Martin de la Puente 6-3 6-2 and Egberink defeated Japan’s Takuya Miki 6-4 6-0 in Saturday’s men’s semi-finals, the penultimate day of play also saw Vink win the first of the tournament’s singles titles after sealing the quad final against fellow Dutchman and top seed Sam Schroder 6-1 7-5.
Vink consigned Schroder to a third Ile de Re runners-up trophy in four years as the younger player levelled their career head-to-head at two wins apiece. Victory brought Vink his sixth senior singles title of 2019 after the 16-year-old started his season by winning the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters, also in France.
Saturday’s doubles finals brought victories for two sets of singles finalists as Egberink and Peifer teamed up to beat Frederic Cattaneo ad Takuya Miki 6-1 7-5 in the men’s doubles final.
Meanwhile, Schroder and Vink defeated second seeds Mika Ishikawa and Kyu-Seung Kim 6-3 6-4 to claim the quad doubles crown.
There was also an all-Dutch victory in the women’s doubles final as top seeds Marjolein Buis and Michaela Spaanstra combined to earn a 6-4 6-2 victory over Hui Min Huang and Katharina Kruger.