Wes Moodie and Jeff Coetzee continued their fantastic start to the year by winning the doubles title of the Estoril Open in Portugal, their first clay court tournament of the year. They overcame Jamie Murray from Great Britain and Kevin Ullyett from Zimbabwe in the final, winning the third set tie-break 10-8.  Wes said the key to the tournament was the second round’s win over Niemenem/Linstedt (6-2 6-7 10-7), where in his words: “it was a good one to win after we should have been off the court in 50 minutes with a 6-2 6-2 win. We let a 6-2 4-2 (15-40) lead slip away and almost paid a high price”. After the final he also added: "It was a match that swung back and forth. They had break points in our first two service games. We got an early lead in the tie-break 5-1 and 6-2 and finally managed to pull it out at 9-8 with a good return from Jeff. It is nice to add a title to the collection; there were tough conditions and a few scrappy points where anything could have happened so was fortunate to be holding the trophy at the end."

Meanwhile in the South of France MCTA player Ilija Vucic, after very consistent performances all week, won both the singles and the doubles events of the ITF Grade 2 Tournament in Istres. Ilija beat Italian number 7 seed Papasidero from Italy 64, 75 to win his 1st Grade 2 ITF singles title of his junior career. In the doubles event of the same tournament, Vucic paired with Serbian Dusan Lajovic to win the final against Belgian Goffin and Sanders 6/7(3) 7/5 6/1.

MCTA Coach Igor Tomasevic said: “Ilija did not play very well in the semi-finals but somehow found a way to win 7-5 in the third set. He then went on to win an impressive doubles semi-final against Cox and Smethurst, two of Britain’s best juniors.

These results continue a rich vein of form for all MCTA players and David Sammel, Director of Tennis, says: “Everyone has put in 18 months of hard work and I am very pleased with the progress of the Academy and its players.  

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