Gonzales, Verbeek win doubles crown

Manama : Top seeds Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Sem Verbeek from the Netherlands comfortably defeated Germany’s Florian Fallert and Belgian Jonas Merckx 6-3, 6-0 yesterday in the final of the Men’s Doubles of the Sixth Bahrain International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures Tournament at the Bahrain Tennis Club premises in Juffair.

In the opening set, the first four games went with serve before Gonzales and Verbeek effected the first break after the game had gone to deuce.

Roared on by a sizeable number of Filipinos in the crowd the pair dominated much of the rest of the set and won a second break in the ninth game to wrap it up in a little more than half an hour.

The second set from the start was nearly all Gonzales and Verbeek who were proving too strong for Fallert and Merckx and after winning a break in the second game their dominant serving and returns ensured an easy second set victory in a quarter of an hour.

Gonzales and Verbeek started their doubles campaign with a Round of 16 6-2, 6-1 win over Bahrain’s Hassan and Kareem Abdulnabi, then a quarter final win over the Dutch duo of Kevin and Tallon Griekspoor with a walkover win and then knocked third seeds Anis Ghorbel of Tunisia and Chilean Jorge Montero in the semi-finals 6-3, 4-6, 11-9.

Fallert and Merckx advanced to the final with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over Slovakia’s Filip Horansky and America’s Cameron Silverman in the Round of 16, then followed up with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over fourth seeds Francis Alcantara of the Philippines and Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock in the quarter finals and a semi-final 6-4, 6-2 win over Swedish second seeds Markus Eriksson and Milos Sekulic.

After the match Verbeek said, “It was a delight to win and great playing with his partner as it was the first time we had teamed for a championship. I feel during the game we did the right things at the right time to win the majority of the points. Really enjoyed my first time in Bahrain and found the hospitality and organising excellent.”

Gonzales said, “What can I say, the crowd was great and the support from the Filipino supporters made it feel like I was playing Davis Cup in Manila in front of a home crowd. Having our ambassador watching made this special as well. This was my first time in Bahrain and really enjoyed it and the organisation, I also hope that Sem and myself can team up again sometime in the future.”

Meanwhile in the singles semi-finals, Mick Lescure of France was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Germany’s Florian Fallert and Norway’s Viktor Durasovic emerged victorious by 6-4, 7-6(1) against Tom Kocevar-Desman of Slovenia.

The championship concludes today with the singles final between Lescure and Durasovic at 5pm and is being held under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee.