Photo: Philippe BuissinMarjolein Buis (NED)
Gustavo Fernandez, Marjolein Buis and David Wagner won the men’s, women’s and quad singles titles on Sunday at the Pensacola Open, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, as the first of two back-to-back ITF 1 Series tournaments in the USA came to an end at Roger Scott Tennis Centre in Florida.
Argentina’s world No. 5 Fernandez claimed the third ITF 1 Series title of his career after a 63 63 victory over top seed Houdet – his second win over the Frenchman in five head-to-heads.
Fernandez’s 63 63 win matched the score in his first victory over world No.2 Houdet in the final of last year’s Japan Open, where Fernandez won his first ITF Super Series title to make his world top 10 debut.
Buis needed the best part of an hour to secure the opening set of the women’s singles final against world No. 10 Kgothatso Montjane of South Africa. The Dutch world No. 5 and second seed continued to face a tough challenge in the second set, but again won the big points to seal a 76(4) 63 victory and her first singles title of 2013 after reaching two semifinals in Australia in January.
World No. 1 Wagner won his first Pensacola Open quad singles title since 2010 as he claimed his sixth win in the tournament’s 10-year history after a comprehensive 62 60 win over fellow American and world No. 4 Nick Taylor.
Fernandez ended the tournament with two titles after also winning the men’s doubles final with Dutch partner Ronald Vink, with Houdet again on the other side of the net.
Third seeds Fernandez and Vink clinched a thrilling finale to the 10th Pensacola Open in a deciding match tiebreak, beating French top seeds Frederic Cattaneo and Houdet 76(5) 26 (10-8).