CURRENT national champion Alex Jewitt clinched his first NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour title of 2011 as the rain-delayed Turkish Open came to its conclusion in Antalya.
Top seed Jewitt reached the final after dropping just three games in three matches, beating his doubles partner Giorgios Lazaridis, of Greece, 6-1, 6-1 in Sunday’s semi-finals.
The current British No 5 then looked like easing to another victory in Monday’s final after comfortably taking the first set off Iranian second seed Hossein Mamipour, but Jewitt’s form dipped in the second set as Mamipour fought back to level the contest and Jewitt had to battle hard in the decider before finally sealing a 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 victory.
Jewitt had to settle for runners-up honours in the men’s doubles as he faced Mamipour for a second time in another three set contest.
Jewitt has now moved to within two world ranking places and is just eleven points adrift of current British No 4 Kevin Simpson.
Simpson was also in action in another ITF Futures event over the weekend, but had to settle for runners-up honours himself in Sunday’s men’s singles final at the Lithuania Open in Vilnius after a 6-0, 6-3 loss to Polish top seed Piotr Jaroszewski.
However, Simpson’s path to the final has seen the Scot move back up several places to No 41 in this week’s world rankings.
