British Tennis News - Three titles and a runner up in one weekend for buoyant Brits
Last updated 10/31/2011 10:15:39 AM
British Tennis News - Three titles and a runner up in one weekend for buoyant Brits
At the start of the year you would have received considerable odds on British tennis players winning three titles and finishing as runner up in a third – without any involvement from Andy Murray!
Anne Keothavong struck the jackpot when she won both the singles and doubles titles in the AEGON GB Pro Series; while British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins claimed the doubles title in the St. Petersburg Open and Elena Baltacha lost to veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in the French ITF $100,000 event in Poitiers.
While Baltacha narrowly failed to win her final, the week's tennis will see her ranked in the top fifty in the world for the second successive year, something no British woman has achieved since Jo Durie 21 years ago.
The Scot, who achieved her highest ranking of 49 in September 2010, said this season had been the best of her career.
"My big goal for the year was to defend the ranking points I had coming off and keep my ranking up, so to have done that and got back inside the top 50 again feels like a really big achievement," she said.
"I knew that I would have to improve this year to do that and I have. This has definitely been the best year of my career, no question.
"With the Olympics and all the other tournaments coming up, 2012 could be a massive year for me and it will be great to start it ranked around 50."
British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins claimed the doubles title at the St Petersburg Open after beating Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryatsev, the pair serving out to win 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 10-8 in one hour and 51 minutes.
Fleming and Hutchins' success comes after they reached the quarters at Wimbledon and the US Open as well as the last four at Eastbourne, Atlanta and Metz.
Keothavong, another player in her late twenties, has shown considerable character in sticking at her tennis despite injuries and set backs and now looks set to team up with Baltacha, Laura Robson and Heather Watson to help Britain challenge for a place in the World Group after a long absence.
She followed up her success in Luxembourg , when she reached the last four, with an outstanding week of tennis which restored her British number two placing ahead of Watson and now finishes her season in Nantes this week before a serious winter training spell in Florida.