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Bibiane Schoofs Ladies Champion Dutch woman Bibiane Schoofs has won the ladies main draw of Challenger Zeeland 2011. In a complete Dutch final she outclassed Lesley Kerkhove. In the first set the match was very close, with Kerkhove keeping the lead. At 6-5 she was unable to serve out the set, and a tie-break had to be played. At that moment, small mistakes increased for Kerkhove, whereas Schoofs managed to improve her game. Schoofs won the tie-break by 7-4, taking an important step towards victory. In the second set Schoofs continued outplaying Kerkhove and left her opponent without a chance: 6-1. Mertens Crowned Men’s Champion
By Erik Dodge Yannick Mertens’ strong serve was too much for a frustrated Victor Baluda in the Challenger Zeeland Men’s Finals match. The No. 2 seed Mertens played in control and allowed Baluda to struggle in the 6-4, 6-4 match on Center Court. “I think I served pretty well and I didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Mertens of Belgium said. In contrast, Baluda of Russia played an aggressive match scoring on powerful shots, which often found the net or sailed long. Although he took an early lead, his errors were too much to overcome. “So, I was 4-2 up but still playing pretty strange. I knew something was going to happen, because I can’t be so lucky to win the match like this. You have to play pretty stable and I didn’t,” he said. Baluda made 18 unforced errors in Set 1 and 22 in Set 2, while Mertens made 11 in the match. Mertens said he was familiar with Baluda’s style and wanted to force long rallies, though he had not seen Baluda play. “He plays really fast and flat, so I tried to play a lot of balls and not to give too many presents and I think I did that well,” Mertens said. The win marked Mertens second tournament championship of the year in four Finals appearances. He won the Great Britain F3 Futures, and lost in the Finals of the Italy F6 Futures, and Great Britain F7 Futures. Fun guides Lemoine and Zanevska to victory
Fun was the main concern of Quirine Lemoine and Maryna Zanevska as they competed against No. 1 seed Julia Cohen and Florencia Molinero at the Women’s Doubles Finals on Center Court Saturday. The duo succeeded in having fun as well as winning the match 6-3, 6-4. Lemoine expected much more of the opponents, while her partner Zanevska didn’t even know Cohen and Molinero were the No. 1 seed. “I didn’t even know they were No.1 seed. But when I went on the court, the first goal was to have fun, and enjoy every point,” the Ukrainian said. Lemoine and Zanevska controlled Set 1 as they broke their opponents in Game 4 and 8, while defending their own serve in all but one game. In the second set the ladies had more difficulty defending their serve, and were broken three times by their American and Argentinean opponents. “Yes, I think we were less focused than in the first set. But in the first set so much went well. Sometimes we had opportunities we did not take, and that allowed them [Cohen and Molinero] to make a comeback [in the second set],” Lemoine said. Zanevska shared her partner’s conclusion. “Well, it was the problem that in some moments in the second set we were leading like two-zero, and during the games maybe we just had too much fun. We were losing our focus. That’s the reason why we lost our serves,” she said. About the tournament
Challenger Zeeland is a two-week event. Host is tennis club MLTC in Middelburg, founded in 1948 and with approximately 800 members. MLTC offers 4 clay courts and 8 grass courts. On top of an international tournament (June 25th – July 3rd), the tournament includes a regional tournament, a wheelchair tennis demonstration and (one week later) a regional and national junior tournament. The international womens tournament is a $25.000 Challenger, the mens tournament is a $15.000 Future. Tournament history
“At first, everybody said it would never work out,” both of them recall, “but that only made us more motivated.” Their hard work paid off. With the help of dozens of enthusiastic volunteers, Sven Vermeulen and Sander van Buren managed to organize a prestigious international tennis tournament. . . in Middelburg. Read more about how Challenger Zeeland was founded. LocationsThe matches are played on the outdoor clay courts of MLTC in Middelburg. Qualification matches are also played in nearby city of Vlissingen, which also offers possibilities for training. In case of rain, matches can be played indoors, in the TSI indoor accommodation in Goes. The main address is: Click here to show all the tournament sites in a bigger map |
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