Local favourite Alec Beckley put up a tremendous fight, but top seeds Tuncay Duran and Lan Mi lived up to the hype as pre-tournament favourites, securing the men's and women's titles at Week 1 of the Wiphold International, a combined $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event for men and women which concluded at TuksTennis, University of Pretoria on Sunday.
In the men's final, 21-year-old Turkish player Duran earned a 6-3 6-4 victory over Alec Beckley, the No 3 seed, who had the home crowd on its feet in an attempt to lift the trophy.
Earlier, in the semifinals, Beckley earned a hard-fought 7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 win over Germany's Marc Majdandzic, while Duran beat Belgian opponent Romain Faucon 6-4 4-6 6-4.
"I'm super happy that I won the tournament. It was a close match in the final against Alec Beckley, the local hero," Duran said afterwards.
"I played really well and I'm happy with the level of my performance. The organisation is great and I love playing here. I hope I can win the Week 2 tournament as well."
In the women's final, Chinese player Lan beat unseeded Russian teenager Ksenia Smirnova 6-4 4-6 6-1.
Lan had defeated No 8 seed Irem Kurt 7-6(3) 6-3 and Smirnova dug deep to triumph 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the penultimate round.
"I really like the way the tournament was organised and I'd like to thank everyone for making it possible," Lan said.
"I thought I played a good match in the final against a very good player. I thought I was able to control the points really well and dominated from the beginning, and I'm very proud of my performance."
Week 2 of the Wiphold International starts at TuksTennis on Monday, 20 April.
/ENDS
