Brown beats Baker as British doubles hopes go South
Jamie Baker tackled but fell to flamboyant German, Dustin Brown, in a heated men’s singles semi-final this afternoon at €42,500 ATP Challenger Tour event at the University of Bath’s Sports Training Village.
Brown, with his dreadlocks flowing and wearing vibrant-coloured kit, was dominant in a first set which he took 6-4 but struggled in the next set to find any consistency despite his high-tempo play with a fired-up Baker taking it 6-3.
Born in Jamaica but of German origin Brown broke Glaswegian Baker’s serve to go 3-1 ahead, closing out the final of three break points with a skilled backhand lob. Baker, who had twice before come back from a set down this week, could not find a route back and went down 2-6 in the third set.
Brown now meets Jan Mertl of the Czech Republic who came through a hard-fought semi with Michael Berrer of Germany 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. The big-serving German seemed to have the upper hand early in the match but Mertl persisted and ran down everything to get back into contention and go onto victory.
Melanie South and her French partner Julie Coin had hoped to corner the women’s doubles title on court 2 today. But their hopes were dashed in a three-set contest with beaten women’s singles semi-finalist Tatjana Malek of Germany and her partner Stephanie Vogt of Liechenstein.
South and Coin battled back from 1-3 down in the second set to level the match at a set apiece. The third set went down to the wire with the Malek and Vogt coming through to win 10-3 in the final set tie-break.
Earlier Martin Fischer and Philipp Oswald put paid to British hopes of a men’s doubles trophy, winning the final in two sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Tomorrow’s women’s singles final will be between the second seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands who came through a tense three-setter against Tatjana Malek of Germany and Annicka Beck of Germany.
Admission is FREE for spectators throughout the AEGON Pro-Series Bath tournaments.
You can also catch the pick of the men’s action on a live webstream. For further details, including the order of play, please go to http://www.teambath.com/sport/tennis/aegon-gb-pro-series/ <http://www.teambath.com/sport/tennis/aegon-gb-pro-series/>
You can also find out more information about the competitions at http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/AEGON-GB-Pro-Series/Watch-LIVE/ <http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/AEGON-GB-Pro-Series/Watch-LIVE/>
The tournaments reach their climax tomorrow when the schedule includes:
Sunday 25 March
Men’s and women’s singles finals
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The University of Bath is The Sunday Times University of the Year 2011/12.
