Daniell wins second ATP Doubles Event to crack top 100

09 February 2015

Kiwi-born Team Bath-MCTA player Marcus Daniell won his second career ATP Doubles Event in Montpellier, France, last week.

The win put him into the world top 100 from his 2014 year-end ranking of 114.

Daniell and his partner Artem Sitak had to work hard for their title.  They came through three tough sets to reach the semi-finals with a 7-6, 6-7, 11-9 quarter-final thriller against 2012 Wimbledon winner Jonathan Marray and Colin Fleming before needing a 30-game final set to clinch the title from Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea 3-6, 6-14, 16-14 in the final.

In a successful week for the Team Bath-based squad, James Davis won the LTA u-18 Boys Winter National Tour Finals and Millie Bissett was selected to represent Great Britain at U12 level in a friendly team cup in Belgium.

These successes followed hard on the heels of Anna Smith and Jocelyn Rae’s top-line performances for their country in the Federation Cup under the guidance of Team Captain Judy Murray.

The duo played well under pressure, saving a match point in one encounter to keep Britain in with a shout of a World Group play-off place.

Throughout the week the British No.1 doubles pairing remained unbeaten as they were not called on to play in the final match after singles defeats for Heather Watson and Johanna Konta by Belarus meant that they took an unassailable lead over Great Britain.

After the event Murray was full of praise for her young doubles’ charges.  She said: “It was great to be able to take a specialist doubles pairing and they should stay positive despite the disappointment overall for GB.  They came through some very tough moments”.

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