Israel’s Orel Kimhi, the No 6 seed and France’s Astrid Cirotte, the No 3 seed, won the men’s and women’s singles finals at the third and concluding week of the Curro Centre Court Series, part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tour, at Curro Hillcrest on Sunday.
Cirotte, who made it a hat trick of doubles titles at the tournament, added the women’s W15 singles trophy to her collection with a 6-1, 7-6 victory against South Africa’s Marilouise van Zyl, the seventh seed, in a match of attrition and long baseline rallies.
Out of sorts in the first set, Van Zyl made a fight of the second as the match finished a few minutes shy of two hours. Van Zyl’s power hitting attempted to move Cirotte around the court and drive her back as an opening was sought, while Cirotte had to dig deep at times as she slowed the game down to stay in the point.
After early breaks in the second set, Van Zyl got the one that should have mattered in the 11th game to edge ahead 6-5, but she promptly dropped her serve in the next game and faltered in the tiebreak, going down 1-7 to hand Cirotte the title.
“I’ve had a great three weeks but think I wanted a little too much in the final. After a slow start, I was happy with how I lifted my levels in the second set,” said Van Zyl. “I was more aggressive and went for my shots, trying to open up the court, but needed to stay in the rallies more.”
Cirotte’s achievement was all the more admirable considering how many matches she has played over the three weeks in singles and doubles. “I’ve played 25 matches but it was worth digging deep one last time for the singles title,” she said. “The second set was tough and I was happy to win the tiebreak as Marilouise really lifted her game and came back strong.”
Kimhi delivered a classy exhibition to put away Hungary’s Zsombor Velcz 6-1, 6-3 in the men’s M25 final, the latter overcome by Kimhi’s doggedness in getting everything back and adapting to the Hungarian’s hard hitting style of play.
Velcz struggled to hold serve on most occasions and a host of unforced errors, particularly driving too deep over the baseline, allowed Kimhi to get a hold on the match that he never let go of. There was moment in the second set when Velcz enjoyed a rare break of serve and then held to hang in at 3-5, but a pumped-up Kimhi held easily to close out proceedings.
“Mentally, I wasn’t in today’s match and was pretty tired after a long three weeks,” said Velcz. “I am a naturally aggressive player who likes to hit the ball hard, but when the focus is not quite there, it leads to mistakes which are hard to recover from.”
A pumped-up Kimhi savoured his success to go with a junior title he won at the same venue in 2021.”South Africa is a special place for me as every time I play here, I win a title,” he said. “It’s taken me five years to come back but knowing that I win a title whenever I come, I’m sure I will be back. I focussed on the singles this year and my style of slowing the game down, hitting high over the net and controlling many of the points counted in my favour against such a powerful hitter.”
In the men’s doubles, Velcz partnered with South Africa’s Kholowam Montsi in a 7-6, 6-3 win against the No 4 seeds James Beaven (GBR) and Tom Zeuch (Ger), while Cirotte and Jenny Duerst (Sui), the No 1 seeds, eased past South Africa’s Morgan Jordaan and Donna le Roux, the No 3 seeds, 6-1, 6-2.
Tournament director Jared Temlett thanked Tennis South Africa for its participation in the event and nurturing strong, young tennis talent, Curro for its sponsorship and highlighted this year’s tournament as a breakthrough event with television coverage of both finals being broadcast for the first time.