STELLENBOSCH, November 26, 2017

South Africa’s Nicolaas Scholtz and Chanel Simmonds are the champions of the first tournament of the Digicall Futures Series held at the Maties Tennis Club in Stellenbosch. The ITF Pro Circuit hard court swing in South Africa consists of three combined events taking place from 20 November to 10 December 2017.

Leny Mitjana and Nicolaas Scholtz

Scholtz won the men’s tournament by beating Frenchman Leny Mitjana 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday afternoon. The top seed sent down six aces, winning 79 per cent of his first service points to secure victory in one hour and 34 minutes.

Scholtz won the first Digicall Futures tournament in 2015 and played in the final of the last tournament in 2016. The 26-year-old lifted his fifth ITF Futures trophy of the season.

“I really had a good week. I think it is the first time ever I won a tournament without dropping a set. That is a big positive to take out of this week,” Scholtz was pleased with performance.

“Today was tough with the wind. It is the guy who make the least amount of errors and keeps his focus that wins in conditions like this. To win a tournament you also can’t afford to have a bad day, things need to go your way every day. I’m not going to celebrate yet. I want to do good in all three the tournaments.”7

Simmonds Thrashes Totka

Naomi Totka and Chanel Simmonds

Simmonds cruised past unseeded Naomi Totka from Hungary 6-1, 6-0. The 25-year-old lefty didn’t face a break point, capitalizing on six of her own to finish the encounter in only 52 minutes.

“It is never easy to play against another left handed player especially when it is this windy. I was more consistent than her and tried to keep it away from her forehand because she hurt me with that shot. I’m happy with the way I played this week and feeling really good going into the next tournament. I had a good result last week and that helped me a lot,” said Simmonds, who won two of last year’s three Digicall Futures tournaments