STELLENBOSCH, December 10, 2017
Both Nicolaas Scholtz and Chanel Simmonds won their second title at the final $15,000 Digicall Futures tennis tournament in Stellenbosch.
All the action took place at the Coetzenburg courts of the Stellenbosch University. Scholtz and Simmonds also won the first of the three Digicall Futures tournaments.
Chanel Simmonds
Simmonds won the final against Lou Adler from France in 4-6, 7-6 and 6-2. The 25-year-old South African capitalized on eight of her 15 break point chances to prevail after two hours and 28 minutes.
“I’m very happy with the way I played these past three weeks, actually four weeks. Even though I did not win last week, I was still satisfied with my play. It was a long year and to end it with a win is very special and satisfying,” said Simmonds, who played in four consecutive Futures’ tournaments finals.
According to Simmonds she decided to not play doubles in the final week because of the lessons learnt during last year’s tournaments. “In last year’s third final I was so tired and today I was also sluggish to get going, but not having played doubles this week did make a difference in fatigue levels.”
Simmonds won four of the last six Digicall Futures tournaments.
Scholtz Clinches Title
Leny Mitjana and Nicolaas Scholtz
Scholtz also had a fiercely contested match against Frenchman Leny Mitjana. The fifth seed played in his third final and was the champion last weekend. This time around the top seed Scholtz was determined to win his last match of 2017. Scholtz won 3-6, 6-1 and 7-6.
Scholtz fired 14 aces, winning 72 per cent of his first service points. The 26-year-old from South Africa broke serve five times to secure victory in two hours and 22 minutes.
“I’m so happy with this win. Especially after losing last year’s final in the third tournament. When I got up this morning I really wanted to change that. I can now go into the festive season with a title in my last match. This was a team effort though. I could not have done it without my coach Riaan Venter, Jeff Coetzee who have helped these past weeks, my family who supports me in every way possible and the people who made these tournaments a possibility,” said a very happy Scholtz.
“If you told me before arriving in South Africa that I would take some 40 points from these three tournaments I would have paid you…now I got that and I get paid! I had a great time playing here with family and friends around.”
