STELLENBOSCH, December 10, 2018

Ekaterina Makarova clinched her third consecutive title, winning the Digicall Futures, the third ITF Pro Circuit event of the season held at the Maties Tennis Club in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The 22-year-old from Russia beat No. 8 seeded Briton Alice Gillan 6-4, 6-4 in Sunday’s singles final.

Makarova, this week’s top seed, only dropped one set en route to the title match. She outpointed her opponent 77-64 to prevail after one hour and 48 minutes.

Makarova has now won all three women’s trophies at the $15,000 hard-court tournament this year. “I am really happy and so proud of my results these past three weeks,” she said. “I could not have imagined to leave South Africa with my first three titles. The body is tired for sure, but I am happy with how I played and kept going. It was a special three weeks and gives me lots of confidence going forward.”

Lock wins men’s Futures event

Benjamin Lock

Benjamin Lock emerged victorious from the men’s Futures. The No. 1 seed from Zimbabwe rallied past local wild card entry Ruan Roelofse 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 in the singles final.

Lock withstood 11 aces, hitting six of his own and broke his opponent’s serve six times to secure victory in two hours and 35 minutes.

By lifting his fifth ITF career title, his second of the season, Lock earns $2,160 in prize money as well as 18 ATP-Ranking points.