After a very successful week of great tennis, which was only ruined by the manic weather changes on rare occasions; it was just a shame the Dutch interest ended on Thursday evening after a thrilling game between Augustin Gensse of France and Matwe Middelkoop of Holland.

The Mets Tennisbanen

This crowd were on the edge of their seats as the game progressed, Middelkoop winning the first set 7-5 only for Gensse to storm through the second set winning 6-0. The third and final set had it all; temper tantrums, player warnings and a bit of an edge between the players. The set went on to be decided by a tie-break which Gensse won despite being two breaks of serve down at one stage.

At the end of the game the players shook hands, but Gensse refused to shake the hand of the umpire which caused a bit more of a fractious atmosphere between the players, all good fun to watch though.

Matwe Middelkoop, last of the Dutchmen in the singles

Saturday was semi-final day which saw tournament favourite Marsel Ilhan of Turkey beat Gensse in a hard fought three setter. The other semi-final was between Steve Darcis of Belgium and

Dusan Lojda of Czech Republic. A simple first set for Darcis, but he had to dig deep to win the second set.
 

Sunday’s final was what was hoped for by everybody. The top two seeds faced each other, Ilhan being the top ranked player. A good sized crowd eager to be entertained gathered around the centre court.
 

The start of the match was quite surprising, asduring the week, Darcis had always started slowly, not uncommon to be three of four games down from the off. This time however, he was pumped up and flew out of the traps and took the game to Ilhan. The set in the end was comfortably won by Darcis 6-3.

Steve Darcis celebrates his win

The second set was filled with some top class base line rallies that had the crowd gripping their seats. The power from both men was unbelievable in what were very warm conditions to play in. The crowd got what they wanted and Ilhan took the set 4-6.

The final set was even better than the previous. The desire of both players was there to be seen, it was a real fight. Eventually the hunger of Darcis saw him through to claim the final set 6-2, which sounds easier than it actually was as nearly all the games went to several advantage points.

Darcis celebrated by smashing a ball in to the crowd before acknowledging his very vocal father in the front row of the stand. It had been a long time coming for Darcis, he had previously been in three semi-finals and he revealed he knew that after reaching his first final, it was his to win for sure.

This win will also see him enter the top 100 in the world rankings, so a great result for the Belgian.
 

Steve Darcis received a trophy and a cheque for €6,150 and Marsel Ilhan got a silver salver and a cheque for €3,600.                Darcis with his trophy
 

The final match on court was the doubles final; an all Australian affair, Colin Ebelthite and Adam Feeney the number one seeds taking on Rameez Junaid and Sadik Kadir the number two seeds.
 

The first set was won by Ebelthite and Feeney 6-4 but this game lacked the passion seen in the singles final. The second set was a closer battle seeing the match tied at one set all after a 6-7 win on the tie beak for Junaid and Kadir.
 

There was to be no final set to be played, instead it was a first to ten points tie break to decide the champions: the tie break dominated by Ebelthite and Feeney who finally ran out 10-7.
 

The trophy presentation was great fun as the four Australians spoke about there experience at this tournament, one they all admitted to thoroughly enjoying.

Ebelthite and Feeney with the doubles trophy

The organisers were very happy with how the event ran; the crowds increased as the tournament progressed and the social side of the tournament also proved to be a great hit.
 

Photos and Text by Neal McClimon
neal@thehagueonline.com
 

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