British doubles duo clinch title in Russia

BRITISH tennis enjoyed a weekend of relative success as Scotland’s Colin Fleming won the St Petersburg Open doubles title with Ross Hutchins, Anne Keothavong won in Barnstaple, Elena Baltacha finished runner-up in France and Gordon Reid triumphed in the wheelchair singles in Nottingham.

Fleming and Hutchins claimed the doubles title in Russia after edging out wild cards Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryatsev. It was the third seeds’ first final together after reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open this year as well as the last four at Eastbourne, Atlanta and Metz.

Both pairs protected their serves well, with the British duo saving seven of eight break points they faced, while the Russians were broken twice in eight opportunities. In the match tie-break, the pair served out to win 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 10-8 in one hour and 51 minutes.

“It’s a fantastic day for us,” said Hutchins. “We’ve played Alexander and Mikhail about four times in the past 12 months and all were very close matches, so we knew they would play very well and bring a high level.

“It was a tough match and we’re happy to get this one.”

Fleming added: “It’s really quite big for us. It’s a nice tournament and a great city, so we love to come and play here.”

While it is the pair’s first title together, they had both previously claimed two wins. Fleming won in St Petersburg and Metz two years ago with Ken Skupski, while Hutchins won in Montpellier last year and Beijing in 2008 with Stephen Huss.

On Saturday, British No 3 Keothavong continued her fine run of form when she claimed the AEGON GB Pro-Series title with a straight-sets victory over Poland’s Marta Domachowska.

Keothavong and partner Eva Birnerova also won the women’s doubles.

Meanwhile, British No 1 Baltacha hailed 2011 as the best year of her career despite losing to Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in the final of the $100,000 ITF event in Poitiers.

Baltacha lost 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 but is still likely to move back inside the world’s top 50 when the rankings are updated today.

The 28-year-old Scot said: “My big goal for the year was to defend the ranking points I had coming off and keep my ranking up, so to have done that and got back inside the top 50 again feels like a really big achievement.

“I knew that I would have to improve this year to do that and I’ve done that. This has definitely been the best year of my career, no question, even better than 2010.”

Reid claimed the Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis singles title with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4) victory over Maikel Scheffers. Reid and his partner Marc McCarroll finished runners-up in the doubles to Tom Egberink and Michael Jeremiasz.