Corby win boosts Cox’s confidence
CORBY is an unlikely stopping off sandwich point to link San Jose and Texas but truth as they say, is much stranger than fiction.
And so it came to pass at the town’s tennis centre on Saturday when world number 394 rated player Daniel Cox proved it could also be a successful route planner, by winning the £750 first prize cheque in the men’s singles final in the Aegon British Tour.
The 21-year-old who lost in straight sets in the first round of Wimbledon last year to Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, admitted he needed a confidence boost at a more comfortable level after mixing it at a more rarified atmosphere.
And his 7-6, 1-0 (ret) victory over Andrew Fitzpatrick gave him exactly that, although the disappointing premature finish had not been in the script, the 22 year-old Warwickshire player citing a back problem for his early exit after dropping serve in the opening game of the second set.
At least the set that was played was a captivating one, Cox striding out to a 3-0 lead before Fitzpatrick claws that back to 3-3. It then went with serve until Fitzpatrick broke to lead 6-5. Yet, in what turned out to be the pivotal moment of the match, he was unable to cash in on his advantage.
That two such high profile players should contest a Corby final is a testament to the pulling capacity of the Northants venue.
Cox, originally from Lincolnshire where he is domiciled once more over a spell in Lancashire, said: “I came here on Thursday after playing in ATP tournaments in America and I am flying out to Texas tomorrow (Sunday) to take part in two $15,000 events.”
He added: “My world rating has been as high as 250 but has dropped as I have been competing at a higher grade. These are good tournaments to take part in and this has helped give me a bit of confidence.”
Not that Cox’s vanquished opponent Fitzpatrick is any mug either, having won the 2011 Masters Final of this series in Nottingham at the beginning of December when he defeated recent British Davis Cup hero Dan Evans in the final. In this year’s Tour circuit, Fitzpatrick had beaten Josh Goodall in the final at Billesley and lost in the semis at Sheffield’s Graves Centre.
In the Corby semi-finals, Cox was a 6-1, 6-1 winner against Ruislip qualifier Joshua Page, last year’s 16U national title winner, while Fitzpatrick dismissed fifth seed Oliver Hudson 6-4, 6-1.
The ladies’ final at Corby had a similarly competitive opening set before then subjecting observers to an anti-climactic follow-up.
Last year’s finalists Yasmin Clarke (Derbyshire) and Emilia Banos-Gregorians (Surrey) were beaten in the 2012 semi-finals, top seed Clarke being ousted 6-4, 6-0 by Katy Dunne from Hertfordshire, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Thursday, and Jessica Ren who accounted for Banos-Gregorians 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
The turning point of the final arrived when Dunne’s fit of pique saw her breaking a racket and not being able to rapidly adjust to the replacement, a disastrous sequence of events which barely saw her win a point for four games.
By this stage she was a set and 3-0 down and the writing was on the wall.
Although only 17, Ren seems to have been around for years, a confusion possibly aided by her elder sister Jennifer, 18 months her senior, who is in America on a scholarship.
The respective runs of county youngsters Jordan Parker and Shakeel Manji came to an end in pre-qualifying last week. Parker was beaten 3-6, 1-6 by Dorset’s Tim Prosser while Manji went down 6-3, 1-6, 2-6 against Samuel Sutton of Yorkshire.
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