Schön and Liepert defend titles at Tennis Foundation Ghana ITF J5 Accra Open

Switzerland’s Patrick Schön and Austria’s Mia Liepert successfully defended the Tennis Foundation Ghana ITF J5 Accra Open boys and girls singles titles respectively this weekend at the National Tennis Centre, Accra.

After successfully winning the Boys and Girls Tennis Foundation Ghana ITF 5 Accra first week titles, Mia Liepert and Patrick Schön continued their dominance in the second week with Patrick Schön defeating Israel’s Gur Trakhtenberg 6-4, 6-3 to win the boy’s singles title and Mia also beating Diana Maria Ilie 7-4, 6-1.

Patrick becomes the second player to win the title back to back after France’s Mathis Bondaz won it two consecutive times in April 2019.

Patrick tried to avoid long points by employing the odd drop-shot but that helped Gur to level at 3-3. A fascinating opening set could have swung either way, but it was the defending champion Schön, who edged it when he unpicked Gur’s serve again in the 7th game to win the set 6-4.

There was a brief glimmer of hope at 30-30 in the seventh game of the second set, but Schön held for 5-3 prodding his temple with his finger to emphasise his mental toughness. Schön sealed the set with a crunching forehand which Gur could not handle.

The girl’s final had Austria’s Mia Liepert cementing her place as the outstanding star of the girl’s game by beating Diana Maria Ilie 7-5 6-1 in the final to win her second ITF title.

In the doubles events, Mia Liepert again partnered Denmark’s Divine Dasam Nweke to beat Romanian duo Diana Maria Ilie and Andra Izabella Sirbu 6-3, 6-1.

Ghana’s Desmond Ayaaba paired with Togo’s Hod’abalo Isak Padio and proved their resilience by winning the Tennis Foundation Ghana ITF J5 Accra Boy’s doubles title, beating William Alsterback from Sweden & Bon Lou Karstens from Germany 6-4, 6-2.

The two- week events were sponsored by Tennis Foundation Ghana, Second Serve Tennis Shop, Hollard Insurance, Beebies Event, Nii Noi CanDo and Mcdan AfWest Security.