Exactly 32 coaches started the blisteringly hot and humid Wednesday morning with the first ever CF Tennis Academy Doubles Championships.
A doubles version of the, incredibly popular, Money Where Your Mouth is tournament this event brought together coaches to team up and battle it out for the Inaugral title.
Charles and Christian (1) teamed up to create what seemed like an unbeatable combination whilst Banty and Kenny (2) or Sam and Vishesh (3) looked to be there biggest threats in an incredibly strong field.
The shock of the day almost came immediately when Charles and Christian saved match points before eventually coming through 11/9 in the final set. Aside from that epic we saw Ivan and Jon (4) be pushed all the way, again saving match points, before moving through 11/9 in the final set.
There were some unbelievable tennis on the courts during the semi finals with Tennis Director Paul and Head Coach Rafa (5) pushing Sam and Vishesh all the way before the young Nigerian/Indian combination luckily took the final set. Serbian/Croatian partnership Nenad and Mikki totally dominated the match against Ivan and Jon as they blasted there way through to a semi final match up with Charles and Christian.
Both semi finals saw contrasting matches. Sam and Vishesh easily brushed aside the Nigerian second seeds Banty and Kenny whilst the former Yugoslavian combination of Nenad and Mikki stunned favourites Charles and Christian 13/11 12/10.
The final pitched Nenad and Mikki (5) against Sam and Vishesh (3) in a match which had twists and turns throughout almost every moment. A tight first set concluded with the Europeans taking it 10/8 whilst the second set was even more of a battle. Both teams taking small leads only the be pegged back. Eventually the consistency and the Europeans held strong as they took the second set and the title 11/9.
This means over the course of this year we have had the following Academy Champions.
Money Where Your Mouth is (Singles)Ivan Horsky (Slovakia) defeated Bolaji Olawepo (Nigeria) 2/7 7/5 7/4
CF Tennis Academy Doubles Championships
Nenad Marcec (Serbia) & Mikki Tadic (Croatia) defeated Samuel Omoile (Nigeria) & Vishesh Bhatia (India) 10/8 11/9
CF Tennis Academy touchtennis Championships Charles Paruta (France) defeated Christian Summers (UK)4/1 4/1
CF Tennis Academy Francis Cup (Davis Cup format) Charles Paruta & Raphael Scodellaro (France) defeated Mubashir Afridi & Abbas Raza (Pakistan) 2/1