Vink, Fernandez and Kamiji add to their title hauls at Barcelona Open
Niels Vink and Gustavo Fernandez captured their first singles titles on the 2024 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour as the 2024 Tram Barcelona Open came to a close with Yui Kamiji regaining the women’s singles title at the third ITF 1 Series clay court tournament of the season.
Rewind 12 months and Vink had already won four quad singles titles and helped Netherlands to retain the quad title at BNP Paribas World Team Cup by the middle of May 2023 on his way to winning 22 of his first 23 matches of the year.
However, 2024 has started somewhat differently for the 21-year-old world No.1, for whom Barcelona was only the third final in five tournaments this year. But he eased through to the final to meet unseeded Turkish player Ahmet Kaplan, who progressed to his first ITF 1 final after winning his first career match against second seed Donald Ramphadi.
Six of Vink’s first eight sets again Kaplan over the last 12 months had ended 6-0, but Kaplan got on the scoreboard in both sets of their Barcelona final before Vink wrapped up his first singles title of 2024 6-1 6-3.
Kaplan's reward is a new career-high ranking at No. 8 in the quad singles rankings this week as he comes to the end of a month that started by inspiring Turkey to a first World Team Cup final.
Vink and Kaplan also came within touching distance of making a victorious debut as a doubles partnership, but were edged out by Heath Davidson and Robert Shaw 6-4 4-6 (10-8) as the top seeds narrowly secured their third title of 2024 together.
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Fernandez regains Barcelona crown with first title of 2024
World No.3 Fernandez paid tribute to his coach and his team in the wake of securing his third Barcelona Open title since 2021 and avenging his three-set loss to Martin de la Puente in the 2023 final with a tense 6-2 4-6 7-6(10) victory over the Spaniard in this year’s title decider.
The Argentinian top seed opted to miss the Australian swing to prioritise his mental and physical health and made reference to ‘the darkest moments of anxiety’ as he took to social media following his first singles title since November’s Parapan American Games and his second singles title since also tasting victory in Barcelona at last October’s Catalonia Open.
Since his first Barcelona Open victory in 2021, Fernandez’s last 10 singles titles have come on clay, which bodes well for the coming weeks and his first Grand Slam campaign of 2024 at Roland Garros. But his latest success in Barcelona was not without its dramas.
Unable to level the second set at 5-5, having already fought back from 3-0 down, Fernandez again found his way back from 3-0 down in the final set and this time restored parity after 10 games before forcing the third set tie-break.
Three match points came and went for Fernandez before De la Puente had his own match point at 8-7, but it would be another three match points later before Fernandez finally slotted the winning forehand down the line that brought an outpouring of emotion from the victor.
The men’s doubles brought a second career title for the partnership of Casey Ratzlaff and Ruben Spaargaren. And while a walkover awarded by top seeds De la Puente and Joachim Gerard gave the American-Dutch duo their first ITF 1 title together it was also the first ITF 1 title for 25-year-old Ratzlaff.
Kamiji makes it two singles and three doubles titles
Yui Kamiji’s first tournament since having to miss the 2024 BNP Paribas World Team Cup because of illness brought a second Barcelona Open women’s singles title in three years as Japan’s world No. 2 emulated Vink in regaining a crown on the clay at the Reial Club de Polo.
Perhaps most notably, the draw separated Kamiji from the four Chinese players that had helped their country win a second World Team Cup women’s title at the beginning of May with Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang winning through to the semi-finals after defeating countrywomen Zhenzhen Zhu and Luoyao Guo respectively.
Having won both singles matches in the World Team Cup final against Netherlands, Li and Wang’s sixth international career head-to-head ended in a 6-2 6-4 win for Wang to extend her record against Li to 4-2 and earn a place in her second successive ITF 1 final.
However, having taken Kamiji to a third and deciding set for the second time this season after recovering from 3-0 down in the second set of the final, Wang’s successful week eventually ended in defeat as the top seed took a tough assignment 6-1 6-7(6) 6-4.
Kamiji’s victory in the women’s singles final followed her third successive women’s doubles title in Barcelona alongside Kgothatso Montjane.
The Japanese-South African duo and current Doubles Masters champions began their partnership at the 2022 Barcelona Open, where the final brought victory after a deciding match tie-break against then top seeds Lucy Shuker and Aniek van Koot.
This year the seedings were different, but the opponents and the outcome were the same as Kamiji and Montjane claimed their 14th title together 6-0, 6-3.
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