Fuller Brothers Storm Through In London Open

Brothers Chris and Mark Fuller led a home-grown charge of six Englishmen through the first round of action at the 2015 London Open, PSA M10 tournament taking place at Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club.

Unseeded Mark pulled off the biggest win of the first round as he upended number eight seed Ammar Altamimi, coming from two games down to complete a remarkable come-from-behind victory while Chris, the younger of the two brothers, came through a straightforward encounter with Portuguese player Rui Soares.

Elsewhere Richie Fallows came from one-game down to get past Matthew Hopkin of Australia while George Parker, James Earles and Ben Coleman all came through their first round encounter in straight-games.

A fast paced performance from Piedro Schweertman saw him dispose of Ismail Rauf in little over 20 minutes, with the Dutchman in scintillating form, to carry foreign interests into the quarter-finals alongside New Zealand’s Paul Coll.

Coll, the pre-tournament favourite, avoided a potential banana skin by beating Charlie Lee 3-0. Coll showed why he is much fancied to win the tournament with an impressive performance leaving Lee struggling to find any solutions.

Results – London Open
[1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt [Q] Charlie Lee (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5
Mark Fuller (ENG) bt [8] Ammar Altamimi (KUW) 3-2: 8-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7
[6] George Parker (ENG) bt Khawaja Adil Maqbool (PAK) 3-0: 11-6, 13-11, 14-12
[4] Piedro Schweertman (NED) bt [LL] Ismail Rauf (PAK) 3-0: 11-3, 11-9, 11-2
[3] Richie Fallows (ENG) bt Matthew Hopkin (AUS) 3-1: 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-4
[5] James Earles (ENG) bt [Q] Micah Franklin (BER) 3-0: 12-10 12-10, 14-12
[7] Chris Fuller (ENG) bt [Q] Rui Soares (POR) 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-5
[2] Ben Coleman (ENG) bt [Q] Lyell Fuller (ENG) 3-0: 13-11, 11-5, 11-6

Draw – Quarter-finals:
[1] Paul Coll (NZL) v Mark Fuller (ENG)
[6] George Parker (ENG) v [4] Piedro Schweertman (NED)
[3] Richie Fallows (ENG) v [5] James Earles (ENG)
[7] Chris Fuller (ENG) v [2] Ben Coleman (ENG)

Report By James Hall