Fernandez, Van Koot and Sasson begin 2025 with Victorian Open titles
Gustavo Fernandez claimed his first hard court singles title since 2020 as he joined Aniek van Koot and Guy Sasson in winning the first men’s, women’s and quad singles draws on the 2025 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour with victory at the Victorian Wheelchair Open.
Fernandez has previously alluded to some of the mental struggles he has worked through in recent seasons and he missed the Australian swing in 2024, but the world No. 4 and Paris 2024 men’s singles bronze medallist capped his first appearance at the Victorian Open since reaching the semi-finals in 2022 with a 6-3 6-3 win over world No. 3 Martin de la Puente in this year’s final.
With 10 consecutive clay court titles since the start of 2021 and the second and last of his 2024 singles title coming on grass, Argentina’s two-time Australian Open champion showed that he is starting 2025 in good form after the third seed beat top seed, defending champion and world No. 2 Alfie Hewett 6-2 7-6(3) in the semi-finals. Fernandez then went on to make it 21 wins in 23 matches against de la Puente.
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Runner-up in the ITF 1 men’s singles draw at Hume Tennis and Community Centre for the second successive year, De la Puente goes forward to this weekend’s start of the Melbourne Open with his own first title of 2025 after partnering Ruben Spaargaren to claim the men’s doubles title.
Reuniting as a doubles partnership for the first time since 2019, top seeds De la Puente and Spaargaren earned their second title together after beating second seeds Daniel Caverzaschi and Daniel Rodrigues 6-1 7-6(3).
Top seed Van Koot went one better than when finishing runner-up to Yui Kamiji at the 2024 Victorian Open 2024 as the world No. 3 held off world No. 4 Wang Ziying 6-1 4-6 6-4.
Van Koot’s seven wins over Wang in nine career matches between the two players since 2018 have included victory for the Dutchwoman in the Paris 2024 Paralympic bronze medal match and the 2024 NEC Singles Masters semi-finals, while her latest win was her third in four matches against Wang on Australian soil.
Wang also had to settle for runner-up honours in the women’s doubles after an assured performance in the final from top seeds Manami Tanaka and Zhenzhen Zhu.
Tanaka and Zhu took their tally of doubles titles together into double figures after the Japanese-Chinese duo beat the all-Chinese partnership of Li Xiaohui and Wang 6-3 6-2, with Li and Wang’s route to the final including a 6-0 6-2 victory over second seeds Lucy Shuker and Van Koot.
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Top seed Sasson retained his Victorian Open quad singles title to remain undefeated in eight matches against Heath Davidson.
With 15-year-old Australian Jin Woodman making the early headlines after a straight sets win over third seed Andy Lapthorne to join the remaining seven seeds in the quarter-finals, it was Woodman’s more experienced countryman Davidson who won their all-Australian last eight match 6-1 6-4.
Davidson went on to reach his fourth Victorian Open final since 2021, but the 2023 champion had to settle for finishing runner-up to Paris 2024 bronze medallist Sasson for the second year in a row as the Israeli recorded his seventh straight sets win over Davidson in their eight matches 6-4 6-0.
In the quad doubles there was a career first for 19-year-old Gonzalo Enrique Lazarte after the young Argentinian and Chile’s Francisco Cayulef beat second seeds Davidson and Robert Shaw 6-1 7-5 in the final. Last season’s Chilean Open champions had earlier beaten top seeds and Paris 2024 silver medallists Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade 6-4 6-4 in the quarter-finals en route to their second title together and Lazarte’s first ITF 1 Series title of his career.