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19 March 2017 | Tennis ACT

World No.225 Marc Polmans (VIC) has won the first event of the ACT Claycourt International 2017 defeating fourth seed and team mate Blake Mott (NSW) 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 at the Canberra Tennis Centre in Lyneham.

“I knew the match wasn’t going to be easy,” he said. “He [Mott] is a good competitor and our coach prides himself on competing and fighting until the end, so it was a good match”.

A neck and neck first set followed by a focused Mott service game seemed to determine the match, however Mott’s emotions got the better of him in the third, a point penalty for racquet abuse paving the way to a Polmans victory.

“There was just a few points in it in the end,” said Polmans. “I was pretty happy to scrape in with that first set, considering I served for it 5-4, so it was a big confidence boost to win that. He [Mott] bounced back and won the second, so it just became 50-50 in the third set”.

“I find it pretty easy to control my emotions and I think that was a bit of a key today. Blake [Mott] kind of blew up a little bit, which may have cost him with that point penalty”.

Polmans appeared in the Apis Canberra International final in November 2016 and made a spontaneous decision to return to the capital while on tour in China last week.

“I was planning on playing a few Challengers there [China] but the cut off was 200 for main draw which meant I had to play qualies [qualifying round] so I wasn’t guaranteed matches”.

“I saw these two tournaments and I thought I might give them a crack and just come back home. It was a good decision in the end”.

The road to success was longer than it could have been, but the 19-year-old said he likes playing on clay which made it tough for his opponents.

“I like playing in Canberra, the conditions suit me very well, it’s nice and windy sometimes which some players don’t find too comfortable. But for me. I was winning most of my matches in straight sets and it was pretty smooth up until today.

The win earns Polmans a number of valuable ranking points, the tournament matches set to take him inside the top 200 ranked players in the world. He will compete in ACT Claycourt International #2 from Tuesday March 21.

“I’m going to try and do the same next week. I’ll take it one match at a time, but yes, I’ll be looking to go back to back.”

The ACT Claycourt Internatioanl continues, with event #2 qualifying underway and main draw due to start on Tuesday.