| Sunday, 6 July 2008 Written by Ian Baker Dutch duo Robin Ammerlaan and Ronald Vink have retained their Wimbledon Wheelchairs Masters Series title after a 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-3 victory over French pair Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer. Ammerlaan and Vink lost just two games in their semi-final victory over Britons David Phillipson and Gordon Reid on Saturday and it looked like being a similarly comfortable match as they raced to a 3-0 first set lead. But the French pairing hit back to force a tiebreak. Blustery conditions made serving difficult with all four players regularly making double faults. Two doubles from Vink in the tiebreak proved costly and a marvellous drop volley from Houdet gave the Frenchmen the set. Ammerlaan, 40, and Vink, 32, have plenty of experience and showed their full know how with a convincing second set, as they adapted well to the conditions. Vink’s confidence was restored following a disappointing personal first set and the Dutchmen never looked back. The final set was very close early on. Ammerlaan’s serve was broken at 2-2, but unforced errors especially from Houdet allowed the Dutchmen to break back immediately. Ammerlaan and Vink’s commitment to stay in rallies ultimately proved crucial as Peifer’s serve was broken at 3-4. With rain on its way, Ammerlaan quickly served out the match to seal victory. “We were a little bit nervous in the third set,” said Ammerlaan, who still has hopes of competing in the 2012 Paralympics, taking place here at SW19. “In the second set we played very good and they made a lot of mistakes.” “To lose the first set was stupid from us because we were up all the time.” Vink said it was a change of tactics that saw him and Ammerlaan home. He said: “We let them play [in the first set] and we knew we had to play forward and dictate the game instead of just defending.” In the third/fourth placed play-off, Tadeusz Kruszelnicki of Poland and Austria’s Martin Legner beat British pair Phillipson and Reid comfortably 6-4, 6-2.
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