Monday, 25 July 2016, Jambes, Belgium. – South Africa’s leading wheelchair tennis ace Kgothatso Montjane clinched the Belgian Open women’s doubles with her Colombian partner Angelica Bernal on Saturday outplaying the top seed team of Sabine Ellerbrock (GER) and Pauline Helouin (FRA) in the final.
The second seeded Montjane and Bernal, edged past the top seeded pair 6-3 4-6 [10-4] in a tricky final to win their first title in a team debut.
Montjane praised her partnership with Bernal, “It has been a great week here in Jambes partnering with Bernal. We are a solid team. I am very happy that she helped me to come back and win the Belgian Open for the second time.”
“From the start, we hit it off,” Montjane said. “Our games work well together.”
The 30-year-old Paralympian suffered another near miss in the women’s singles, having lost the Belgian Open semi-final for the fourth consecutive year to Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock in Jambes.
Second seeded Ellerbrock defeated Montjane 6-3 7-5 to deny the Limpopo star yet another final in Belgium.
“I gave it my all in the singles semi-final against Sabine Ellerbrock but she was just too strong,” said Montjane before breaking through for her second doubles crown at the Belgian Open.
The world number nine Montjane who will be representing South Africa at the summer Paralympics in Rio now move on to the next tournament, the British Open, an International Tennis Federation (ITF) Super Series event in Nottingham from 26-31 July.
