The 23-year-old singles specialist says he is targeting an early climb towards the world’s top 500 this season with the help of consecutive events in Africa – and he got off to the perfect start with victory in the M15 Monastir Tournament.
Parker reached his first Futures final thanks to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 semi-final victory over Tunisian Moez Echargui, before securing the top prize on Sunday with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 success over Belgian Yannick Mertens – a player ranked over 200 places higher in the ATP world rankings.
‘Winning a title was the main goal for the year, so to do it in my first tournament is obviously great,’ said Parker, who was denied at the penultimate, semi-final hurdle three times during 2019 and 2020.
‘I played well from the quarter-finals through to the end and saving two match points in the final felt good as well.’
Despite the victory, Parker’s world ranking dropped four places to 717 on Monday, although he expects the standing to hit parity within a fortnight.
‘It will take two weeks for my points to be added to the rankings, but I should jump up by around 100 places, which will be good,’ he explained. ‘I’ll be here for another three weeks. If I have another couple of good weeks and leave here in the top 600, then I can enter some bigger tournaments.’
Parker, who is based at former world number four Thomas Enqvist’s academy in Aix-en-Provence, France, was required to complete five days of quarantine on arrival in Tunisia, following a negative pre-travel test.
