Close on the heels of of Great Britain players winning five gold medals and a bronze medal at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, the latest Tennis Foundation Learning Disability Regional Series tournament in Wrexham brought gold medals for players from across the country.
With 34 players contesting men’s and women’s singles and doubles events in a series of round-robin pools against others of a similar tennis ability, Tom Brownsword, Alex Hume, Marco Fusco and Mathew Wreglesworth all won singles and doubles gold medals.
Brownsword, whose brother Adam was third in the men’s Division 1 singles, won the gold medal in the men’s Division 2 singles. He remained unbeaten in his two matches after a narrow 7-5 win over Nottinghamshire’s Peter Norton.
Adam and Tom paired up to win the men’s Division 1 doubles gold medal after the Kent brothers won all three of theirs matches as a partnership in straight sets.
The Division 1 singles gold medal went to Birmingham’s Zach Brookes, who dropped just one game in each of his two matches, while Bromsgrove’s Adam Hodgson took another gold medal back to the West Midlands after 6-4 and 7-5 wins in his Division 3 singles matches.
There was South West success in the Division 4 and Division 5 singles as Gloucester’s Alex Hume and Exeter’s Tom Sewell both secured 6-4 and 6-1 wins in their two matches in their respective groups to earn their gold medals. Meanwhile, there was another gold medal for a player from the West Midlands after Marco Fusco made it two wins from two matches in the men’s Division 6 singles.
Hume won his men’s Division 2 doubles gold medal alongside fellow Gloucestershire player Robert Fisher as the duo claimed 7-5 and 6-3 wins in their two matches.
Wreglesworth won the first of his gold medals in the men’s Division 7 singles as the Yorkshire player claimed 6-4 and 6-1 wins in his two matches against local North Wales players Chris Burke and Stephen Parry.
However, there was a gold medal for a North Wales player after James Stidolph came out on top in a dramatic end to the men’s Division 8 singles. All three of Stidolph’s matches ended in tie-break as he beat Dylan Wilkin 7-6(8) and Paul Griffin 7-6(10), but was edged out 7-6(3) by John Byrne.
Wilkin also finished his three matches with two wins after beating both Byrne and Griffin 6-3, but his loss to Stidolph proved decisive in Stidolph winning the gold medal and Wilkin receiving the silver medal.
There was another close finish in the women’s Division 1 singles as three players finished their-round-robin matches with two wins apiece. Yorkshire duo Emma Lindsay and Laura Wells and West Midlands’ Jayne Hinett earned two wins apiece after Wells clinched a vital tie-break to edge out Lindsay 5-4(2). However, Lindsay won the gold medal and Hinett the silver medal after the three players were eventually separated by the higher percentage of total games won, Lindsay winning 60 per cent of her games, Hinett winning 58.82 per cent of her games and Well winning 57.89 per cent of her games.
The women’s Division 2 singles ended with a more clear-cut win for gold medallist Jane Weatherhead as the Kent player dropped just three games across her two matches.
Fusco and Wreglesworth added to their singles gold medals when pairing up to win the men’s Division 3 doubles. They joined forces to remain unbeaten in four matches, winning two of their contests 4-0 and recording 4-1 and 4-2 wins in their other two matches.
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