Former champions Peter Willcox, Anthony Sinclair, Daniel Tunstall and Sidney Falconer head the entries for the men's singles when the 2011 National Deaf Tennis Championships takes place at Gosling International High Performance Centre at Welwyn Garden City for two days starting this Sunday, 1st May.
Defending men’s champion Willcox, an LTA Licensed coach from Surrey, will be bidding to become National champion for a tenth time, while Sinclair bids to regain the title after winning the most recent of his three titles in 2009.
Tunstall and Falconer, who have won a further six National men’s singles titles between them, should provide their strongest competition alongside some talented up-and-coming young players. Wiltshire-based coach Tunstall, the brother of award-winning singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, will aim to add to the two National singles titles he won at the end of the 1990s, having reached the final on several occasions since then while also winning a string of National doubles titles.
While Tunstall, Falconer, Sinclair and Willcox are four of the most experienced players in the men’s singles, up-and-coming players Ben Kelly, Jamie King, Shaun O’Brien, and Max Thorne will all bid to make a name for themselves against their more illustrious opposition, having each won the British Deaf Tennis Association’s Most Promising Player Award in recent seasons.
Nineteen-year-old Thorne, from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, provides the main regional interest.
The women’s singles also looks set to be an intriguing competition with Surrey’s Bethany Brookes looking to hang on to the title she won in 2010. Last year, 17-year-old Brookes completed a famous family double by becoming National champion 22 years after her mum Fiona won the last of her four women’s singles National titles in 1988.
However, the return to the event of former National champion Beth Simmons and former multiple runner-up Sharon Templeman provides the prospect of an enthralling competition.
As part of the Tennis Foundation’s drive to increase the number of deaf tennis players across the country and introduce more deaf people to the sport, the Foundation is also running a new Mini Orange Under 12 Deaf Tennis Competition, with coaching clinics for both children and adults, alongside the 2011 National Deaf Tennis Championships.
Coaching clinics for both children and adults will take place at the Gosling International High Performance Centre on Saturday, 30th April, while National Deaf Tennis Coach Chris Cash will be attending his first National Championships since his appointment by the Tennis Foundation in 2010. Mini Orange Under 12 Deaf Tennis singles and doubles events take place on Sunday, 1st May and Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd May.
“We are delighted to bring the National Deaf Tennis Championships back to Welwyn Garden City for the second successive year and with the defending champions and former champions in both the men’s and women’s open singles and doubles events, as well Over 35 singles and doubles events we are looking forward to an exciting weekend,” said Tournament Director Becky Drew.
“It is the ideal chance to also encourage new players to the sport through our children and adult coaching clinics and give them the chance to be inspired by some of the best deaf tennis players in the country, including several who have won medals at the Deaflympics and other top international competitions.”
The 2011 National Deaf Tennis Championships will be the last major event for Brtiain’s leading deaf players to perform in competition ahead of the announcement of Great Britain team selections for the 2011 Dresse and Maere Cup.
The Davis and Fed Cup-style event for deaf tennis takes place once every four years and this year’s Dresse and Maere Cup takes place in Izmir, Turkey in June.
The 2011 National Deaf Tennis Championships is supported by the Tennis Foundation, Babolat and Highland Spring.
Entry is free for all spectators.
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