The Great Britain Deaf Tennis Team has been nominated for Team of the Year in the Deaf Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2012, while Bethany Brookes has also been nominated for Young Player of the Year.
The seven-strong GB team claimed an impressive haul of five medals at the 12th European Deaf Tennis Championships in Koblenz, Germany in July.
Surrey's two-time National champion Brookes won gold in the junior girls' singles and Yorkshire's Sophie Paul took gold with a Slovakian partner in the junior mixed doubles.
Jack Clifton, another of GB's up-and-coming young players, won silver in the junior boys' singles, while there was also medal success for some of Great Britain's more experienced players. Multiple National champion and Deaflympic Games medallist Catherine Fletcher paired up with Brookes to win silver in the women's doubles before partnering her husband, Lewis Fletcher, to win the bronze medal in the mixed doubles.
With the Deaf Sports Personality of the Year Awards being held every two years, this year's awards also take into account performances in 2011. Brookes' achievement in winning her second women's singles title at the 2011 National Deaf Tennis Championships, added to her two medals at this year's European Championships, have resulted in her being nominated for Young Player of the Year for the second time.
“The whole team have put in a lot of hard work over the last 18 months and we’re delighted to be nominated for an award after winning five medals at the Europeans and as recognition for some great progress being made by all of our players, in particular our juniors,” said the Tennis Foundation's National Deaf Tennis Coach, Chris Cash.
The Great Britain Deaf Tennis Team have been nominated for Team of the Year alongside Belfast Deaf Football Club, who've won the British Deaf Football Cup for the last two seasons and St. John's Deaf Football Club, winners of the Deaf European Champions League.
Brookes is nominated for Young Player of the Year alongside British No. 3 deaf judo player Jack Hodgson and swimmer Jack McComish.
The Deaf Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2012 will take place at the RICOH Arena, Coventry, on 17 November.
You can watch highlights from the National Deaf Tennis Championships from earlier this year in the video at the top of the page.
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