Mark Whitehouse and Olivia Nicholls were crowned men’s and women’s champions at the British Colleges and Universities Sport (BUCS) National Individual Tennis Championships in Loughborough this weekend.
Whitehouse, from Imperial College London, took his crown defeating former ATP top 500 player Torsten Wioetoska from the University of Durham in an exciting final, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
“It’s a great way to end the week,” said Whitehouse, who becomes the first British winner of the men’s singles championship since Colin Fleming took the title for the University of Stirling in 2007.
“When I lost the second set I was concerned that it may slip away from me but I knew that if I held my serve I would get opportunities to win the match,” he added.
Nicholls, who was seeded fifth, beat the University of Bath's Alex Walker and Durham's Jessica Ren on the way to the final before overcoming the University of East London's Lutfiana-Aris Budiharto to take the title.
Loughborough University's Head Coach James Buswell was impressed with Nicholls’ performances.
"She’s being training hard recently and this result reflects that,” he said. “There are a lot of very good players in this event and we’re delighted that a Loughborough student has won."
Both of the winners are supported by Sport England's Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme and will be looking to build on this weekend's success playing Pro Series events in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Wietoska recovered from his singles disappointment to pick up the men’s doubles title for Durham. Along with partner Jaime Vazquez, they defeated Leeds Beckett University’s Pete Ashley and Nick Eeckelaers in the final.
The women's doubles was won for the second year in a row by Bath, with Walker and Natasha Starling beating the Loughborough pairing of Nicholls and Louise Holtum to claim the title.
This weekend's finals were the culmination of a series of qualifying tournaments around the country which saw the biggest entry in the event's history.
The Tennis Foundation's University Manager Alistair Higham said: "University tennis in Great Britain is as strong as ever and we are delighted at the increased entries we’ve had. This year the women’s entry was up by 50 players to 170 and the men's by 30 to 270, which is amazing and shows how much tennis is thriving in universities across the country."
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