Scottish players won all six gold medals on offer at the Tennis Foundation’s Learning Disability Regional Series tournament at Scotstoun Tennis Centre in Glasgow over the weekend.
A total of ten players from Scotland played for medals alongside players from England and Wales at the two days of competition, which saw athletes contest a series of round-robin singles and doubles groups matches against others of a similar tennis ability.
Ronan Cacace completed the tournament with two gold medals after finishing on top of the podium in singles and doubles.
Cacace won the men’s Division 1 singles for the loss of just one game across his two matches, beating Adam Brownsword into silver medal position with a 6-1, 6-0 win over the Kent player.
The men’s Division 2 singles also resulted in a comfortable victory for Gregor Boyd, who dropped just games in his two round-robin matches against fellow Glasgow West players Gordon Taylor and Garry Hamilton. A 6-2 win for Taylor against Hamilton earned him the silver medal.
The closest match in the singles events ended with Stephen MacMillan taking the men’s Division 3 gold medal after beating Prestwick’s Jack Dickson 7-5, but Dickson wasted little time in securing the silver medal after beating Scotland East player Kenneth Ritchie.
Cacace paired up with Hamilton to ease to another gold medal in the men’s doubles. The duo lost only one game in total in their two group matches and beat silver medallists Brownsword and Taylor 6-1.
Lauren Waddell produced another dominant performance to win the women’s singles gold medal. Waddell beat fellow Borders athlete and Special Olympics World Games medallist Lucy Porteous 6-1, whilst racing through her other singles match against Prestwick’s Frances Smiley 6-0.
However, Porteous finished in gold medal position in the mixed doubles ahead of Waddell after the closest match of the whole weekend ended in a tie-break.
Porteous partnered Dickson to a 7-6(4) win over MacMillan and Waddell in their mixed doubles match, with MacMillan and Waddell earing the silver medal after a 6-1 win against Boyd and Smiley.
Andrew Raitt, Tennis Scotland’s Disability Tennis Development Manager, presented the medals.
Scotland West athletes Boyd, Cacace, Hamilton, MacMillan and Taylor all train with Glasgow Disability Tennis and Tennis Foundation coach Lesley Whitehead, while Porteous, Waddell and Dickson travel to Glasgow for match practice each month.
Launched in 2014, the Tennis Foundation Learning Disability Regional Series has also included tournaments in Leeds, Nottingham, Welwyn Garden City and Wrexham in 2015.
With the Glasgow tournament now complete, players will continue working towards the 12th National Learning Disability Tennis Event in Nottingham at the end of October.
Share