Last updated: 28/07/2013

GB continue singles success at Deaflympics

Lewis Fletcher, Peter Willcox and Bethany Brookes all made it through their opening singles matches on the third day of the 22nd Summer Deaflympics in Sofia.

Fifth seed Fletcher defeated Japan's Masaki Ashino 6-2, 6-3 to join Willcox in the last 16 of the men's singles. With both Brits starting their second Deaflympics in style, 11-time National champion Willcox beat Turkey's Enes Unver 6-1, 6-1.

Sixteenth seed Willcox will now face fourth seed Hans Toedter of Germany, a doubles silver medallist at the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne and the 2012 European Championships in Germany, for a place in the quarter-finals. Fletcher will play 12th seed Maxime Sanchez of France.

A day after securing a place in the women's doubles quarter-finals, Brookes eased through her first ever singles match at a Deaflympics, beating Vasiliki Kalogeropoulou 6-0, 6-1 to repeat her straight sets win over the Greek athlete in the first round of the 2012 European Championships.

The three-time women's singles National champion will play French sixth seed Sophie Bernard, the silver medallist at the 2012 European Championships, for a place in the women's quarter-finals.

However, Fletcher and Willcox saw their bid to reach the men's doubles quarter-finals come to an end when they lost out 6-4, 6-1 to India's D. H. Prashanth and Prithvi Sekhar.

A busy fourth day of play on Monday for Great Britain's players sees Brookes and Catherine Fletcher both in action in the women's singles and Lewis Fletcher and Willcox both in action in the next round of the men's singles.

Later in the day fourth seeds Fletcher and Fletcher will open their mixed doubles campaign against India's Shilipi Jaiswal and Prashanth, while fifth seeds Brookes and Willcox will play USA's Emily and Daniel Hastefer as both British partnerships bid to reach the quarter-finals. 

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