12/08/13
Greg Shea claimed victory on his tournament debut at the Kent Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Canterbury, the penultimate fixture in the 2013 Summer Series of events in the Tennis Foundation's Wheelchair Tennis Development Series.
A fascinating singles event saw Shea, Pat Seaward and Steve Crompton, the winner of the 2012 Tennis Foundation Development Series, all secure two wins apiece in the round-robin phase of the competition, but with Shea and Seaward having won most games in their three matches they went forward to the final.
Shea had already beaten Seaward 6-2 in their round-robin match, but gained an even wider margin of victory in the final, defeating Seaward 6-1. Meanwhile, Crompton and Karl Ives fought out a much closer contest for third place, with Crompton edging to a 7-5 victory.
Jack Pegram claimed victory in the A Division Singles after revering his loss to Nick Smelt in the round-robin phase of their event.
Smelt finished his three group matches unbeaten after a 7-6(4) win over Pegram. However, with Pegram's only loss in their group coming against Smelt, the two players went forward to the final and Pegram built on his earlier narrow loss to claim a comprehensive 6-1 victory when it most counted. Lawrence Blomfield beat Sara Gaisford 6-0 in the third place play-off.
Alex Mitton dropped just three games in winning both his matches against Bev Grimes and Elizabeth Maynard in the group phase of the Novice Singles. In the other group Chris Nash came through his two group matches against Jos Achner and Tracey Proudlock having dropped just four games.
With the top two players in each group going forward to cross-over semi-finals, Nash eased to a 6-1 win over Grimes, while Mitton had a much tougher time against Proudlock before eventually prevailing 7-5. But come the final it was Nash put that just had the edge over Mitton for a 7-5 victory.
That was Nash's first of two titles in Canterbury as he also partnered Crompton to win the doubles, the duo earning a 6-4 win over Mitton and Pegram in the final.