10/10/13
Paul Ryb and Jan Reynolds won the men's and women's singles at the 2013 National Visually Impaired Tennis Tournament, which was once again held at the National Tennis Centre, Roehampton on 5-6 October.
With a total of 50 players competing across seven different singles or doubles events, Ryb ended the weekend with a total of three titles.
The format of the tournament, supported by Metro Blind Sport and the Tennis Foundation, saw two qualification draws in both the men's and women's singles with the winner of Qualification A and Qualification B facing each other in the final.
Ryb came through his men's singles qualification draw, beating Matt Page 7-6(3) after a tie-break in his third match.
Defending champion David Samuels, who beat Ryb in a match tie-break in the 2012 final, reached the deciding match in his qualification draw this year without dropping a game, but he found himself edged out 6-4 by Arif Malik, who won Qualification A to reach the final.
However, Ryb proved far too strong for his opponent in the final, easing to a 6-0 win over Malik to do one better than his runners-up spot in 2012.
Odette Battarel, the defending women's singles champion, dropped just one game in her three matches en route to winning her qualification draw, while Reynolds proved equally dominant in her qualification matches, reaching the final without dropping a single game after a 6-0 win over 2012 runner-up Wendy Glasper.
Reynolds continued her fine run of form in the final, beating Battarel 6-2 to succeed her opponent as the champion.
The B1 singles event for totally blind players ended with Kelly Cronin claiming the spoils after remaining unbeaten in three matches against Alu Abati, Peter Bosher and Maria O'Shodi. Cronin defeated Bosher 11-9 in the closest of the matches, while Bosher claimed runners-up honours after defeating Abati 10-7.
Having finished runner-up in the men's singles, Malik came out on top in the men's doubles after partnering Ryan Jones to victory. After a bye into the semi-finals, Jones and Malik defeated Ryb and Roy Smith 4-1 before beating Michael Smith and Alex Wheen by the same score in the final, denying Wheen victory in the men's doubles for the second successive year.
Battarel also clinched the women's doubles title after finishing runner-up in the women's singles as she teamed up with Christine Lawrence to win both their quarter-finals and semi-final matches 4-0. The pair dropped just one game in the final as they secured the title with a 4-1 win over Rosie Pybus and Ramona Williams.
Ryb picked up another title when he partnered Minerva Ainsworth to win the mixed doubles, which saw the biggest entry of the weekend's events.
The duo moved into the final with ease, winning both their quarter-final and semi-final contests by a margin of 4-0. Page and Roberts were almost as dominant en route to the final, but after winning their quarter-final 4-0 they dropped two games in their semi-final.
Ryb and Roberts had been on the same side of the net in 2012 as they won the mixed doubles together, but Ryb and Ainsworth won a tense final this year, defeating Page and Roberts 5-3.
Ryb's third title came in the VI and Sighted mixed doubles event. After four qualification draws, eight teams made it through to the main draw, and Ryb ultimately partnered Jessica Bevington to victory after a 7-4 victory over Graeme Manwell and Glasper.
View the full results here.