A fantastic day of great tennis matches in the glorious weather on the seven grass-courts and three new synthetic clay courts at Gxltc Bull Lane.
Graham Jackson and his daughter Isabella (12) put in great performances. Graham finally won the Men s singles following in the footsteps of his younger brother Andrew who won the event in the 1980’s and 90’s. Graham proved too consistent against ex Gxltc Academy Ambassador Conor McHale (22). Conor started very nervously in front of a large crowd and Graham raced into a 4-0 lead. The second set was much closer but Graham continued to hold serve and won the tie-break 7-4 to record a 6-2 7-6 win. Isabella won had already claimed the Road to Wimbledon tournament won the girls under 12 by beating Manasi Kumar in the semi final and then overcoming a good performance by Cara McCully 6-3 6-1 in the final. She then teamed up with Manasi to beat Cara and Sarah Ewart-Smith 6-3 6-3. Isabella s final match was with Lauren King-Sparke (15) in the ladies doubles final where they beat the over 65 winners Lynda Lowe and Chris Redmond 6-0 6-4.
Kelly Walsh won the ladies singles for the sixth time defeating Lauren King-Sparke 6-4 7-5. Lauren hit glorious forehand winners to lead 4-0 in the first set but Kelly hit with greater depth and mixed up the pace of her shots to force Lauren onto her back-foot. The second set followed a similar pattern with Lauren 5-3 up but unable to capitalise on her great attacking play. Lauren was able to make amends in the mixed doubles with ex club champion Dave Sellers defeating chief barman James Martin and new Mum Laura Jones 6-3 6-1.
There were other multi winners. Jacob Mellows had an early start against Zac Orr-Ewing on the clay in a gritty battle with long rallies he lost first set 5-4 and was 3-2 up in the second but 0-40 down but won 15 of the next 16 points to claim 4-5 4-2 10-1 victory. He then won the under doubles with brother Seb against Jonty Hughes-penny and Connor Peters 4-1 4-1 before winning under 10 singles against Jonty 4-1 4-1. Ashni Sangha (9) won a very high level girls under 9 (Orange) tournament against Aneka Patel 7-2 5-7 7-1; partnered Acada Lue Fong to beat Aneka and Ella Carby 4-3 4-3 girls under 10 doubles before beating Aneka again in the under 10 Road to Wimbledon final.
Peter Savage and Stewart Taylor claimed two doubles victories against Jon Elder and Herve Delebarre in the veteran (over 45) 6-2 6-4 and followed this up with revenge for last year by beating Dave Sellers and Graham Jackson 7-6 6-2 in a very entertaining match which had the crowd on the edge of their seat.
Tommy Packman (16) had a busy day (following his week of work experience with the Tennace Coach team); he lost the Men’s B final to very strong Dan Voss 6-3 7-6; he went back on to the same grass court to play Gxltc Academy Ambassador 2015 Alex Onn(18). Alex proved too consistent and combined with powerful serving Tommy lost again 6-2 6-2. Finally he notched up his first victory at the end of the day he teamed up with hid friend Raj Uppal to beat Oli Ryan and Julio Prado in the under 18 doubles final 6-2 6-4.
Dan Buckeldee (15) showed his class by winning the under 15 singles and doubles although James McCully put on a great display in the second sets of both matches.
Top seed Wiehan Van Wyk (12) stormed to a good win over doubles partner Sam Hirst 6-4 6-0 they then teamed up to play James Mason and William Evans and seemed to be coasting to victory after winning the first set 6-0 but James and William remained focussed to take the second set 7-5 and their more attacking play enabled them to win the tie-break 10-7. James’s sister Olivia added to her Beaconsfield Tennis Club victories by claiming the under 15 singles against Sophie Emmins 6-1 6-1.
The vets men singles saw Johnny Elder beat David Kay when David had to retire with a bad back which also hampered him in the vets mixed doubles while partnering Marina Lyons against Peter Cook and Tanya Petty; losing 6-0 6-4.
The Orange under 9 tournament was equally as impressive as the girls with many matches being so close: Max Mowle beat Tom Line 2-7 7-5 12-10 in the quarters before losing to number two seed Robbie Spittal 8-6 6-8 7-5 who then lost 7-2 7-9 7-5 saving four match points in the second set against Seb Mellows.
The under 8 (Red) events were very exciting with Josh Sangha beating top seed Alex Thomas 10-6 and Josh Fienberg coming 3rd. Helena Ullyatt (8) won the girls event against her school friend Emma Servaes 10-2; Anoushka Patel came 3rd.
A great finals day came to an end with presentation to all finalists and the organisers who made the day run so smoothly.
More tournaments are being staged by Tennace at Gxltc - Mini Tennis tournaments Red and Orange for players aged under 9 on Saturday mornings and 10 to 16 years old on Sunday mornings through the Summer. For details on any of these please see www.Tennace.com/ competition OR call andy@Tennace.com.
