New Grade 3 for Derbyshire proves a hit

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Hundreds of promising young tennis players flocked to Derby to compete in the first-ever grade three tournament held at David Lloyd.

More than 250 entries were received for the Pride Park gym's winter junior open, which featured competitors from across the country.

Taking the home spoils was Derbyshire's boys junior player of the year, Sam Ferguson, who won the 14 and under boys' singles title.

The 12-year-old, attached to David Lloyd, did not drop a set on his way to the final, where he beat fellow county player Jay Clarke 6-0, 6-0.

This followed a 4-1, 4-1 win by the number one seed over Tom Hillier in the second round, a 6-0, 6-0 victory over fifth seed Dominic West and a 6-2, 6-1 triumph against Robert Leck, seeded fourth, in the semi-finals.

Other notable performances from Derbyshire players came from Harry Finney, Grace King, Ben Porter and Olivia Nelms.

Matt Lambert, adult racquets manager at David Lloyd, said regional talent co-ordinators had praised the county's showing.

"They said the standard of the Derbyshire players was much better than a lot of other countries, which is really good," he said.

"Our own players at David Lloyd, like Grace King, did really well and it was great to see some of the performances from local players. They were very impressive.

"The tournament as a whole went very well and we are hoping it can become a yearly, possibly even a twice-yearly, event."

Finney reached the finals of the 10 and under mixed singles, before losing 4-2, 4-5(4), 10-2 to Rahul Dhokia.

The nine-year-old had won all three of his round-robin matches and then beat Thomas Else 4-2 in the quarter-finals and Max Guo 5-3, 5-4(4) in the penultimate round.

King also competed for the 10 and under mixed singles title and reached the semi-finals but suffered a 4-1, 4-0 defeat to eventual winner Dhokia.

She too won all three of her round-robin matches to top her group and then won 4-0 against Lauren Armstrong in the first knock-out round.

King also competed in the 12 and under girls' singles but lost her first-round match to Courtney McCorkell 4-0, 4-0.

In the consolation draw, she was beaten 4-1, 4-2 by Francesca Booth in the final.

Nelms beat the number one seed Rebecca Wood 2-6, 6-2, 18-16 in the 18 and under girls' singles to reach the final.

But she lost in straight sets to second seed Rebecca Smaller, who also won the 16 and under girls' singles title.

And Porter qualified for the main draw of the nine and under mixed singles tournament, after winning all three of his round-robin matches.

But he was knocked out in the quarter-finals when he lost 7-2, 7-6 to Otto Jawahir.

Lambert added: "It was great to see our local players in action but it was great that competitors came from all over the country.

"We had 11 players come up from Cornwall and the county administrator said they had a holiday up here as well. The tournament was just absolutely massive.

"It was our first-ever grade three tournament and it was bigger than we ever expected but everyone seemed to really enjoy it and things ran very smoothly."

DERBY TELEGRAPH

Back row, from left: Vic Griffin, director of sponsors IMS Lettings, Dave Barnes, David Lloyd junior racquet manager, Matt Lambert, adult racquet manager. Front row: James Donlan, Ethan Watson, Harry Harbey, Grace King and Harry Finney.

 
 

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