Exmouth’s Jack Findel-Hawkins claimed his first national title of the new tennis year by winning the Winter National Tour boys 18 & Under singles tournament held at Gosling sports complex in Welwyn Garden City, Herefordshire over the October half term week.
Jack, 17, of Exmouth Community College was delighted with the win. Jack’s coach Will McNally, Exeter Tennis Centre, praised Jack for a fantastic start to the winter season following his 2 national doubles titles won in the summer. Jack played positive tennis throughout the week, not dropping a single set. Only in the final did Jack drop his serve for the first time which highlighted his positive approach to each match.
Jack made easy pickings of his first match beating Neil Cordon (HER) 6-2, 6-2, later he eliminated Simon Pritchard (SW) 6-1, 6-4 and then Adam Glynn (DOR) 6-2, 6-1
In the semis he crushed James Elliot (SUR) 6-3, 6-1 and finished in style beating Takura Miamba (HAM) in the final 6-2 6-0.
Jack has been working on aggressive and positive play over the last 6 weeks in training and the hard work and effort has paid off.
This great result followed another impressive display in the Men’s British National Tour event held at Taunton earlier in the week where the talented, unseeded junior fought his way to the finals beating the number 6 and 8 seeds along the way.
Eventually Jack lost in the final to the number one seed Marcus Willis from Berkshire who is ranked 696 in the world 2-6 6-7. Again Jack showed great poise and pushed the former top 400 world player to a tense finish.
Jack returns to the practice court next week and should build on his great start to the winter season.
