A host of Dorset players were in action at the 92nd Bournemouth Open and a number of them returned home with a title under their belt after an impressive week of tennis at the West Hants Club.
Eliz Maloney claimed two titles with victories in the girls’ U16s and girls’ U14s tournaments. Playing as the fourth seed in the U16s, she beat second seed Anna Battersby 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Maloney was the top seed in the U14s and she won 6-2, 7-6(2) against Esther Adeshine the number two seed. Battersby was again a runner up in her second final of the event. She was down 7-5 4-4 before having to retire against Natalie Sayer in the final of the girls’ U18s.
There were dominant displays from Sophia Hurrion and Alex Knox-Jones in the girls and boys U10s. Hurrion dropped just four games on her way to winning the title. She beat top seed Kimi Khehra 4-2, 4-2 in the final. Boys number one seed Knox-Jones beat Tarun Darvay 4-1, 4-0 to Knox-Jones conceded only three games in three matches.
In the boys’ U16s, Harry Butler reached the semi-finals before being beaten by top seed and eventual champion James Hardiman 6-3, 6-2. Sheui Belcher was the winner of the boys’ U14s after he beat Finley Bygrave 6-1, 6-4 in the final.
Ben Samuel was the boys U12s champion after a nail-biting 7-5, 7-6(5) win over Luca Mcmanus in the final. Mcmanus had earlier beaten the top seed Thomas Powell 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-finals. Danielle Sebata was the runner-up in the girls’ U12s as she was beaten 7-5, 6-3 by Connie Simpson; Sebata beat Erin Richardson, number one seed, en route to the final 3-6, 6-4, 1-0(5).
A 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4 win in a marathon final was enough to see Nicholas Sayer crowned as the men’s champion after he beat top seed Tom Gutteridge. There were two more runners up finishes for Dorset players as Oliver Brown was the beaten finalist in the boys U18s, whilst Piers Herfet-Jones and James White won 4-6, 7-6(2), 1-0(9) in a lengthy Men’s doubles final.
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By Harry Lund