Dorset's Ben Battey and Sophia Haine were victorious in Dorset's Road to Wimbledon county finals last month. Both have now been invited to compete at the National finals on the week of the 13th - 18th of August, which will be contested at the Bank of England Sports ground, Roehampton.
Both players had progressed through form their individual club events (stage 1 of the competition) to reach the county finals. The county finals was made up of successful winners from individual club events from all over the county held earlier in the year.
Ben Battey swept aside strong opponents in the preliminary rounds, and secured his place in the National finals by inflicting a crushing 6-1 6-1 defeat on Finley Bygrave, the tournaments number 2 seed., who had come through an extremely close match with Weymouth's Millen Hurrion 2-6 7-6 (6) 1-0 (4) in the Semi final.
In the girls event, Sophia Haine also stormed her way through to the finals! Going into the final she had yet to concede a game in the whole event and was clearly in no mood to be generous. However she didn't have it all her own way in the final, and she had to battle stongly against Selina Briggs. Sophia eventually edged the match 7-6 (1) 6-3 to book her place in the finals of this prestigious National event!
We wish both players the best of luck for this event, and hope they do Dorset proud at the finals!