Having changed our regular date to accommodate other tournaments in Essex, the Wilson Open Series received the most entries it has for some time. The quality of matches and level of entries was extremely high with several matches lasting the full three sets. Two matches of particular note were the U16 boys semi final between Piers Holt and Darien Lamb which lasted three and half hours! Piers eventually came through this to win 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(5) before being defeated in the final by Liam Van Den Hoek. Another excellent match was in the Men’s Event, which this year was well subscribed. Karim Khimji, a relative newcomer to tournaments first knocked out two seeds before finally losing in the semi final to Finlay Milner. Unfortunately due to the weather this match had to be played on the much faster indoor courts which favoured Finlay. After a gruelling couple of hours Finlay pulled through wining 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Sadly on the girls front there remains a poor entry level, but hopefully with all the minis coming through this will reverse in the coming years.
On the mini tennis front, again we had a huge entry. The Orange event secured 64 entries in both the girls and boys and had to be played at two venues in the knockout stages before the finals were staged at the Connaught. It was lovely to see such a large number of enthusiastic and talented youngsters coming through. Despite the large number of matches taking place through the week I was rarely called on to court which just demonstrates the sportsmanship of the players. The week was extremely enjoyable and a great success. I would just like to conclude by thanking all the players, parents, helpers and sponsors including Zee & Co. for all their help in making the Wilson Series Open a very successful tournament. I look forward to welcoming you all back next year!
Nicola Bastick