Whilst the local county leagues took a half term break last week, Leicestershire's two representatives in the men's national club league continued their matches. Both Loughborough Students and Leicestershire LTC went down to strong opponents losing out to Mackintosh TC and Redwood TC respectively. This left Leicestershire bottom of the Midlands group and Loughborough Students 6th out of the eight teams. Both will be looking to put in a strong second half of the season to stave off relegation back down into the Regional Tier of the competition.
The county's vets players again pulled off major tournament wins, this time at the Grade 1 ITF vets' tournament in Bournemouth. County president and former world no 13 in the 1970s, Mark Cox, won the over 70s singles and teamed up with county colleague Richard Tutt to lift the over 65s double title. Jeremy Trafford and Shirley Fox won their respective over 60s doubles. Cox rolled back the years on the same clay courts on which in 1968 he became the first amateur to beat a professional, the legendary Pancho Gonzales, when the game first went open.
County tennis fans are now looking forward to the start of the longer British grass court season which kicks-off just up the road in Nottingham with The WTA Aegon ladies $250k event starting with qualifying this coming Saturday. Eleven women in the world's top 50 have confirmed their entry which will include Heather Watson, Daniela Hantuchova, Franesca Schiavone, Roberta Vinci and Poland's former Wimbledon finalist, Agnieska Radwanska. The tournament paves the way for seven weeks of the pro tour in Britain, Wimbledon having been put back a week in the calendar.