Oxford’s Beth Simmons has come away from the 2013 National Deaf Tennis Championships with three runners-up trophies.
Beth and her twin sister Alex, both members of Oxford City Tennis Club, again featured among the leading contenders at the annual Bank Holiday Weekend event, which is organised by the Tennis Foundation and held at Gosling High Performance Centre, Welwyn Garden City.
Beth finished runner-up in the women’s singles to Surrey’s Bethany Brookes, having lost her only one of four singles matches across the weekend to Brookes in Bank Holiday Monday’s title decider.
Earlier in the weekend Beth had only dropped two games in her first three matches, those games coming in a 6-2, 6-0 win over sister Alex, who was playing in her first National Championships for five years after concentrating on occupational therapy studies.
Both sisters have been runners-up over the years, while Beth won the National title in 2005. However, she had to settle for runners-up honours again after Brookes won the decisive match 6-3, 6-3 to win her third National title in four years.
With Alex and Beth having also claimed the women’s doubles National title on two previous occasions, their efforts to partner up-and-coming players Sophie Paul and Savannah Elliot this year resulted in a thrilling contest to decide who would finish runners-up to two-time champions Brookes and Catherine Fletcher.
On the day it was Beth and her partner Paul that just proved the stronger, edging out Alex and Elliot 4-6, 6-3, (10-7) after a deciding match tie-break.
With Alex having three mixed doubles National titles to her name with her 2005 Deaflympic Games bronze medal-winning partner Daniel Tunstall and Beth having won the second of her two mixed doubles titles in 2012, both sisters were involved in two more enthralling matches in this year’s final and third and fourth play-off.
Beth and Devon’s Peter Willcox, the defending champions and this year’s second seeds, beat Surrey duo Jack Clifton and Brookes 6-3, 6-1 to reach the final again. Meanwhile, Alex and Tunstall, the third seeds, launched a significant challenge to top seeds Lewis and Catherine Fletcher in their semi-final, the husband and wife team of Fletcher and Fletcher snatching a narrow 7-6(2), 6-3 victory.
The mixed doubles final provided one of the matches of the championships, Beth having to settle for runners-up honours once again after she and Willcox took Lewis and Catherine Fletcher to a match tie-break in what was a rematch of last year’s title decider. However, the top seeds eventually sealed their third National title 7-6(2), 6-7(2), 10-7.
In the third and fourth play-off Alex completed her weekend on a winning note as she and Tunstall held off Clifton and Brookes 3-6, 6-3, (10-5) in another match tie-break.
“It’s been a great National Championships,” said Beth. “I’ve been playing women’s doubles and mixed doubles for Oxford City Club and last summer we won our mixed doubles league for the first time in a while, so I was hoping to do well. I’m pleased to come away with three runners-up placings amid some strong competition. It’s the second year I’ve finished runner-up with Sophie in the women’s doubles and we played some good tennis. I was hoping Pete and I could defend our mixed doubles title, but it was such a close contest.”