The Newmarket Tennis Club on Hamilton Road, Newmarket played host to 15 pairs of racing personalities when its inaugural mixed doubles tennis tournament took place on Sunday 10th July. The event was the brain child of Club secretary Sue Hicks. “Newmarket Tennis Club was formed in 1951 and has always had members who come from the racing community. To enhance those links we decided to organise a mixed doubles tournament aimed at the town’s racing people who may not know about our fantastic facilities and to raise money for Racing Welfare too.”
The tournament was won by Channel 4 Racing’s Emma Spencer and her partner William Balding beating Seamus O’Gorman and Sophie Chretien in 2 sets following an exciting final. Not content with taking the tournament honours, Emma also won a competition for the fastest ladies serve when she was clocked at 75mph by the Hawkeye technology borrowed from the Lawn Tennis Association. The fastest man’s serve was taken by Scott Wakefield at a blistering 104mph and the fastest child was won by Nathan O’Gorman at 28mph.
Thank to a raffle, proceeds from entry fees and donations from the Club the event succeeded in raising £903 for Racing Welfare, a sum that Richard Negus from Racing Welfare was delighted with “I am sure that the players and spectators will all agree that Newmarket has a tennis club to be proud of. It was a fantastic day, professionally organised and a superb fundraiser too. My wife and I dusted our rackets off to play and despite being roundly thrashed in both our matches had a great time. I hope that this becomes an annual event for us.”