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Newport’s Debbie Brazier claimed her third successive Wrexham Wheelchair Tennis Tournament women’s doubles title over the weekend to headline the Welsh success at the ITF Futures Series event on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour supported by Tennis Wales and the Tennis Foundation.
Brazier went into the tournament aiming to retain the women’s singles and doubles titles, but as reigning women’s champion and top seed Brazier had a first round by and then bowed out in the semi-finals to eventual runner-up Andrea Weston.
However, there was better to come from Brazier in the women’s doubles as she partnered Durham’s Caroline MacDonald to successive straight sets wins in their two round-robin matches. Brazier and MacDonald beat Deena Webster and Israel’s Veronica Zvik 6-3, 6-2 in their opening match before a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Sarah Gaisford and Weston earned Brazier the fifth international doubles title of her career.
While Cardiff brother and sister Shaun and Laura Swetman bowed out of the men’s and women’s singles in the first rounds of their respective events, Llanidloes’ Ben Johnson-Rolfe and Cwmbran’s Tony Tibbs also went out in the first round of the men’s singles, Tibbs losing out in straight sets to top seed and eventual champion Dermot Bailey and Johnson-Rolfe being edged out 7-5, 6-4 by Sam Eardley.
The two Welshmen then went head-to-head for a place in the quarter-finals of the men’s consolation singles, with 18-year-old Johnson-Rolfe winning 6-7, 6-0, 6-0, but ultimately the Powys player was unable to go any further than the last eight of the consolation event.
The highlight of the weekend for National School Games medallist Johnson-Rolfe was a place in the men’s doubles semi-finals after partnering Mark Langeveld to a 7-5, 6-0 first round win over Eardley and Alastair Pingram. However, they were denied a place in the final by Bailey and Steve Crompton, who had also beaten Tibbs and his partner Mark Fowler in the first round.