Willcox seals ninth title at National Deaf Tennis Champs

The finals of the 2010 National Deaf Tennis Championships took place at the Gosling Tennis International High Performance Centre in Welwyn over the Bank Holiday weekend with a total of six finals taking place.

The six finals included the Men’s Singles Final between eight time champion Peter Willcox and twice former winner Daniel Tunstall, and the Men’s Doubles Final between Willcox & Falconer and Tunstall and Jamie King.

The Women’s Doubles Final was a family affair with mother Fiona and daughter Bethany going head to head, partnering Sophie Paul and Maisy Gibbs respectively.

Fourth seed Jamie King took on top seed Peter Willcox in the first of the Men’s Singles semi-finals, with Willcox coming out on top 6-1, 7-5. Hampshire’s King battled hard but the eight time champion Willcox just had too much for King.

In the other semi-final Sidney Falconer, champion in 1988, 89 and 91, lost out to Dan Tunstall, champion in 1997 and 98, 7-6 (7-3), 6-0. Falconer forced the tie break in the first set but after a controversial net call lost his focus and the break went to Tunstall. In the second set Falconer’s head went down and he lost the set to love.

Wiltshire’s Tunstall, brother of the pop singer KT Tunstall, then faced Surrey’s Willcox in the Men’s Singles Final. In a very tight opening set Tunstall was poised at 5-4 up with the service game for the set but Willcox broke to take the match to five games all.

Both players then held serve to take the first set to a tie break. In the tense exchange the advantage changed several times before Willcox closed out at 9-7. In the second set Willcox stepped up a gear and powered to a 6-0 win to take his ninth Championships title.

Full article: http://www.lta.org.uk/News/All-news-items/2010-05-03/Willcox-seals-ninth-title-at-National-Deaf-Tennis-Champs/

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