Medallists decided at National Learning Disability Tennis Championships
The 2015 National Learning Disability Tennis Championships took place from 30 October to 1 November at Nottingham Tennis Centre, organised by the Tennis Foundation in partnership with Special Olympics Great Britain.
The three-day tournament at Nottingham tennis Centre featured a round-robin singles and doubles competition between players of a similar tennis ability.
Builth Wells’ Shain Lewis won the Division 1 men’s singles for the first time at the National Learning Disability Tennis Championships. While players from the local East Midlands Learning Disabilities Tennis Team claimed gold medals in three of the eleven men’s singles groups.
A member of the Tennis Foundation’s Learning Disability Tennis Performance Programme, Shain has represented Great Britain internationally on several occasions. A former Division 2 men’s singles medallist at the National Championships, he claimed his Division 1 gold medal in thrilling circumstances after 7-5 wins against both silver medallist Joshua Kerr and bronze medallist Ronan Cacace.
The success for the local East Midlands Team based at West Bridgford Tennis Club in Nottinghamshire included a Division 5 men’s singles gold medal for Aiden Leighton. Aiden was unbeaten in all three of his matches to add another gold medal to the singles and doubles gold medals he won when representing Great Britain at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles during the summer.
Fellow East Midlands players Michael Clarke and Dominic Hubner also won all three of their matches to win the Division 3 and Division 8 men’s singles gold medals. Dominic clinched his gold medal after a hard-fought 7-5 win over silver medallist Ryan Caven. Before Dominic and Ryan then paired up to win the Division 5 men’s doubles gold medal.
All eleven men’s singles gold medallists were unbeaten, with medals awarded by Special Olympics Great Britain Partnership Manager, Laura Davies and Tennis Foundation Tournament Director, Kirsty Thomson.
Tennis Foundation Coach Lesley Whitehead, who is also Special Olympics Great Britain National Tennis Coaching and Competitions Advisor, said:
“We’ve had another tremendously busy and fun weekend with an extremely high standard of tennis across all divisions.
“Parents, officials and staff have all commented on how much the players continue to improve between National Championships and we have seen this throughout the year at the five Tennis Foundation Regional Series tournaments around the country. There’s lots to look forward to and hopefully the success of the players will inspire even more to take up the sport.”
Birmingham’s Zach Brookes won Division2, Deal’s Tom Brownsword finished on top of the podium in Division 4 and Gloucester’s Alex Hume and Leamington Spa’s Tomas Bevan earned the Division 6 and Division 7 gold medals. But one of the most dominant performances came in the Division 10 men’s singles as Swindon’s Lane Stow won both his matches without dropping a single game.
After beating fellow Gloucestershire player Robert Fisher into silver medal position in the Division 6 singles, Alex Hume then joined forces with Robert to win the Division 4 men’s doubles.
With gold medals going to players from England, Scotland and Wales during the weekend. Ayrshire’s Jack Dickson denied players from the East Midlands to win Division 9. Lauren Waddell took another gold medal back to Scotland after remaining unbeaten in the Division 2 women’s singles, defeating World Summer Games medallist and fellow Scot Lucy Porteous.
Yorkshire players also won men’s and women’s singles gold medals, Matthew Wreglesworth and Laura Wells easing to victory in the Division 11 men’s singles and Division 3 women’s singles respectively. Dorset’s Dawn Taylor joined Lauren Waddell and Laura Wells in earning women’s singles gold medals, with two wins from two matches in Division 1.
The closest finish of the weekend came in the Division 3 mixed doubles as three partnerships finished with three wins apiece. However, Lane Stow and Mary Nolan completed their matches with a better percentage of games won against games played to finish ahead of East Midlands duo Katherine Ashcroft and Leigh Foster. Despite losing a tie-break to the duo in their head-to-head. Matthew Wregglesworth and Laura Wells took the bronze medal, a 6-0 loss to Lane Stow and Mary Nolan being their only defeat.
The Division 1 mixed doubles resulted in three close matches, but Luke East and Laura Campbell won their two matches 7-5 and 7-6(2) to claim the gold. While Steven Uttley and Lucy Porteous won both their matches to win the Division 2 mixed doubles.
After finishing in silver and bronze medal position in the Division 1 men’s singles, Joshua Kerr and Ronan Cacace finished on top of the podium in the Division 2 and Division 1 men’s doubles events with their respective partners Robbie Hampshaw and Oliver Beadle. Michael Hartnett and James Jennings won both their men’s Division 3 doubles matches to also win gold.
Click here to view a full list of winners.
Photo credit: Tennis Foundation
