Bevan and Windsor reign
The quality of tennis on finals day at the Shropshire Junior Closed Tennis Tournament shone over the wettest, most miserable day of the week. And that made for a memorable day in Shrewsbury on Saturday as two of the county's outstanding juniors who were victorious in the Shropshire Senior Closed in July both repeated their successes.
Alan Bevan and Emma Windsor, pictured, each took two singles titles at Welti Tennis & Leisure, on a day when virtually all matches had to be played indoors, to really stamp their mark on the Shropshire tennis scene.
Bevan began the day by retaining his 16 and Under title with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Charlie Goode in a taste of what was to come.
Alongside them, in the boys' 21-U final, Ben White and Alex Parry epitomised the strength of junior tennis in Shropshire.
Both 18, White and Parry put on a terrific display of power tennis in a two hour match that kept a packed balcony of spectators enthralled.
White took the first set, but Parry countered with some tenacious play and finally pressed on to a 4-6 7-6 6-0 win.
Bevan and White, with Bevan being the better rested, met later in the day in the 18-U singles.
In yet another highly skilful match White took the first set to love, but there is no doubt that Bevan can dig deep and his response was to produce a blistering second set which he won by the same score.
The efforts of the day were obviously beginning to tell on White and, at 1-2 down in the third, he retired through injury, so handing Bevan his second title of the week.
Windsor, seeded third in the girls 16-U singles, gained sweet revenge for last year over reigning champion Lucy Darby in a close match.
Having squeezed through the first set on a tie-break, Emma stepped up a gear and going from strength to strength, took the second 6-1 and thereby the match.
Two hours later Emma was back on court against Bridgnorth clubmate Jo Fowler in the 18-U final.
Still in winning mood, Emma ensured this was a short meeting by not really allowing Jo to get into her stride and took the match 6-4 6-0.
The 12-U Girls' singles saw a rising star Sarah Willacy (Shifnal) take on top seed Joanne Bowen (Bridgnorth).
And it was Sarah who finally got the edge needed and won 3-6 6-4 11-9.
Christian Cieslik (Welti) had a fairly straightforward victory over doubles partner Jack Tomlinson from Shifnal in the boys 12-U, winning 6-1 6-2.
Christian then faced a much tougher prospect in the 14-U final, where he met second seed Matt Taylor.
Playing above his age group, Christian was finally beaten 6-0 2-6 6-4.
The all North Shropshire boys' 10-U final between Sam Todd (Criftins) and Robbie Kennedy (Wem) was, as expected, close and hard fought.
Sam took the first set and then eventually won the title after a second set tie-break.
Boughey Gardens twins Harriet and Olivia Jones have dominated their competitions this week.
They met in the girls 10-U final and predictably this was a close encounter with Olivia edging it 5-4 2-4 10-8.
By Ann Johnson
