Cheltenham Open report: Second half
By Simon Corbishley
Good weather continued to bless the second half of the Cheltenham Open week. Good playing conditions and good news for spectators.
With different events starting up the courts remained busy from first thing until late into the evening. High quality play was served up, particular mention to William Flavell (Middlesex), Charlie Gregory (Warwickshire), Zach Webb (Cirencester) and Cheltenham’s own Aaron Osmond.
For the first time the tournament included four open events (singles and doubles). Play for this took place in the evening and was well worth staying behind for.
The men’s singles saw Charlie Gregory take on Aaron Osmond. Both players had shown impressive form in previous matches and there was much anticipation around this match. Unfortunately for Aaron the match could not have turned out any worse. A fall at the end of the first point knocked him out of his rhythm and then he suffered a series of string breaks.
Charlie emerged a very worthy winner. In the women’s singles Charlotte Russell (Cheltenham) had a good battle with Amy Griffiths (Lancashire) in the semi -final before seeing off Elinor Beazley (South Wales) in the final 6-3 6-2.
Charlotte completed a double by taking the doubles with Amy Griffiths. In the men’s doubles Charlie Gregory and partner Henry Muxworthy overcame the resistance of Aaron Osmond and Kai Peters in a deciding set.
There was an East Glos double with Theo Purkis claiming the 12&U title and Samuil Vrabtchev doing the same in the 16&U event. For Sami this marked his first tournament victory at Grade 3 level.
In the girls events there was a victory for Avon’s Edie Hammond in the 12&U and Amy Leather (Avon) in the 16&U. This completed a double for Amy having already claimed the 14&U earlier in the week. Time for one more East Glos highlight in the 16&U boys doubles with James Findlay and partner Joseph McCoubrie taking the title.
Thank you to Autovillage for their continued excellent sponsorship of the tournament. The way the club presents during the week with flags, banners and cars on display helps to create a professional tournament feel. They have done the club proud.
