Back in London, my home for 10 years before I moved to Brighton a year ago. This is the tournament I have played most: including 2011, I have played here 5 times.
And, this year it is a Masters tournament, so do I need more motivation to do well here?
And, despite early exits in most of my last tournaments, I am seeded nr4 in D-Singles and even nr1 in D-Doubles. But that is thanks to my doubles partner Nic from Dublin, who won a few doubles matches in C in New York earlier this year.
Here are the seedings:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/seeds.aspx?id=BB809027-BEF6-4D87-B620-78758AE82CE2
My first match in D-Singles was against Oliver from Manchester.
I won 6-1 6-2, so not a bad start of a Masters.
My Quarter Final was against Tom from London; it was his first GLTA tournament.
It was really tough, because he had everything back and was really fast.
In the end, I won 2-6 6-2 and 10-1 in the super tie-break, which replaced a 3rd set in the earlier rounds, in 2 hours.
No time to rest though, as my tuna sandwich was interrupted by the announcement that I had to play my singles Semi-Final.
That was against Terry, who was really strong.
Our match had to be stopped because of the rain, and we had to continue indoors.
In the end, I had no chance against him and lost 6-2 1-6 0-6, in over 2 hours as well.
Only a little rest before our first doubles match. Our opponents were Matthew and Edward, who was my doubles partner last year in Sutton. Amazingly, we won 6-0 6-0.
And because that was the Semi-Final already, Nic & I made it to the final!
Our opponents were Terry (yes, the one I lost to in singles) and Paul Hickey, my doubles partner from 2 years ago.
All the finals, except for D-Singles for some unknown reason, were led by an official LTA umpire AND a linesman.
In an epic final that lasted 2 and a half hours, Nic & I won! It was 5-7, 6-0 6-3 in the end.
The prize ceremony started when Nic was still playing his D-Singles Consolation final. Luckily he won.
O, and D-Singles was won by Terry, no surprise there as he was so very strong.
The proud owners of a well deserved winners trophy:
And a close up of this beauty, the trophy I mean:
Here are the results for D-Singles and D-Doubles:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=BB809027-BEF6-4D87-B620-78758AE82CE2&draw=21
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=BB809027-BEF6-4D87-B620-78758AE82CE2&draw=23
And here is a link to my tournament statistics:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=BB809027-BEF6-4D87-B620-78758AE82CE2&player=33
Last but not least, the List of Winners:
http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/winners.aspx?id=BB809027-BEF6-4D87-B620-78758AE82CE2
Thanks to Gilles, Declan, Oliver, Tony and Wilbert (the player, not my brother) for taking photos and videos and being so generous.
And thank you Nic for being a GREAT doubles partner: congratulations on your win!
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