Peter aces rivals to clinch national championship hat-trick

4:17pm Friday 9th May 2008

Cobham-based Peter Willcox has won his eighth men's singles title in 10 years at the National Deaf Tennis Championships in Gloucester.

The 26-year-old, a member of the coaching team for AD Tennis at Reed's School in Cobham, went in to the 2008 tournament as a multiple singles and men's doubles winner, but gained a personal landmark by also winning a maiden mixed doubles crown.

Willcox last year moved from his family home in Devon to base himself in Surrey, taking up the post at Reed's.

As top seed and defending singles champion, Willcox had a first-round bye.

He dropped just two games in his opening match against Middlesex's Bryan Whalley, then withstood a strong comeback from Lancashire fifth seed Darren O'Donnell to triumph 6-2, 7-5 and book his place in the semi-finals.

Willcox was on top form the semis, beating fourth seed Lewis Fletcher of Farnham 6-2, 6-1, but left his best performance for the final, when he raced past Wiltshire-based Scot Daniel Tustall 6-0, 6-0.

"To become national champion for the eighth time is very special and I am very pleased with my level of play this weekend," said Willcox, an LTA licensed DCA coach.

"I would like to say a big thank you to Andy Moir and Sam Marsh at AD Tennis for the opportunity they have given me to join their coachig team in the past 12 months and the whole experience has helped me to make my own match game evern stronger.

"It's not until you start coaching other people that you start analysing your own game differently and that's really beneffited me."

Willcox paired up with Fletcher to clinch the doubles for the second time in four years.

The duo did not drop a game in their opening two matches and needed exactly an hour to beat second seeds O'Donnell and Anthony Sinclair 6-3, 6-1 in Monday's final. It gave Willcox a ninth successive men's doubles title, won with four different partners.

A busy Bank Holiday Monday for Willcox ended on another high, as he partnered Southampton's Sharon Templeman to win the mixed doubles.

Willcox and Templeman dropped just two games in their first match and then beat second seeds and and three-time champions Tunstall and Alex Simmons 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-finals.

One final confident display brought a 7-5, 6-2 victory over defending champions and top seeds Fletcher and Catherine Graham.

Willcox also hit the headlines on the eve of finals day as he collected the Male Player of the Year Award for the third time in five years at the annual British Deaf Tennis Association Awards.

The award was presented to Willcox on the strength of a fantastic 2007, during which he won his seventh national title and finished unbeaten in six singles matches when playing for Great Britain at the World Deaf Tennis Championships in Munich, Germany.

Willcox now looks forward to hopefully being selected to represent Great Britain again at the end of July, when the European Deaf Tennis Championships takes place in Bucharest, Romania.

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