SEATON Tennis Club’s annual tournament took place under bright blue skies on one of the best days of the summer so far.

A large and noisy crowd of club members and guests enjoyed some great tennis.

Proceedings kicked off with the ladies’ singles final between reigning champion Anna Moroz and previous champion Jo Little.

The early stages saw many closely fought games, young Moroz showed maturity beyond her years as she soaked up the power of Little’s ground strokes, consistently getting the ball back in play and waiting for the error from her opponent.

In the end, Moroz’s victory 6-3 6-2 looked relatively comfortable even if the match was much closer than the score suggested.

This was followed by the men’s singles final between four-time previous winner, Kevin Davis (34) and veteran finals debutant, Peter Moroz (52).

Davis’ power and consistency in the early stages were too much for Moroz who soon found himself 5-0 down in the first set.

However, a mixture of inspired defence and daring attack saw Moroz avoid the bagel, resulting in a huge roar and fist pump as he tried to get the crowd on his side.

But, in the end, there could only be one result and Davis added another title with an easy 6-1 6-2 win.

Next up was the ladies’ doubles between Julie Hopkinson and Jen Rose and current club captain Teresa Hancock and Jo Little.

Most improved newcomer, Rose, displayed great consistency as she and Hopkinson took the first set 6-1 and rushed in to a 4-0 lead in the second set.

It looked all over at this stage, but their opponents found stubborn resistance and fought back brilliantly to lead 6-5 in the second set, only to fall at the last hurdle and lose the tie breaker to hand the victory to Rose and Hopkinson.

The men’s doubles was contested by Chris Rose and veteran Hamid Hall (62), the reigning champions, and Kevin Davis and Ian Broughton, also previous winners.

Rose and Hall set off with a brilliant display of serve volley and attacking tennis, exploiting early mistakes from their opponents to take an unexpected 4-1 lead in the first set.

But the tables were turned as Davis and Broughton found their range with some scintillating tennis, storming back to take 11 of the next 13 games and win 6-4 6-2.

The final event was the Mixed Doubles between former champions, Julie Hopkinson and Simon Prior and husband and wife team of Chris and Jen Rose.

In a tense encounter, Chris Rose was hoping to regain a title he previously won as a youngster back in 1994, an incredible 22 years ago.

Normally a relaxed player on court, at one stage he let out a cry of anguish and sent his racquet spinning in to the air as he dumped a volley in the net, showing how much a second win would have meant to him.

But in the end, Prior and Hopkinson held their nerve and edged out their younger opponents to triumph 6-4 7-5.

The plate finals were held for first round losers in the main draw. The winners were:

Ladies singles: Donna Moss.

Ladies doubles: Jenny and Anna Moroz.

Men’s doubles: Steve Morton and Matt Smale

Mixed doubles: Richard Warrick and Mandy Elliott

Men’s singles: James Turton

  • Seaton Tennis Club welcome new members. Visit seatontennis.net for more information or contact coach, Jason Martin on 07931743168 or email jas@jasonmartinsports.com