4:36pm Wednesday 22nd August 2001
Purley Sports Club's Darren Walsh has equalled a record set by Tim Henman by winning the Torbay Open under 12 event for the second year running.
Fresh from victory in the Solihull International event, where he beat Surrey rival, No. 1 seed, Stuart Havelock in the final, Walsh disposed of local favourite and former Teignmouth winner, Jack Steele, 6-4, 6-3 in the semi-final before going on to secure the title with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Matthew Watkins.
Walsh, a regular competitor in the older age groups, a towering figure of his age, also reached the semi-final of the under 14 event, providing the eventual winner with his sternest test of the week.
While Walsh carried the flag for Purley and for Surrey, the newly instigated LTA sanctioned ratings tournament, the Purley Junior Open, saw many promising performances.
Alexis Darker and Annabel Clifford carried off the top age group trophies at Purley. Darker beat his doubles partner Stuart Marcus in the 18 and under boys singles 6-2, 6-1, while Clifford won the girls 16 and under title with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over the talented Lucinda Lo.
But there was consolation for Marcus, who with Darker, won the boys 18 and under doubles with a win against Colin Hodge and Viatcheslav Lebedov. Hodge and Lebedov, a scratch pairing, played an excellent match to hold the winners to 6-2, 7-5.
Jessica Butler completed the double with wins in both the Under 14 Girls championship and the 12 and Under.
Perhaps one of the most mature performances of the week was from under 10 boys winner. Hamzah Mahmood, who stayed cool, collected and showed great tactical maturity to beat Tom Farquharson, 6-4, 6-1.
The match of the tournament was the boys under 14 doubles semi-final, in which Andrew Fisher and Andrew Le-Bas just edged out Faris Akhassan and Humzah Mahmood in a marathon match to win 5-7, 6-4, 11-10. Perhaps this took the edge of their game, for later the same day, the two Andrews came unstuck against the two James's, Feneley and Watts, 6-4, 6-1.
The Ridge Trophy, for the most outstanding sportsmanship of the tournament was won by the popular under 10 boy William Markiewicz.
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