FINALS DAY action at the NIC Yorkshire County Championships saw Neo Hodkinson carry off a trophy haul that included the 18&U and 16&U boys singles titles as well as the 18&U boys doubles, partnering Torsten Stephenson, who was runner up to Neo in the 18&U boys singles, to the win against runners up Tanish Rokade and Sebastian Wraith Lobley.
Roberta Gaskell also had a busy day, featuring in three finals and winning the 18&U girls singles against Camille Sherratt Blanksby. She was runner up to Emmanuella Idemudia, 16&U girls singles champion, and to Elena Bompieri in the open women’s singles final.
Elena and Roberta had won the women’s doubles together the previous day but, despite some great rallies, the Yorkshire women’s County Cup captain proved too strong for Roberta and saw out the match with a straight sets 6-2 6-1 win.
Emmanuella ended the day a double champion, also winning the 14&U girls singles title, defeating Lalia Jawara 7-5 6-1 in a battle between the No1 and No2 seeds. Oliver Beddall was winner of the 14&U boys event, with a walkover against Sam Hawkins.
Hugo Asmussen was also a double winner on finals day, taking the 11&U boys singles title against Charlie Crabtree and the 12&U boys singles against Leo Hall.
In the men’s singles, Jordan Reed Thomas retained the title he won in the outstanding match of last year’s championships against Scott Hillerby. This year’s final looked set for a repeat but Scott was forced to retire from the match after the first set.
Partnering Tom Horsfall, Scott went on to play the men’s doubles final, where the pair served for the match. But opponents Ryan Carrick and Thomas Naylor broke back to take the second set set and force a deciding tiebreak, with a highly competitive match going 4-6 7-5 (10-5) in their favour.
The 10&U age group saw No2 seed Harry Peacock emerge as the winner in the boys final against top seed Joseph Rafael, while No1 seed Penelope Garcia Witham was the winner of the final in the girls event, playing Emilia Rose Chan.
Lizzie Greatorex Hughes capped off a great summer – which saw her make the semi-finals of the 11&U girls doubles at the Lexus Junior National Championships – by taking the 12&U title against Amal Khan. There was consolation for Amal who won the final of the 11&U girls singles against Aanya Bhamra.
President of Yorkshire Tennis & Padel, Karen Mitchell, said: “This has been a fantastic tournament with top quality tennis and new champions crowned. Special thanks go to tournament referee Dave Kitchen, the volunteers, the players and our sponsors NIC FM Service Group who have made all of this possible.”