Abingdon Open Tournament 2003

The full Open 2003 results tables, lists of finalists and photographs are now available on the Family Doubles, Juniors and Adults pages. These may be selected using the buttons to the left.

Results and pictures for the Preston Bowl may be found using the Preston Bowl button.

If you have any comments or feedback on the 2003 Abingdon Open, then please contact the Tournament Director Alex Wingent by email alex@abingdontennisclub.com.

The dry period which began at the end of July thankfully continued into the tournament with only one short delay on the middle Tuesday. It was very pleasing to see players returning to the tournament and bringing more friends with them contributing to another record entry. It is now four years in row that this has been achieved, with over 200 entries this year. The mayor, councillor Hilary Green and her husband, stayed for most of the final day, and their support helped make finals a special occasion.

The Mens Singles was particularly strong, attracting 45 entrants. 7 were division two players and two division ones. We were pleased to welcome members of the Oxfordshire Mens County Team, in particular, Tom Greenland, Jonathan Maskens and Joe Cartledge.

Throughout the week there were notable performances:-

• Chris Duffy: Each ratings tournament usually highlights when a player should rated more highly, but it must be rare indeed for someone to play 16 singles 3 doubles in one week, which is what Chris did. Thankfully for Chris his rating has been adjusted.
• Myles and Anthony Orton have supported our tournament for the last 3 years and are steadily improving. Myles was best in the U9's and U10's and was also a finalist in the U12's. Anthony, equally made his mark in the U14's and U16's
• Jonathan Maskens, a strong 17 year old, dominant in the U18's and U21's also took advantage in the Open singles with a professional performance against county team mate Joe Cartledge who he later teamed up with to win the Mens Doubles.
• David Soanes and Jeremy Wood, Abingdon 1st team players, who won three rounds in the men's doubles and took a set off the county pair of Maskens and Cartledge.
• Alex Simmons had three finals to play but was only able to complete two due to exhaustion. She played two finals against Samantha Blissett with the U16's going to Samantha and the U18's to Alex.
• Not all notable players were finalists. In the boys U14 Singles, Jonathan Beresford and Jack Rooney won four matches each before meeting their match in the semi's. In the same event Sunil Gujral, Tom Barrett, Jonathan Beresford and Charlie Lewis-Marffy took part in identical side by side matches, both lasting just over three hours and both finishing within minutes of each other in third set tie-breakers.
• The family supporting the most events were again the Lewis-Marffys. And the family who travelled the furthest were the Stanleys, from California.

Abingdon Tennis Club extend their thanks to the sponsors , the Referee - Julia Freeman, the ball boys - Sam Marshall, Michael Taylor, Josh Dawson and Luke Carnell, and to the volunteers who helped with the catering - Roger Bones, Sally Cullen, David Howard, Sue Aldington and Helen Asbury.