Marc McCarroll ended his 2008 season with the biggest individual singles win of his career and a runners-up placing in the Men's Second Draw Doubles at last week's Prague Cup Czech Indoor Tournament.
The Ickenham-based former footballer, 23, has made great progress this season, in only his third full year in the sport, and went to Prague with a career high world ranking of No 43.  McCarroll justified his seedings to reach the men's singles semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively at the last two British-based world raking events of 2008 in Cardiff and Nottingham in October and December, but after a tough draw in Prague, McCarroll pulled off a landmark victory.
Harrow-born McCarroll came up against second seed and world No 21 Jozef Felix of the Slovak Republic in the first round of the Men's Main Draw Singles, but made light of the challenge to bet Felix 6-3, 6-2.  The Briton's quest to reach the semi-finals came unstuck in the last eight when he was beaten 2-6, 4-6 by the Czech Republic's Michal Stefanu, but McCarroll is now set to end the year ranked just outside the world's top 40.  He started 2008 ranked outside the world's top 100 after winning his first international title in November last year.
 "To beat Felix was a great end to the year, it's my first win over a top 25 player and I was really pleased with the way I played," said McCarroll.  "Stefanu is an awkward player, that's his style, and it took me a set to work out how try try and beat him, but by then he was up and and I just couldn't come back.  If I played him again I would play differently, but overall I've got to be pleased with the year.  I had set myself a target of the top 60 and to almost make the top 40 is really encouraging,  I look forward to moving up again next season now,"
 McCarroll trains regularly at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton with Middlesex coach Stuart Wilkinson, and paired up with training partner and TV presenter Ade Adepitan for the Men's Second Draw Doubles in Prague. 
 As top seeds, McCarroll and Adepitan had a first round bye before beating Dutch pairing Sven Jonker and Jeroen Staman 6-4, 7-5 in their opening match.  From there on their task became much tougher as they came from a set down in their semi-final to beat Russia's Yuriy Golovin and Andre Trantz of Israel 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) after a deciding championship tie break.  However, after another comeback in the final and another deciding championship tie-break, McCarroll and Adepitan were just edged out in the last two points as Croatian second sets Drazen Miksic and Jozo Milos secured the title 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8).
McCarroll went to Beijing in September as one of five 2012 hopefuls invited by The Tennis Foundation to go and sample the atmosphere at a Paralympic Games.  The Middlesex athlete's spectacular season, which has seen him become the No 3 ranked player in Britain, has included wins over two of Britain's Beijing Paralympians and his performances earned him a nomination for the Best Male Newcomer at last Saturday's British Wheelchair Sports Awards in Essex.  However, on the same day of his Second Draw Doubles final in Prague, McCarroll had to be content with being runner-up once again as the award went to one of Britain's leading young powerlifters.  But, with the 2009 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour just two months away, McCarroll is already back in training as he continues his journey towards his goal of representing Great Britain in the London 2012 Paralympics.