WIMBLEDON may be over but the passion and panache of grass court tennis was there for all to see as Harrow Weald Lawn Tennis Club heralded two new singles champions at its finals day recently.
Georgia Cotsford, 14, (pictured) showed no signs of nerves in her first senior ladies' singles final, as she swept aside defending champion Sharon Grout 6-1, 6-1. In the men's singles another first time finalist Chris Lynch recovered from being 5-4 down to Chetan Sennik in the first set to win 7-5, before dominating the second 6-1.
Grout and Jo Luff defeated Laura Sherwood and Cecilia Jones 6-3, 6-4 in the ladies' doubles, while Anthony Osbourne and Steve Dolden stormed to their 10th men's doubles crown after overcoming
Lynch and Greg Hovanessian 6-3, 6-3.
In the mixed doubles Sherwood and Osborne beat Cotsford and Sennik 7-5, 6-2. Earlier in the day Sophie Hockaday and Zac Ali prevailed in the red and orange mini-tennis tournaments respectively
Kenton Lawn Tennis Club also staged its finals day.
Kicking off with the ladies' doubles contest the pairings of Hazel Adams and Elena Synesi and Alison Hedley and Janette Boyle resumed rivalries, with the former pair looking to regain their title. They made a good start, winning the first set 6-1 before fending off a spirited fightback from Hedley and Boyle to triumph 7-5 in the match-winning second set.
Reigning men's doubles champions Mark Wass and Mick Hooker were given an almighty scare in
their showdown with Ginesh Shah and Lee Rider, before bagging the trophy again. After claiming the first set 6-1 the champions lost the second 7-6 on tie break.
Shah and Rider continued their good form into the third set and looked well set for victory at 4-1, only for Wass and Hooker to storm back and win it 7-5.
However, Shah gained revenge on Hooker by reclaiming the men's singles final after fighting back from a set down. In the ladies' singles, Elena Synesi brushed aside Helen Clague.
Elsewhere, Wass and Synesi beat Hedley and Dominic Ireland 6-0, 6-3 in the mixed doubles; Fahim Kwandwalla beat Thomas Boyce in the boys' under-18s', while Amir Aziz overcame Bhavin Khatri in the Junior Under-20s' clash.
