British wins at North West Challenge
David Phillipson, Anna Tarkowski and John Parfitt won the men's main draw singles, women's singles and quad singles titles at the North West Challenge on Sunday as domestic players dominated Britain's first world ranking event of the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour at South Ribble Tennis Centre, near Preston.
Phillipson and Marc McCarroll, Britain's No 2 and No 3 ranked men's players, thwarted the overseas challenge in Saturday's men's singles semi-finals as they earned straight sets wins over Sweden's Dan Wallin and Francois Xavier Morille of France respectively to set up an intriguing all-British final.
McCarroll won the first world ranking event of the season in Australia in the first week of January and secured back-to-back wins over British No 1 Gordon Reid in successive weeks, but he was unable to add victory over Phillipson to his list of achievements in Preston as Phillipson prevailed 6-2, 6-4, giving the Nottinghamshire 21-year-old his first title of the season.
"Marc made a slow start and I just had to remain solid in the first set and tried to take everything on the first bounce," said Phillipson. "He played a lot better in the second set, but I just concentrated on being consistent and I'm really pleased to have won my first North West title, its been a good start to the year and I want to keep it going now."
Seven years after first setting out in the sport, Tarkowski gained the biggest success of her career to win the women's singles. The Bolton player, who also turned 21 in January, just four days after Phillipson, dropped just one set en route to the final, where she came up against last year's North West Challenge runner-up and top seed Louise Hunt. By comparison, Hunt had eased into the final, dropping just five games, and she moved 5-0 ahead in the decider. However, Tarkowski set about launching an astonishing comeback before edging a close second set to seal a 7-5, 6-4 victory and a local North West win for the second year Orthotics and Prosthetics student at the University of Salford.
"I'm really happy now I've got my first international singles title," said Tarkowski. "It's been a long time coming and I've reached a lot of semi-finals in recent years, so I'm very pleased. I didn't know what to think when I was 5-0 down, I just kept trying to play as well as I could and somehow managed to brig it back. We were a lot closer all the way through the second set, I just managed to win the points that mattered."
Parfitt also won the first NEC Tour title of his career in the quad singles after coming from behind to beat Danny Robbins in another all-British title decider. Parfitt and Robbins were undefeated in two round-robin matches ahead of Sunday's contest and Robbins took the initiative as he appeared to be on course for his second international title in the last seventh months. However, Surrey's Parfitt dug deep and eventually clinched a 3-6 6-3 ,6-4 victory in his second final of the year.
Despite tasting defeat in the men's main draw singles, McCarroll earned victory in the men's main draw doubles with his training partner Ade Adepitan. Adepitan, perhaps better known for his media work and previous sporting success as a wheelchair basketball player, is only in his third full year playing wheelchair tennis and secured the first main draw title of his career in either singles or doubles competition as he and McCarroll moved 7-5, 6-7, 3-2 ahead in their final on Sunday before their opponents Tony Knappett and Wallin were forced to retire.
Tarkowski's women's singles victory rounded off a fine weekend for the Lancashire player as she partnered Newport's Debbie Brazier to victory in the women's doubles, while Parfitt also returned home to Surrey with a second title after he partnered Middlesex's Liam O'Reilly to win the quad doubles.