National Mini Tennis Week by James Jordan Photography
With the 2013 tennis season rapidly approaching, over the next few days we are taking a look back at some of the British highlights on and off the court in 2012. In part two we review some of the action from April to June.
At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami British No.1 Andy Murray reached his 9th Masters 1000 final but was defeated by World No.1 Novak Djokovic 6-1, 7-6(4). Read more on the final here
Dominic Inglot reached his first final on the ATP World Tour with partner Treat Huey at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships. Read more from Houston
Jonny Marray reached the ATP Challenger final at Barletta in Italy with Igor Zelenay before winning the ATP Challenger in Rome with Dustin Brown.
Belgium defeated the Aegon GB Davis Cup Team 4-1 in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Euro/Africa Zone Group I tie at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena. Find full coverage here
In wheelchair tennis Gordon Reid won his first ITF 1 series doubles title at the Pensacola Open in Florida partnering Frenchman Michael Jeremiasz. Peter Norfolk was a finalist in the Quad singles and in the doubles with fellow Briton Jamie Burdekin. Find out more here
Marc McCarroll won an all-British Men’s singles final against Gordon Reid at the ITF 1 Series ACSA South African Open before teaming up to take the doubles title. Andrew Lapthorne won the Quad singles crown. Read more from South Africa here
On the WTA tour, at the E-Boks Open in Copenhagen, Laura Robson came close to a career first victory over Jelena Jankovic before narrowly falling to the former World No.1 6-4, 7-6(8).
Domestically the National Premier Tennis Finals were won by Virgin Active Warwickshire at Virgin Active Wearside as they defeated Bromley 4-0 in the final. Read more about the team’s win here
The Aegon GB Fed Cup Team were beaten 4-1 by Sweden in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II Play-off tie in Boras. Read a full report of the tie here
Heather Watson and Laura Robson cheer on GB in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas
US Open junior champion Oli Golding won his first AEGON GB Pro-Series title at Bournemouth. Watch an interview with Oli here.
Away from the court Judy Murray attended the Flybe Girls Tennis Roadshow at the Heron Tennis Centre in Newquay. See Judy’s reaction to the initiative to promote and celebrate female tennis
It was announced that over 500 Special Schools had received support from the Tennis Foundation and Lawn Tennis Association. Find out more here
British players Joshua Ward-Hibbert and Eden Silva were invited to join the Sporting Equals Future Champions Programme which promotes ethnic diversity across sport for young people. Read more about Future Champions here
British No1 Elena Baltacha reached the semi-finals of the $100K ITF event in Prague while Amanda Carreras was victorious at the $10K ITF event in Getxo, Spain, and Lisa Whybourn was runner-up at the $25K event at Astana in Kazakhstan.
Oli Golding defeated Dan Smethurst to win the AEGON GB Pro-Series in Newcastle while Smethurst and Liam Broady took the doubles title. Find coverage from Newcastle here
Maia Lumsden won an all-British final against Gabriella Taylor 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 at the Bohemia Cafex Cup, a Tennis Europe U14 Category 1 event at Rakovnik in the Czech Republic.
In wheelchair tennis Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley took the Women’s doubles title at the Atlanta Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships while Shuker was runner-up in the Women’s singles and Marc McCarroll won the Men’s doubles title with Dutch World No.1 Maikel Scheffers.
Also in disability tennis Great Britain won three medals at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup played at Seoul’s Olympic Park Tennis Centre. Read a full report from Seoul here
Andy Lapthorne, Peter Norfolk and Jamie Burdekin represented GB and won silver
Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski won the ATP Challenger in Rome while Jonny Marray was a doubles finalist at the ATP Challenger in Bordeaux with Olivier Charrion
The British Open Beach Tennis Tournament took place in Brighton. Read about the event and find out more about Beach Tennis here
At the French Open British No.1 Andy Murray moved through to the second week at Roland Garros for a fourth consecutive year.
Heather Watson qualified for main draw and scored an impressive 6-2, 6-4 first round win over Elena Vesnina before falling to 25th seed Julia Goerges.
Laura Robson fell in the final round of qualifying but got into the main draw as a lucky loser but found the clay court craft of Anabel Medina Garrigues tough going in round one.
In the Men’s doubles Dominic Inglot and partner Treat Huey scored a big win over two-time Wimbledon finalists Horia Tecau and Robert Lindstedt to reach the last 16.
In junior tennis Jay Clarke and Samuel Ferguson contested back to back Tennis Europe U14 finals in Slovenia with Ferguson winning at the Raiffeisen Open before Clarke gained revenge a week in the final of the Bergant Memorial for NOVA KBM Cup.
Australian Open champions Liam Broady & Joshua Ward Hibbert won the doubles title at the ITF Grade A 53 Trofeo Bonfiglio event in Italy.
Eleanor Dean won the doubles title at the ITF Grade 1 34 Torneo International “Citta Di Santa Croce” Mauro Sabatini in Italy with Russian partner Mayya Katsitadze.
It was announced that tennis membership of LTA registered places to play had increased by 12% from 2011 with 576,608 tennis members at clubs and other places to play in Britain, up from 516,324 in the previous year. Read more here
British No.1 Andy Murray reached the quarter finals at Roland Garros missing out against the clay court expertise of David Ferrer. Kyle Edmund was a quarter finalist in the Boy’s singles event. Find full French Open coverage here
Kyle Edmund at the French Open
The British Open Veterans' Clay Court Championships took place at Bournemouth’s West Hants Club with a number of fine performances despite difficult weather conditions. Find a full review on the Seniors Tennis GB site
The AEGON Clay Court Championship titles were decided at Queenswood School. The 14&U titles went to Sam Ferguson and Sophie Drakeford-Lewis and the 12&U champions were Claudia Hallsworth and Brandon Drew. Read more here
On the wheelchair tennis court British No.1 Lucy Shuker won the ITF Series 1 Daegu Open while Gordon Reid was a finalist at the Korea Open.
Anne Keothavong reached the semi-finals of the AEGON Trophy in Nottingham, while defending champion Elena Baltacha reached the quarter finals.
Dominic Inglot won the Men’s doubles title with partner Treat Huey with a narrow win over Jonny Marray and Danish partner Freddie Nielsen. Read full coverage of the Nottingham Festival of Tennis here
National Mini Tennis Week sponsored by Highland Spring took place across the country and was showcased at the Nottingham Tennis Centre with over 3000 children getting involved. Find out more about National Mini Tennis Week here
Serena Williams met over 100 Girls from the London Nike Training Club schools network at the National Tennis Centre to inspire them to play tennis and keep active. Check out a video of Serena at the National Tennis Centre here
Qualifier Melanie Oudin defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-2 to win the Aegon Classic at the Edgbaston Priory Club. Read a report of the final
Croatia’s Marin Cilic was victorious at the Aegon Championships at The Queen’s Club after David Nalbandian was disqualified in the final. Read coverage of the final here
Austria’s Tamira Paszek saved five match points to beat Angelique Kerber to the Women’s singles crown at the Aegon International in Eastbourne.
Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming won the Aegon International title by defeating Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski 6-4, 6-3 in an all-British final.
The Men’s singles title in Eastbourne was won by former World No.1 Andy Roddick who saw off defending Champion Andreas Seppi. Full results from the Aegon International can be found here
Heather Watson became the first British woman to reach the third round at Wimbledon since 1998. The 20 year-old scored two straight sets wins before falling to second seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
British No.1 Andy Murray moved comfortably through to the second week for the loss of two sets.
The fourth seed won a dramatic third round match against Marcos Baghdatis on middle Saturday finishing at 11.02pm for the latest ever finish at SW19.
Andy Murray and Marcos Baghdatis after their epic match at Wimbledon
In the Men’s doubles the wild card team of Jonny Marray and Freddie Nielsen from Denmark reached the quarter finals with five set victories over two seeded pairs.
There was more to come from the British/Danish partnership in the second week of the Championships.
You can read the next part in this series of review pieces on the LTA website on 29th December.
Review the what has been going on in British tennis in 2012 with the British Tennis Annual.
Find out more about the Schools Tennis Road Show including dates for the tour in 2013 and how you can register to attend.