Alpha girl Alex is the new Grade C singles champion

Although there were only three players in the for the women’s singles it could not have been a closer finish with each player recording a single victory.

In their opening match, Alpha’s Anna Comer lost to Alex Chan-Taylor 21-15 21-13, but with Alex having lost her opening match to her doubles partner Megan Ferguson 21-18 21-19, the final match could have seen Megan taking the title.

The opening set was naturally a close affair with Anna snatching the set 21-18, but despite Anna sealing a straight sets victory 21-15, it was only when the tally of points was considered that Alex Chan-Taylor was awarded the title.

In the women’s doubles Alex Chan-Taylor and Megan Ferguson could not have got their challenge off to a worse start losing 21-16 21-13 against their more experienced opponents Patricia Downey and Ciara Nelson.

While they were able to record a straight sets victory over Helen Ferguson and Beverly McClure 21-17 21-17, they were ruled out of contention for the title when they lost 21-14 21-17 to Mizuki Akiyama and Larisa Samorosenko who went on to finish runners-up to Downey and Nelson.

Shyue Le Ng lifted the mens singles in the Ulster Grade C Open beating Alpha’s Timothy Lloyd on his way to the semi-final with Lloyd having seen off another Alpha club-mate Ben Dempster who was a three-set victor over Pavan Bade in the opening round.

Elsewhere, Matthew Cheung was a double winner at last weekend’s Ulster Under 11 Open while his Alpha clubmate Chloe Woods finished as runner up in both the girls singles and girls doubles.

Chloe was to ensure that Matthew and his sister Ella, who won’t be 7 until later this month, would not carry off the mixed doubles crown as she partnered Dylan Noble to a 21-17 21-14 win.

Seeded No1 in the Boys Singles was Jack Bridgeman, but Matthew Cheung had other ideas and he was to come out on top of Group A dropping only a total of ten points and ending the aspirations of the top seed 21-1 21-2 while Rudi Smyth was engaged in a three setter lasting some 31 minutes against Rory Comer with Smyth snatching victory 21-17 in the decider.

Dylan Noble, who topped Group B and had been seeded No2 was however no match for his experienced opponent and Cheung was certainly in fine form taking the title 21-9 21-6.

The boys doubles was very much a one-sided affair with Matthew Cheung teaming up with Dylan Noble to lift the prestigious title with ease.