Karina Le Fevre took the women’s singles title at the Crawley Grand Prix to make it two out of two this season.
The defending overall champion, who had already won at Liverpool, was taken to five sets by Emily Bolton, finally pulling through 13-11 in the decider.
The defending overall men’s singles champion, Chris Doran, was also looking to add to the Liverpool title, but he was beaten in three straight in the final by Mike O’Driscoll, who picked up his first Grand Prix title in the process.
Entries are open until October 23 for the Tipton Grand Prix on November 11-12, with places filling up fast. Click here to enter.
Women’s Singles
Karina Le Fevre needed five sets to shake off a spirited Emily Bolton in the final, twice taking the lead only to see her opponent level. The decider went to deuce – as the third game had earlier – but it was the senior England regular who edged it 3-2 (11-3, 6-11, 14-12, 8-11, 13-11).
Le Fevre earlier overcame Yolanda King in three games in the semi-finals, while Bolton also came straight through in three against Sandra Go as the top two seeds made it to the final.
Men’s Singles
It was a maiden Men’s Singles title for second seed Mike O’Driscoll as he defeated top seed Chris Doran in a final tinged with controversy when Doran was called for a foul serve in the third game.
Though it did not overly affect the outcome – O’Driscoll had been the better player and already led 2-0 – it cast a bit of a shadow on a notable landmark for the winner, who won by a 3-0 (7, 7, 2) margin.
Doran had not been at his best and dropped sets in the three rounds leading up to the final, against Carl Baldry, Josh Stacey and Josh Bennett.
O’Driscoll also had to dig out some results in the bottom half of the draw, seeing off James Smith in the last 16 and Adeoye Adewale in the quarter-finals, both in five, before a more routine semi-final in three against Shayan Siraj.
Well it’s taken 6 years but worth the wait, finally won a Grand Prix after lots and lots of trying (1of#2)
— mike o’driscoll (@mikeodriscoll) October 15, 2017
Under-21 Women’s Singles
Lois Peake defeated Millie Rogove in three to take the title. The pair will be team-mates at the Home Countries International next month and it was the senior girl who prevailed.
Peake reached the final by defeating Lois Perryman in the quarters and Bhavika Mistry in the semis, while Rogove overcame Federica Bonato in five in the quarters and Amelia Chan in the last four.
Under-21 Men’s Singles
Josh Bennett did not drop a game in the knockout stages, culminating in defeating Shayan Siraj in the final. Gabriel Achampong came closest to derailing Bennett in the last four, going down 9, 13, 7.
By contrast, Siraj had to battle in the early stages, overcoming Ethan Walsh in five in the last 16 and Sam Mabey in a decider in the next round. His semi-final defeat of Alex Ahl was a more untroubled 3-0 (9, 7, 2).
Open Doubles
Josh and Lawrence Stacey took the title by winning two round-robin matches. They needed five games in both, overcoming Kumiko Williams & Raphael Gabari in a match that was thrilling enough (11-8, 11-8, 13-15, 11-13, 11-6) but still looked tame compared with their 3-2 (9-11, 12-10, 10-12, 12-10, 14-12) scoreline against Hiroyuki Asano & Masaki Iizuka.
Veterans
It was an all-Paul affair in the final as Carter feat Laverty in three games to take the title.
Both had five-game battles at an earlier stage – Laverty against Leo Veinsreider in the first knockout round and Carter on two occasions, against Gary Young in the quarters and Rory Scott in the semis.
