West Essex Closed

The West Essex tournament produced some excellent matches. In the Men’s Singles final, Darek Zurowski was bidding for a hat-trick of wins and faced number 2 seed Kamil Hajdrych. Zurowski won the first game then lost the next two, both by a score of 11-9. The fourth game produced some classic smashes and counter-hitting by both players. However, Zurowski won this and the fifth game 11-7 to take the title.

Hajdrych had revenge in the Men’s doubles with partner Lukasz Janisiewicz by beating Zurowski and partner Rohit Kumar 3-1 (11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10).

The Over-40 singles final also produced fast counter-hitting play. This time, reigning champion Sal Ahmed succumbed to the more-consistent Mike Wood, who won 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-4).

Ahmed also got revenge in the Veteran’s doubles, where, partnered by Ray Brown, he beat Wood and Steve Codrington 3-2 (10-12, 11-2, 11-8, 10-12, 11-9).

Brown was also involved in the Over-60 final, where he met top seed Mickey Ward. The first two games were close, 12-10 and 11-9, both significantly won by Ward. Brown then won the third game 11-5 but it was all too late as Ward played consistently with numerous attacking shots to take the title.

Other results:

Ladies Singles: Klaudia Szadkowska bt Malgorzata Muda 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-5)

Mixed Doubles: D. Zurowski/K. Szadkowska bt M. Mastalerczyk/M. Muda 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7)

Restricted Singles:  M. Vigon bt P. Scarlett 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 13-11)