THE second week of the Easter break proved to be a great one for junior performance and Tournament 2 squad player Ross Catlin, who won the Boys under-12 title at the Winchester Tennis and Squash Club.

Catlin, 10, played three one-set matches, winning them all convincingly. He beat Alex Beek 6-1, Richard Bekeo 6-1 and Ryan Bates 6-1 to meet fellow Totally Tennis performance player Henry Duxfield in the final.

Catlin proved the stronger, winning in the closer two-set match 7-5, 7-5 to take the title.

Competing in the boys' under-14 event, Totally Tennis performance player Joe Cox won all his matches, beating Matthew Madden 6-3, 6-3, Ben Fraser 6-1, 6-3 and Nathan Benham 6-1, 6-3.

Catlin's older sister, Tournament 1 player Stephanie, played in the girls' under-14 event, winning her first-round match against Lauren Wood 6-2, 6-3 before losing out to Katie Beeton in the second round.

The Winchester tournament is part of a series of Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) sanctioned events that are taking place from April until the beginning of September throughout Hampshire.

These are designed to give players the opportunity to improve their ratings and their ranking positions.

There are opportunities to compete locally, in the Basingstoke Open at Totally Tennis, as well as at events throughout the whole county at Aldershot, New Milton, Portsmouth, Eastleigh, the Isle of Wight, Havant, Milford-on-Sea and Southampton.

Also in action was Tournament 2 performance player Rachel Whiteside, who competed in the Maidenhead Tournament beating Alice Purgui 7-5, 7-5, and in a close three-set match she defeated fellow Totally Tennis player Aimee Paterson in the third set tie-break 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 before finally losing out to higher-rated Melanie Dodd.

Head coach Shane Deacon said: "All of our performance players have been competing in lots of tournaments throughout the two weeks of their school holidays with some great results.

"Ross played really well to win his event and it was great that both finalists were from Totally Tennis."

First published: Monday, April 24, 2006