It's A Great Day For Brits!

Pictured: Harry Wendelken will face Alastair Gray in an all-British singles final at The Shrewsbury Club tomorrow. Pictures: Richard Dawson Photography.

There’s all-British singles and doubles finals in the Budgen Motors ITF World Tennis Tour M25 tournament at The Shrewsbury Club tomorrow - with Harry Wendelken playing in both. Wendelken, 20, from Cambridgeshire, will face Alastair Gray, 23, from Surbiton, in the day’s opening match, the singles final, at 1.30pm. That will be followed later in the afternoon by the doubles final when Wendelken will partner Oscar Weightman against Anton Matusevich and Joshua Paris.

Handed a main draw wild card, Wendelken, currently 1,037 in the world rankings, added Stuart Parker, the world number 500, to the impressive list of higher ranked players he has beaten this week to book his place in the singles final. He completed a 7-5, 6-3 victory in a little under two hours.

“I thought the level of the tennis match was very good,” said Wendelken, happy to have reached his first $25,000 final. “Obviously, both of us couldn’t hold serve until it was 4-4 in the first set, so I did well to compose myself and break back every time. 

"I did well to finally hold in that first set and used the momentum to get through that first set and I thought I played really well. It wasn’t my best tennis, but it was obviously good enough to get the job done.”

Gray’s consistent week continued as the world number 495 produced another excellent performance to beat German player Henri Squire, currently 15 places above him in the rankings, 6-1, 7-6. 

Looking ahead to the final, Gray said: “I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it. It’s always nice to play a final, but it’s also just another match, so I’m going to treat it like that and formulate the game plan with my coach and stick to that.”   

As for the challenge ahead against Wendelken, Gray added: "I haven’t played him before. I know he’s playing very well this week. He’s playing very free. He’s hitting the ball freely, so it will no doubt be a tough match, but I’m looking forward to it.”

The opening doubles semi-final saw Matusevich and Paris beat Henry Patten and Mark Whitehouse, the No. 3 seeds, 6-2, 6-3, before Wendelken and Weightman got the better of Henry Searle and Thomas Welsh 6-2, 6-4.