The Walmer Open week, the unofficial Tennis Championships of East Kent, hosted at the grass courts of the Walmer Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in Archery Square, took place over the week ending 30th July 2017. The Walmer Open has been an established feature of Kent Tennis since 1903.

For the second year in a row, weather disruptions forced some of the finals to be pushed into Sunday.

Local boy, Toby Churchill, won the Men’s Singles Crown in three tight sets – the first local winner of this event for 21 years.

Tiegan Aitken, the young star from Canterbury, retained her Ladies’ Singles crown with a fine victory over Teele Annus .

In the Ladies’ Doubles, experience told over youth with local girls, Sue Boffey and Sally Holmes, prevailing over last year’s champions, Tiegan Aitken and Antoinette Chastang from Canterbury.

We had a quality Men’s Doubles Final; the youngsters (Alex De Sousa & Tom Pullen) edging out the old stagers and last year’s winners (Michael Keckes & Graham Semadeni).

There was a keenly fought Mixed doubles match and the players gamely played on in Saturday’s rain, but were eventually forced to abandon ship at one set all. Nick Hubble/Tiegan Aitken and Matt Brears/Teele Annus shared the trophy.

There was a marathon match in the Men’s O45s singles. This year (a reversal of last) Peter Stewart of Walmer overcame Nigel Cannon in three exhausting hours of tennis.

Over the week, the Club ran a total of 16 events ranging from the Men’s/Ladies Singles to the Over 75’s Men’s doubles.

A total of 142 players participated in this lovely tournament, resulting in 233 matches being played over the week. The courts were magnificent and they stood up very well to the constant use in distinctly variable weather.

The quality of the tennis on throughout the week matched the excellent courts and the good crowd enjoyed some particularly fine matches on the finals days.

Full results of the finals are as follows:

Andrew Gregory
Tournament Organiser
30.07.17