Commonwealth medals haul for British players
British players collected an impressive haul of medals in the tennis at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, winning a gold, a silver and a bronze.
Team AEGON’s Colin Fleming (pictured here) and his partner Jocelyn Rae, who’s a member of the AEGON FutureStars programme, won gold for Scotland in the mixed doubles. Meanwhile, his regular men’s doubles playing partner, Ken Skupski, won the bronze for England with Sarah Borwell.
Earlier, Skupski had teamed up with Ross Hutchins to win silver in the men’s doubles for England. Both men are are also members of Team AEGON
Doubles successes
Fleming and Rae defeated the top seeds, Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia, in a tense match that went to three sets.
After a difficult start which saw them go 0-4 down, Fleming and Rae fought back to level the match at 5-5 before winning a tight tie-break 9-7 to take the opening set. The second set followed a similar pattern, with the Australians taking an early lead, only to be pegged back by determined Scottish resistance. It too went to a tie-break but this time Hanley and Rodionova took their chance to level the match, winning it 7-2.
However, in the third set, it was the Scottish pair who took the early lead – and they never looked back as they wrapped up their 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 victory in two hours and 23 minutes.
After the match, Fleming commented ‘To have won a gold medal is amazing. We came here to represent Scotland as well as we could and to win the gold medal as well is a fantastic feeling.’ Rae said it was the highlight of her career so far.
Meanwhile, Skupski and Borwell faced their compatriots Ross Hutchins and Anna Smith in an all-English clash for the bronze medal. They dropped the opening set but were undaunted, coming through to win in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Earlier, Skupski and Hutchins had found themselves on the same side of the net, as they contested the men’s doubles final for England against Australians Paul Hanley and Peter Luczak. It was a tight-fought match with chances for both sides, but the English pair were eventually defeated 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, meaning Australia took gold and England silver.
You can follow all the news from the Commonwealth Games, including pictures from the event, on the LTA website
Team AEGON are the top British players selected by the LTA to receive the highest levels of funding and support. AEGON FutureStars is made up of Britain’s most talented emerging players.