The Progress Tour Wild-card Series event taking place at Millfield School, came to a close this past weekend, with Josh Paris and Tanysha Dissanayake being crowned champions of the Mens and Ladies events.
They came through a total field of 58 players, each of whom battled through progressive draws which took place over two consecutive weekends.
For the first time at a Progress Tour event, the tableau draws involved separate Mens and Ladies events. With the Millfield event being split over the two weekends, it was an ideal opportunity to trial this more standardised format, whilst the pre-lim rounds remained co-ed draws, offering level-based and progressive matches to all players. See full draws here.
A strong field on the Mens side saw the top 4 seeds make their way to the Semi-Final stage, where two marathon battles ensued; top seed Dan Little, currently studying for his Masters at University of Nottingham, coming through a 2.5 hour high quality encounter with 3rd seed Alex Jhun. In the bottom half, Josh Paris came from a set down to overcome Millfield 2019 Champion, Brandon Murphy in a Championship Tie-Break decider. The Final was hard fought, as Paris produced a commanding performance to take down Little 6-4 6-4, to take the cash, the main draw wild-card, and the trophy! Little returns to Nottingham with a Qualifying Wild-card into the forthcoming £25k events
In the Ladies event, top seed Tanysha Dissanayake came through three encounters to lift the Millfield trophy, overcoming Alicia Dudeney of Sussex in the final showdown. Dudeney, on her way back from injury, had earlier come through a tense Semi-Final against multiple Progress Tour Champion Esther Adeshina, whilst Dissanayake defeated Anna Popescu.
A huge thank you to Millfield School - the coaching team, the sports performance team and all the staff, who once again welcomed the Progress Tour for this event. We are fortunate that there are venues, clubs and 'tennis people' out there who share the same vision as to what is needed in British Tennis.
To see full draws/results, or to find out more details on our forthcoming events, please visit our Courthive page.
Until the next time...