Ivan Rodriguez-Deb and Louise Evans among stars at Visually Impaired Tennis National Finals

Deb, who only took up visually impaired tennis in 2018, finished runner-up in his inaugural National Finals in Loughborough the same year, but retained his unbeaten singles record in three year-end visits to Wrexham Tennis Centre after beating Evan Hayward, 4-0, 4-0.

Seventeen-year-old Deb’s victory in the final was much more dominant than when meeting Hayward in the round-robin phase of this year’s event, but he still won that contest 5-3, 4-2 to earn his place in the final.

With players competing in different sight classifications ranging from B1, for those with no sight, through to B2, B3 and B4-B5, Rizvi retained the B1 men’s singles title he won in 2021, defeating 2019 champion and 2021 runner-up Roy Turnham 4-1, 5-3 in the final after four of seven players advanced from the round-robin group phase of the competition to the knock-out stages.

Hopkins beat Jim Currie to the men’s B2 singles crown for the second year in a row, easing through the final 4-1, 4-0 and taking the title for the loss of just two games to repeat his win over Currie in 2021.

Meanwhile, Lancashire’s Neil Balmforth beat former multiple champion Paul Ryb 4-0, 4-2 to reverse the outcome of the 2021 B3 men’s singles final. Both Balmforth and Ryb dominated their respective round-robin groups, but it was Balmforth that came out stronger in the final, having lost out to Ryb 4-0, 4-0 in the 2021 title decider.

Louise Evans earns title treble

Louise Evans produced the outstanding results in this year’s women’s events, winning two singles titles and a doubles title.

Evans beat defending champion Andrea Logan 5-3, 4-1 to reverse the result of their B3 women’s singles final in Wrexham in 2021, while both players progressed to the final of the combined B2-B5 singles.

Evans earned three straight sets wins to finish top of her B2-B5 round-robin group of four players, while Logan edged two deciding match tie-breaks to top her group. While two short sets decided the B3 final, the B2-B5 final was settled in one tie-break set, which Evans won 6-2.

Bianka Graeming won all three of her round-robin matches in straight sets to win the B1 women’s singles title, defeating runner-up and 2019 champion Monica Smith 4-0, 5-4(1) and ending the event having won three sets by a margin of 4-0 and her other three sets after a tie-break.

Evans won her third title of this year’s championships in the B2-B5 women’s doubles, partnering Sarah Fortescue. Evans and Fortescue dropped just four games as they secured back-to-back straight sets wins, beating fellow finalists Andrea Logan and Lydia Wrightson 4-1, 4-1 to give Evans her second successive doubles title after triumphing in 2021 with partner Helen Potter.

Meanwhile, there was a second title in Wrexham this year and a successful title defence for the partnership of Balmforth and Rodriguez-Deb, who were among the winners who received their trophies from LTA President David Rawlinson.

Balmforth, winner of the B3 singles and Rodrigues-Deb, winner of the B4-B5 men’s singles, earned their second titles apiece after pairing up to beat Jim Currie and Paul Ryb 4-1, 4-1 in the men’s B2-B5 doubles, having also beaten Currie and Ryb in the same final in 2021.

After finishing as champion and runner-up, respectively, in the B1 men’s singles and women’s singles, Rizvi and Smith had to be content with runners-up honours in the B1 doubles as Nottinghamshire’s Gavin Griffiths and Warwickshire’s Yvette Priestley teamed up to win all four of their round-robin matches. However, victory didn’t come easy for Priestley and Griffiths, who edged through two of their matches in deciding match tie-breaks and beat runners-up Rizvi and Smith 5-3, 5-4(5) in the contest that ultimately decided the champions.