ALASTAIR HOPE won back his men’s over-40 singles championship at Helensburgh Tennis Club with a straight-sets win over holder Kevin Stephen.

The match was a repeat of the 2017 final, which Kevin won by the narrowest of margins in a deciding tie-break – but this year Alastair gained revenge, wearing down his opponent in a series of long baseline rallies and securing the championship crown with a consistent display featuring very few mistakes.

In the ladies’ final, Catherine Court won the title on her first appearance in the final after a deciding championship tie break against Alison Fotheringham.

Catherine won the first set 6-2, but the second set was much closer and Alison dug deep in her bid to level the match.

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In the tie-break, Catherine opened up a 4-2 lead, but Alison came back to lead 5-4, and at 40-15 she had two set points – but she failed to take advantage, and Catherine clawed her way back to win both the set and the title.

In other over 40s matches Keith Love and Clive Charters won the men’s doubles, Liz Wylie and Val Pace won the ladies’ doubles, and Catherine Court and Ralph Ward won the mixed doubles.

In the new over 50s’ handicapped men’s doubles, Keith Love and Ralph Ward were back on court where they had a very close match against Graham Court and Clive Charters.

Keith and Ralph went into an early lead and managed to keep their nose in front to eventually win 7-5, 7-5.

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The ladies’ third veterans’ team were in action against Mount Vernon, where first couple Carolann Dobson and Barbara Gillies were up against a very experienced partnership, and lost all three sets.

At second couple Jane Carroll and Shona Bulloch took the opening set 6-3 and had to battle hard to win the second set in a tie break.

As the opposition got into their stride Jane and Shona let the third set slip away, eventually losing it 2-6 as Mount Vernon came out on top by an overall 4-2 margin.