Bradley’s Andrew Hutchinson knocked out four seeds in reaching the final of the over-50 singles at the British Open Seniors' Indoor Tennis Championships.
The unseeded former Yorkshire county player, who turns 50 next month, had a truncated first-round match when opponent Mark Briscoe retired having lost the opening set 6-2 at David Lloyd Leisure in Dudley, West Midlands.
Hutchinson then defeated 11th seed Martin Gillam 6-4, 6-3, eighth seed Luc Pajot (France) 6-4, 6-3, 13th seed Alan Leeder 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 and fifth seed Rajiv Batra before bowing to second seed Alistair Alexander 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
The other semi-final was also an all-British affair, with Alexander defeating fourth seed Graeme Adams 6-2, 7-5.
In the men’s doubles, Hutchinson teamed up with Yorkshire’s Mike Harpin to reach the quarter-finals, beating Michael Burnett and Nick Pratt 6-0, 5-4 retired before losing 6-4, 6-2 to eventual winners, third seeds Mathew Coombes and Canada’s Hubert Karrasch.
Coombes and Karrasch, who won a nail-biting semi-final 6-0, 4-6 (10-8) against top-seeded Britons Nick Boys and David Mills, beat fourth seeds Adams and Batra 6-1, 6-3 in the final.
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