Welsh player scores tennis success in USA

More Information

South Wales tennis prospect Ed Jones has helped his team to runner-up place in the most prestigious competition for American universities

Jones, aged 20 from Carmarthen, and his doubles partner, Italian Matteo Fago, won all four of their matches at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships.

The performance helped the University of Tennessee to second-place in the national competition, behind Southern California.

The pair were named in the NCAA All-Tournament team as the best No. 3 doubles pairing, and individually Jones was onen of six Tennessee players to score 20 doubles victories in the season.

A freshman at the 28,000-student university in the city of Knoxville, Jones previously won the Youll Cup U19 doubles event while at Millfield School. He also helped South Wales men to the top division of County Cup and won two Great Britain International Tennis Federation (ITF) doubles events.

“This is a fantastic achievement for a Welsh player,” said Peter Drew, chief executive of Tennis Wales. “It’s a further example of the success our young players are enjoying around the world, and highlights the opportunities available to talented young players in the American college system.”

Other recent international successes have included:

• Welsh-born Ashley Hewitt, who reached the last 16 in the junior singles at the French Open;
• Cwmbran’s Phil Cochrane winning the International Tennis Foundation (ITF) Futures wheelchair event, the Lithuania Open;
• Evan Hoyt, from Llanelli, with Christopher Pearce, winning the doubles title at the Tennis Europe 16U event, the ZTK Raiffeisen Open in Slovenia.

Information on all aspects of tennis in Wales is available from Tennis Wales at 029 20 463335 or www.tennis.wales.org