Above photo of the first Great Britain vision impaired tennis team
Nikhil Nair, Yvette Priestley, David Deas, Wendy Glasper, Chris Baily and Brenda Cassell are the first ever visually impaired players to represent Great Britain on the international stage.
original article by tennisfoundation
Former National champion Nair made it two out of three wins on the opening day of B1 men’s singles competition. His fourth pool match is scheduled for Tuesday’s second day of play.
With Great Britain’s players experiencing the level of international competitors in person for the first time, Nair narrowly slipped to a 5-4(5) loss to Japan’s Toshio Oshiro from Japan after a deciding tie-break.
Nair went on to claim the first ever victory for a Great Britain player in an international blind tennis tournament, earning a dominant 4-0 win against Italy’s Enzo Petrini in his second match after a succession of return winners.
The Cambridge 41-year-old edged a tie-break in his third match of the day. Nair beat Germany’s Robert Jaurichm, winning 5-4 (6) after serving an ace on sudden-death point.
Yvette Priestley’s first B1 women’s singles match ended in a 5-3 loss to Germany’s Chris Kaplan. The German player found her best tennis when needed. Priestley also continues her round-robin contests on Tuesday.
The B2 and B3 matches begin on Tuesday. Brenda Cassell, Wendy Glasper and David Deas contest B2 events and Chris Baily will be in action in B3 competition.
