Charnwood Tennis Club's Rob Leck, now working as an economist for the Civil Service in Whitehall, returned to Loughborough on the weekend of 4 - 5 November to take part in the Lexus British Tour event at the University.
The British Tour is primarily the preserve of young up-and-coming professionals and established tour players looking for challenging match practice. It is unusual for players like Leck, with full time jobs outside the sport, to compete in these tournaments.
Nonetheless, the Leicestershire man still enjoys the challenge of these events, and will enter on those rare occasions when he can fit the tournament around work. In this instance, the event was helpfully scheduled to take place entirely at the weekend, with round robin groups on the Saturday using an abbreviated set format, leading to semi-finals and a final on Sunday.
Round robin group stages
Leck's campaign began on Saturday morning against Ilias Hirani Worthington, a promising young player from Cheshire who has had success on the ITF junior circuit this year. Worthington brought plenty of energy and intensity, but Leck's greater calmness and maturity saw him through to a relatively comfortable 4-2, 4-2 win, despite the fact that the youngster typically trains as much in a day as Rob does in a week!
Next up, it was 20-year old Middlesex player Nikolai Marin. Marin is a very solid competitor on the British Tour, with excellent mobility and fitness, but lacking any real weapons. Leck was therefore able to cruise through 4-2, 4-1, bringing his greater power to bear when needed.
The final round of matches on Saturday saw Leck up against the other unbeaten player in the group, Loughborough University number 2 Joe Young, playing on his home courts.
The two players know each other well, as both represent Leicestershire at county level, and when Young broke Leck's serve in the first game it looked like the Charnwood man would have a serious battle on his hands. An immediate break back allowed Leck to reassert his authority, and although Young had his moments, Leck played the big points better and eased to a 4-1, 4-2 victory.
This allowed Leck to maintain his record of never having lost to another Leicestershire player in a singles tournament, either as a junior or senior.
Straight sets semi final victory
Having qualified for the semi-finals, Leck faced promising 18-year old Jack Curtis, based at the University of Bath, whom he had defeated in three sets in Glasgow a couple of weeks earlier. Curtis was slightly more aggressive this time, in order to prevent Leck from dominating the rallies as he can, and the youngster served very well.
Leck was not at his fluent best, but a burst of four strong games in the middle of the first set saw him win it 6-4. The match was tight in the early part of the second set, but strong serving from Leck prevented him from coming under too much pressure.
Eventually, at 4-4, Curtis showed the first signs of weakness, and Leck stepped up his game to break serve and hold for a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
An old rival in the final
In the final, Leck came up against his old rival, fellow 25-year old Marcus Walters from Nottinghamshire, whom he had first played 15 years earlier, and with whom he had maintained a friendly and evenly balanced rivalry throughout their junior careers. Walters is a former national junior champion who has recently returned from several years in the USA playing college tennis, and who still competes full-time, so he obviously had a considerable advantage in terms of fitness.
Nonetheless, the first set was tight, with neither player able to greatly threaten the other's serve in the early stages. Serving at 3-4, Leck played a fairly solid game, but a couple of very marginal misses, and some good defensive play from Walters gave the Nottinghamshire man a vital break.
Walters then served out the set despite Leck's best efforts. After this Walters was very strong favourite as a result of to his superior conditioning, and although Leck was still a threat due to his big shots and variety, he just could not quite summon the energy to get the breakthrough he needed.
Walters was eventually able to close out a 6-3, 6-3 victory in a match which was notable for some high class shots from both players and the excellent spirit in which it was played.
This event is likely to be Leck's last British Tour event of the season, but he can be proud of having reached two finals from three events in 2023 despite very limited preparation.
He is now looking forward to representing Leicestershire in the Winter County Cup later in the month.