Corby’s very own Joe Tyler is in fantastic form going in to 18U LTA Nationals at Nottingham this week. At time of print, Joe has just played in the semi final against Ben Draper, the elder son of former Lawn Tennis Association CEO Roger Draper. Joe recently had an excellent couple of ITF tournaments in Portugal, so comes into Nationals with confidence high. He began the campaign as the No4 seed, so had already reached his seeding position, but his own expectations were high, having recently beaten Draper on his way to his first British Tour Event win, also at Nottingham. Joe started the semi final playing measured, aggressive tennis, and despite serving the opening game into direct sunlight, won the opener and then proceeded to completely dominate throughout the first set, and took it 6-0. He then held his opening service game of the second set before Draper started to use his own serve to better effect, until Tyler broke him in the 4th game to lead 3-1. Joe then held serve the whole way through and dispatched his experienced opponent 6-0 6-3. Draper, who goes to Reeds School, where Tim Henman went, was a main draw player at Junior Wimbledon this summer, so his results have been good on the International stage, but he gave little resistance to the confident Tyler. Now that Joe attends Culford School, he is likely to end up competing Reeds in a number of high profile school competitions, so the boys may well meet again soon.
En route to the semi finals, Joe beat Zach Norman from Surrey 6-3 6-3 in the first round, and followed that up with a 6/2 7/6 win over Robert Leck from Leics, before taking on the big hitting James Davis from Kent in the quarter final and producing a comfortable 6/0 7/5 win .
Joe began his tennis as a result of the Schools Development Programme the Tennis Centre runs every year, when he was just 8 years old. He has played at the Centre ever since, and is a regular member of the Corby Teams. Joe has forged a strong doubles partnership with his training partner Jack Haworth, and they have represented Northamptonshire many times together, as well as the Corby teams, and recently won 10 out of 12 matches they played at Mens County Week when the team won Division 5 in Cambridge.
Thursday update - Joe takes on top seed Alistair Gray in the final at Nottingham. Gray is currently ranked 54 in the world 18U ITF rankings, and played main draw at Wimbledon Junior Event in July. Joe started the match in great form, with some superb hitting from the back of the court which his opponent found difficult to cope with. He pressed with a high tempo and broke serve to take an early lead. Joe served for the first set at 5-4 up, and despite a long game, he held his nerve enough to take the set 6-4. Unfortunately though, this proved to be a turning point, as Joe began to take just a little off the pace he had been generating to that point, and Gray was able to step up his level. Using his experience, the top seed took control of the second set and won that 6-2. He continued in much the same form early in the third set, and despite Tyler trying really hard to get back in to the match, Gray won the third set 6-3 to take the title.