Liam De La Mare has become one of the youngest ever British males to win an LTA Grade 2 level event.
Partnered with his father Matt, the Guernsey duo triumphed at the LTA Padel National Open in Middlesbrough.
The victory means Liam will claim the No 1 spot in the GB U18 rankings when the new results are published on Friday, and should see him break into the top 25 of the adult rankings.
Matt and Liam De La Mare won their first round match fairly comfortably 6-2, 6-3. Progressing to the quarter-finals, they faced the number two seeds and another pair of talented juniors, Stan Hunt and Ben Philips.
The Sarnians clinched a tight first set 7-6, and then pressed home the victory taking the second set 6-2.
In the semi-finals they met unseeded but formidable opponents, Simon Garforth-Bles and Sergey Yelnik, who are ranked 28 and 33 in the UK respectively. Simon and Sergey had taken Team GB players Alfonso Patacho and Chris Salisbury all the way when they lost in a Champions Tie Break at a Grade 1 tournament earlier this month. Liam and Matt played a strong match to win 7-5, 6-3.
In the final they faced Chris Hirst and Ed Tandy who were playing strong padel having knocked out both the number four and number one seeds in previous rounds. The De La Mares won another tight first set in a tiebreak, and then raced to victory winning the second set 6-2.
Reflecting on the weekend Liam said: “I’m just so happy to have put together a great weekend of matches here in Middlesbrough. We have be training really hard, but it’s always tough to get everything right over a tournament weekend, and so I’m really pleased with how we played against some really strong opponents. To become the number 1 U18 player in the UK is the icing on the cake. I’m closing in on the adult top 20 ranking, so I am just so motivated to keep working and see how far I can get.”
Matt added: “To be able to play alongside my son is a privilege and he’ll soon start playing with better players than me. So to go and win this competition with him at the beginning of his journey makes me incredibly proud. He’s playing so well and carried me throughout the weekend. His confidence just increased match by match. I was so pleased basically not to let him down! He works incredibly hard in training, so to see that hard work paying off is a fantastic reward.”