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Dan Tunstall

For the second successive year, Wiltshire and Surrey based coaches Daniel Tunstall and Peter Willcox will go head-to-head in today's Men's Singles final at the 2008 National Deaf Tennis Championships.

Sunday's second day of play in Gloucester got under way with the Men's Singles quarter-finals, in which fourth seed Lewis Fletcher, one of three prominent Wiltshire-based players in this year's event, had to come from a set down before overcoming former two-time National champion Sidney Falconer 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Meanwhile, top seed Willcox held off a strong fight back from Lancashire's Darren O'Donnell to win his quarter-final 6-2, 7-5 and then put a more assured performance to beat Fletcher 6-2, 6-1.

Willcox, formerly from Devon but now living and working as an LTA licensed coach in Byfleet, Surrey, will now bid for his eighth National title against Wiltshire-based Scot Tunstall.

Second seed Tunstall, who is the brother of singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, began Saturday with an comfortable 6-0, 6-0 win over unseeded Liverpool teenager Shaun O-Brien.

This set Tunstall up with a semi-final against another former two-time champion, Northern Ireland third seed Anthony Sinclair.

Tunstall opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set before Sinclair fought back to snatch it on a tie-break.

Tunstall then secured the decisive break in the second set to move 5-3 ahead and went on to take the set 6-4 to level the match.

The final set began with Tunstall in the ascendancy and he immediately opened up a 2-0 lead before Sinclair had to call the trainer to receive treatment for cramp. Although Sinclair felt able to continue, he retired after also dropping the next game, handing Tunstall a place in the final for the second successive year.

Sunday's penultimate day of play saw the first of the 2008 National titles decided as Catherine Graham and Sharon Templeman regained the Women's Doubles title from Oxfordshire twins Alex and Beth Simmons.

Graham and Templeman, both LTA licensed coaches based in Wiltshire and Hampshire respectively, had won the Women's Doubles title three times in the last six years before Sunday, with the Simmons twins having won the second of their two doubles titles last year in Templeman's absence.

This year's final began with the defending champions breaking to move 5-3 ahead, and after Graham and Templeman had failed to convert a break back opportunity Alex and Beth Simmons went on to clinch the set 6-4.

Graham and Templeman then had points for a 4-2 lead, but again missed out on their opportunities before finally securing a breakthrough to move 5-3 up. The Simmons sisters managed to break back to level the score once more, but a second break gave Graham and Templeman the set to force a decider.

In the final set Graham and Templeman established an early 3-0 lead, which Alex and Beth Simmons slowly clawed back to move to within one game at 4-5. However, ultimately Graham and Templeman proved the stronger as they converted their third match point seal a hard won 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory in the longest match of the day, lasting two hours and 27 minutes Today's finals will see Graham and Templeman face each other in the Women's Singles final after both won their semi-finals on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Men's Doubles final will be between top seeds Fletcher and Willcox and second seeds O'Donnell and Sinclair.

The last Open division title to be decided today will be in the Mixed Doubles, with top seeds and defending champion Graham and Fletcher taking on Templeman and Willcox, who beat second seeds and former champions Alex Simmons and Tunstall in straight sets on Sunday.

8:31am Monday 5th May 2008

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