New Compete Tennis member Ben Pritchard won the Essex Mens Singles Invitational event at the weekend, in an tournament which had a host of members from the squad based at Redbridge Sports Centre.

New Compete Tennis member Ben Pritchard won the Essex Mens' Singles Invitational event at the weekend, in an tournament which had a host of members from the squad based at Redbridge Sports Centre.

The 22-year-old saw off Mark Klein and Michael O'Gara to reach the final, where he triumphed over Luke Spooner 6-1, 6-2.

David Wright had reached the semi-finals, knocking out team-mate Marshal Tutu on the way, before he was beaten by Spooner.

Joe Hall also lost to Spooner in the first round, while Omari Whyne suffered defeat in qualifying.

Pritchard was due to play in the AEGON British Tour main draw in Bolton yesterday (Wednesday), where he will meet one of the qualifiers.

Wright was also in action at the event in Manchester, where he knocked out John Thompson 6-3, 7-5 and Kester Black 6-2, 6-0 in pre-qualifying, but was beaten in a final-set decider by Lewis Whiteley in the last qualifying round.

Joe Woolerton was defeated in pre-qualifying as he went down to Rowan Isaaks.

Injury prevented Tiffany William from competing in the under-16 Grand Prix Masters, which came as something of a disappointment as she had an excellent chance of winning, especially after making the final of the under-18 event recently.

Meanwhile, Compete's youngest player, Holly Lawrence, played for Essex in the under-eight Regional Championships.

Essex won the competition with Lawrence winning five out of her seven matches.