18 hours Ago
Toby Churchill is a world champion after captaining Great Britain’s men’s 30s to their best-ever Young Seniors result at the ITF Masters World Team Championships. Churchill, head coach at both Deal Indoor Tennis Centre and Walmer Tennis Club, joined forces with Alex Ward - who coaches British No.1 Jack Draper - Surrey’s Mark Whitehouse and Nottingham’s Andrew Higham in Manavgat, Turkey.
Victory was twice as sweet, too, after GB beat their semi-final conquerors from 2024, Germany, in the last four this time around. They finished top of their group with 3-0 wins over Turkmenistan and Canada to send them through to the quarter-finals against the USA, where Ward and Whitehouse proved too strong in the singles. Ward then began the Germany tie with a strong 6-4,6-3 win before Whitehouse came from a set down to win 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
Churchill and Higham secured the victory with a tight doubles match 7-5, 7-5. The team then sealed glory against India, who were led by twins Lakshit and Chandril Sood, but GB had too much firepower, winning 3-0. “At the start of the year I was ranked No.
1 in Great Britain for the men’s over-30s and fifth in the World Masters rankings in singles and doubles,” said Churchill. “I run the junior coaching programme at Deal Indoor Tennis Centre and am incredibly happy that the council have managed to keep our centre open so we can have more sporting success from our home town!”.
