Reigning champion Charlotte Cornwallis, 35, won both the singles and doubles crowns at the Women’s World Real Tennis Championship at Newport, Rhode Island. She beat second seed Karen Hird, 20, a Cambridge undergraduate, in a gritty battle,
6-1 6-5, keeping her nerve when the youngster threatened to take the match into a third set. Cornwallis then teamed up with Hird to outhit Australian number 1 Amy Hayball and Britain’s Juliette Lambert in an entertaining doubles final which gave the young badminton international her first world crown, putting her into the record books as the youngest ever winner of a world title and the youngest singles finalist. These were Cornwallis’s third world singles and doubles crowns in a row and underlined her current dominance of the women’s game. Last month she won the British Open singles and doubles to snatch a double Grand Slam.
Results: Newport, Rhode Island. Women’s World Real Tennis Championships
(Names British unless stated)
Semi-finals:
C.Cornwallis bt A.Hayball (Australia) 6-1 6-0
K.Hird bt F.Adam (US) 6-4 6-5
Final: C.Cornwallis bt K.Hird 6-1 6-5
Doubles Semi-finals:
C.Cornwallis / K.Hird bt F.Adam (US)/ A.Radeljevic (US) 6-0 6-0
A.Hayball (Australia)/ J.Lambert bt J.Lippincott (US) / P.Nardolillo (US) bt 6-3 6-3
Final: C.Cornwallis / K.Hird bt A.Hayball (Australia)/ J.Lambert 6-0 6-3
