Dalbeattie wheelchair tennis player Keith Thom closed his 2017 season in style at the weekend by winning the doubles title at the National Indoor Championships in Shrewsbury with Austria’s Philip Fielding.

This was the first time they had paired up and they got off to a flying start with a 6-0 6-1 victory after a first-round bye. In the semi final Thom and Fielding again dominated play throughout the tie to secure a place in the final 6-2 6-4.

As expected, the final was a tight affair lasting two and a half hours against Somasundaram and Abbassi from India.

Fielding closed out the first set 6-4 with some solid serving backed up by some clever net play by Thom.

In the second set, Thom/Fielding produced some of their best play of the weekend with some great attacking play throughout, winning 6-2 to take the championship title.

In the singles, Keith also had a successful tournament. A comfortable first round win 6-0 6-0 was followed up by a walkover in the quarter final to reach the semi finals against his doubles partner.

This was the first time the pair had played each other and, despite Keith taking a lead in both sets, he eventually lost out to Fielding who proved to be too strong on the day.

In the third/fourth place play-off Keith was up against Kevin Drake who had won gold earlier in the year competing in the Invictus Games in Toronto.

Once again Thom started off well taking the first set 6-2.

The second set was a bit more tense with both players breaking each other’s serve on two occasions before Keith started to command the big points to see out the second set 6-4 and take third place overall.

This has been successful season for Keith who also reached a career high of 150 in the world earlier in the year.

The weekend’s result also saw Keith win his third national finals doubles title in the last five years, each time with a different partner.

Keith would like to thank all those who have backed him over the season including Stewartry Sports Council, Dalbeattie and District Lions Club, Dalbeattie Community Initiative and the Winnifred Ann Kennedy Trust.

With the season now closed Keith will be training hard over the next two months to prepare for next season which kicks off in February.