University of Stirling’s Nick Rosenzweig completed his collection of student tennis titles – defeating two team-mates in the process.
The Sports Coaching student – ranked fifth best tennis player in Scotland – won the men’s singles and doubles at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Individual Championship Finals in Sheffield.
The doubles title was the only one to have previously evaded three-times singles champion Rosenzweig. He teamed up with Harry Skinner and the duo took the title away from fellow Stirling students Calum Gee and Graeme Dyce in the final.
Rosenzweig said: “To win the singles for the third year in a row – I’m very happy as it’s not easy to win these tournaments. The level of competition is high and it gets harder every year, playing against other world-ranked players.
“Doubles was the one I was really wanting as I knew it was the only one I hadn’t won. We faced our team-mates, but you have to treat them like any other opponents and just play full-on, then once the match is over we are all friends again. We all wanted to win and it was a very competitive match though on the day I think Harry [Skinner] and I played the better tennis and deserved to win.”
Rosenzweig is close to completing his degree, with one final module and a dissertation to complete this year. He receives a tennis scholarship from Stirling – Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence - and is also a recipient of national funding support from Winning Students.
He currently coaches tennis in his home city of Dundee and is competes in Aegon British Tour and ITF Futures competitions.
“I’ve got lots going on with my studies, playing and coaching tennis so I’m not looking too far ahead at the moment,” said Rosenzweig. “With the Stirling team, we would like to try and win the European University Championships this summer as the team has come third now on a couple of occasions. First we have to qualify then the aim would be to go further than we’ve managed before.”
Stirling Performance Tennis Coach Euan McGinn said: “I'm very proud of all my players this weekend. To have a clean sweep in the men's event shows how much hard work these guys put in on a day to day basis.”
The men’s first team are pursuing more silverware this week, but face a tough opponent in the University of Bath at the semi-final stage of the BUCS Team Championship. The University Tennis Club has more than 150 members and runs a number of community programmes encouraging people to take up tennis and practise on campus at the Scottish National Tennis Centre.
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