National university tennis title goes to Imperial maths student

Mathematics undergraduate Mark Whitehouse was crowned BUCS men's singles tennis champion at a tournament in Durham on 8 March.

It is the first time the title has gone to Imperial, after Mark defeated number 1 seed Torsten Wietoska of Durham University in front of a partisan crowd in the final.

Mark had reached the quarter final of last year’s competition before crashing out and was determined to do better this year as the number two seed. And he certainly delivered.

He made short work of Jonathan Binding from Durham in the quarter finals on Saturday morning to make the semi-final against third seed Peter Ashley from Leeds Beckett Carnegie on Sunday morning. The first set was  a tight affair, with Mark edging it on a tie-break. But clearly he had found a solid rhythm by the second set as he speedily earned his place in the evening's final with a 6-1 win. 

Mark faced number 1 seed Torsten Wietoska as the very slight underdog, but it was always going to be a close affair between the two top dogs.

Mark took the first set 6-4, but Torsten hit back in kind to take the second set 6-4. In the deciding set it was neck and neck at 4-4. Then Mark pulled out some superb passing shots and cheeky drop shots to break his opponent, with the score now at 5-4 and Mark and serving for the match.  He kept his cool and won his service game comfortably to see him crowned the BUCS Men’s Tennis Singles Champion 2015.

“It was tight match; I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I somehow scrapped through,” said Mark modestly. "I only decided to compete the day before the tournament because I had a nagging injury so I didn’t have particularly high expectations. So to come away with the title is great.”

Hannah Blandford, Student Sports Experience Officer (Performance), made the journey north to support Mark.

“Against a large Team Durham support base, myself and the Team Bath contingent (who had been supporting Mark all weekend) did our best to rival their “Oh when Durham come marching in…” chants. It was a thrilling final and the first time in history that Imperial have won the competition. Huge congratulations to Mark for such a fantastic achievement, which he managed to do whilst working towards a work deadline!”

Mind games

Mark is in the third year of his four year MSci Mathematics degree and plans to focus on statistics in his final master’s year in October.

In his first two years at Imperial he received a Developing Excellence Scheme (DES) scholarship from the College, progressing to a TOPSport Scholarship in his third year to help with cover coaching, equipment, entry fees, travel costs, support services, nutrition, physiological testing and more. He is also a Sport England TASS athlete (Talented Athlete Sponsorship Scheme) which is a government backed partnership between talented young athletes, educational institutions and National Governing Bodies

“The training is pretty ad hoc to be honest; I fit it in when I can. My studies come first for the moment. I have strength training once or twice a week with a specialist at Sport Imperial which is useful,” Marks says.

He represents Imperial for BUCS and plays in the national club league in the premier division. He has also has started to play in individual tournaments to boost his national and world ATP rankings.

Does being a maths scholar help in a game that is famous for its psychological battles at the elite level (recall Andy Murray's collapse to Novak Djokovic in this year's Australian Open Final)?

“Sometimes. I try not to think about the numbers too much when I’m playing, although I will have a general idea of how my serving and error percentages are stacking up. It’s good to have a game plan as well, especially when your opponent is so evenly matched as it was at BUCS."

“Also, I think it’s good that I can study for a few hours and then take a complete break and play some tennis.”

Mark has been selected to represent Great Britain at the BNP Paribas University Tennis Masters. He will now be applying to be part of the Great Britain Tennis team competing at the FISU World University Summer Games in Gwanju, Korea.

Neil Mosley, Head of Sport Imperial, commented: “Many congratulations to Mark. I’m delighted that our scholarships are bearing fruit and that we are diversifying the range of sports that we now excel at.”