BORDERS tennis star Lucy Porteous has returned from the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles with another two medals.

Lucy landed a gold medal in the mixed doubles and followed up with a women’s singles bronze medal to add to the gold and silver medals she won at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens.

Partnered by Adam Leighton, Lucy played Germany’s Thomas Wendt and Susanne Steffen in their first match in the Level 4 mixed doubles and came through a close contest, winning 5-4, 5-3.

They went on to claim the gold medal when they defeated Shunji Tobita and Akina Horiguchi of Japan 5-4, 4-1.

However, Lucy, who lives in Kelso, slipped to a 1-4, 1-4 loss to Sharon Sjouwerman (Netherlands) in her first match in her Level 4 singles event before taking on Patricia Romo of Mexico for the bronze medal.

The Borders player took an early lead with some excellent tennis, winning the opening set 4-1.

In the second set, Romo played more solidly and took it 4-2 to force a deciding match tie-break. Porteous went 5-0 down in the match tie-break but made an excellent comeback to level the score at 5-5.

The points then swung from one player to another, with both players playing some fine tennis. However, it was Porteous who just edged the match, eventually winning 4-1, 2-4, (13-11) to claim the bronze medal to add to her mixed doubles gold medal.

Scottish head coach Lesley Whitehead told the Border Telegraph: “Over the last 18 months, all the players have been working hard on specific areas of their game together with a comprehensive fitness programme.

“The improvement and performance of each of them has shown that hard work has its rewards.

“Every player has improved so much and they are now playing with more confidence and belief in their abilities.

“We are very proud of the achievements of all of the tennis team. They have been a pleasure to be with and to work with and congratulations all of them. A big thank you, too, to all the families, friends and Jo Farquharson from the Tennis Foundation, who came out to support us, as well as staff, coaches and other athletes from Team GB.” Lucy’s medals were among five golds and one bronze won by the four Special Olympics Great Britain tennis players in Los Angeles.

And the medallists could yet be among the entries for the Tennis Foundation’s Learning Disability Tennis Regional Series tournament at Scotstoun Tennis Centre in Glasgow next month.

Andrew Raitt, Tennis Scotland’s disability tennis development manager, added: “It was great to see Lucy in the GB Special Olympics Tennis team and captained by Lesley, who leads the disability tennis network for Glasgow Disability sport.  “Tennis Scotland are very proud of Lucy’s gold and bronze medal achievements in LA and hope that Lucy’s success at this global event for all abilities encourages and motivates more players from across Scotland’s disability tennis networks with a learning disability to keep training hard and to get on to the competitive pathway.”