As with the Boys, there are three age categories: U14, U16 and U18 with qualifying for the first having just taken place.
Great Britain were seeded to qualify, and despite having to replace the injured Pippa Horn with Alice Keddie, they beat Slovenia 2-1 to ensure qualification (Katy Dunne partnering Beth Askew for the decisive doubles, after Alice lost her singles), but lost 2-0 to Ukraine, so we will not be seeded in the finals this weekend. Five of the eight teams who will compete this weekend for the Europa Cup will advance to the ITF World Junior Tennis competition in August.
Great Britain were drawn against the top seeds Czech Republic in the Europa Cup finals, and unsurprisingly failed to win a set. They will now have to win their two remaining matches (against two of the other first round losers Netherlands/Belarus/Bulgaria) to qualify for the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition.
GBR lost 2-1 to the Netherlands (Katy winning her match against the Dutch number 1 Indy de Vroome - current Orange Bowl U12 champion) so will play-off for 7th place and miss out on the World finals.
The under 16 team's attempt to reach the junior Fed Cup and emulate Tara, Heather and Amy last year has unsurprisingly faltered. Playing at Queenswood they comfortably saw off Latvia but couldn't upset the top seeds in their qualifying group, Slovak Republic, who have three top 100 players.
Day 1
GBR d. Latvia 3-0
Francesca Stephenson won 6-3 6-1 Jessica Ren won 6-2 6-3 Ren/Henderson won 6-1 6-1
Day 2
Slovak Republic d. GBR 2-1
Vivien Juhaszova d. Francesca Stephenson 6-4 6-3 Jana Cepelova d. Jessica Ren 6-3 6-3 Skamlova/Cepelova lost to Ren/Henderson 4-6 6-3 [10-8]
GBR play Sweden for 3rd place in the Group
The under 18 team withdrew from their competition 2 weeks ago
Francesca Stephenson d. Louise Brunskog 6-3 6-2 Jessica Ren lost to Ellen Allgurin 6-2 6-0 Stephenson/Henderson lost to Allgurin/Milutinovic 6-2 6-3
A nice win for Fran, but Jess's scoreline is sadly indicative of the way her career has stalled compared to many in her year like Allgurin - she played the Swede twice earlier in the year, winning and losing 2 tight matches. Allgurin has since gone on to win a match on the WTA Tour and overtake Jess in Juniors
