Maia Lumsden won this tournament over the weekend. Questions for David. How does this performance rank in the grand scheme of things ? Is it comparable with the Eddie Herr on a European level ?
Its the most prestigious in Europe. Its always hard to gauge under 12 activity because quite a few top players do not travel long distances to tournaments at this stage in their development, which is one reason why the junior orange bowl elects to have 16 players seeded 1=. The Auray event had just 2 non-Europeans (Canadians) this time, although last years Canadian winner Francoise Abanda did go on to win the Orange Bowl under 12s. I would rank the Eddie Herr as slightly stronger than Auray because of the greater international spread, even though some of the top Europeans aren't there.
Nevertheless Auray is a good indicator within Europe, with previous winners including Kim Clijsters and Dinara Safina. Jessica Ren is the only other British girl to win in the last 25 years (Laura Robson being runner-up, whilst Andy and Jamie Murray have won the boys event). What was most impressive was the scorelines for Maia in her six matches:
6-0 6-0 6-4 6-0 6-1 6-3 6-2 6-3 6-1 6-4 6-2 6-2
Maias CV up to now (includes reaching the final of the Smrikva Bowl, a top under 10 tournament) certainly compares with Jess, Laura and Eleanor Dean
