There are three categories for the European Summer Cups with the under 14s team having successfully negotiated qualifying earlier this week. With Eleanor Dean otherwise occupied in SW19 the team of Katie Boulter, Alice Keddie and Grace Dixon won all three matches against Latvia (2-1), Hungary (2-1 via a 10-8 doubles tiebreak, loss of which would have meant missing out on qualification) and Russia (2-1) to gain a seeding for the finals this weekend in Italy.
The team will play matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the Europa Cup (a tournament we have never won), with the top 5 nations also qualifying for the World Junior Team Cup in August
The under 16s and under 18s play later in the summer
We play Denmark tomorrow in the under 16s, which we should win with whatever team is put out from the 4 nominated (Jessica Ren, Katy Dunne, Joanna Henderson with reserve Laura Robson). The winner plays top qualifying seed Ukraine, who have world no. 2 Elena Svitolina and no. 22 Sophia Kovalets, so Laura will be essential to have any realistic chance of winning that and reaching the finals.
My word I didn't know Ukraine were that strong, arguably one of the strongest teams in the whole competition, even if Laura plays they would probably still be favourites especially on the green clay.
Laura was impressive on the 50k US Green Clay events so wouldnt expect her to lose any singles and with her doubles calibre she would take some beating!
Laura wasn't there, in fact I don't think any of the nominated reserves from any team where there watching so I would assume she isn't going to play.
Too easy for the girls, the tennis courts where impossible to find and by the time I eventually found them after wandering around for half an hour Katy had already finished. Apparently it only took about 45 minutes. Jess fell behind 3-1 in the 2nd set after her opponent took a lengthy toilet break in between sets but the result was never in doubt. They won the doubles 6-2 6-3 as well.
Hungary comfortable beat Greece and France were beating Spain until in the 2nd rubber the French girl collapsed from *5-2 up in the 3rd to lose the match 9-7. However the French were a set up in the doubles when I left and looked the likely winners.
Might go again tomorrow, or maybe just for the first match then head down to Chiswick depending on the order of play there.
Thanks for the report Josh. Nations have until the Captains' meeting on the day before to change their nominated team. According to the rules: "Four players can be nominated (three players and one reserve player) but only three will be authorized to be on-site and get full hospitality." so no surprise that Laura wasn't there, once the team was decided.
Pity we weren't drawn on the side of the draw with France (second seeds) who are quite strong, but nowhere near Ukraine's strength on paper.