Our under12s have been battling it out in qualifying groups to try to make the finals of their equivalent to the European Summer Cups in 2 weeks time. The format for both boys and girls is 4 qualifying venues with 2 round robin groups of 4 - the top 2 in each group playing off against the top two in the other group for 2 places (A1 v B2 and B1 v A2)
The boys played in the Netherlands and have been very successful winning all their RR matches 3-0 (v Slovenia, Netherlands & Germany) and today survived the loss of the opening singles to overcome Belgium 2-1 and progress to the finals from 5-8 August
Boys play-off
GBR 2 BEL 1
Marcus Walters lost to Guillaume Simons 4-6 2-6 Sam Ferguson beat Lukas Daels 6-1 6-3 Sam Ferguson/ Daniel Bennett beat Daels/Brees 6-1 6-3
The girls have had a tougher time in Turkey, having been thrown into a strong qualifying group including Russia and Germany (seedings are done on previous years' performances, taking no account of the strength of the current team). No information has been posted about this group on the Tennis Europe website, but the LTA has reported an early win 3-0 against Estonia but a 3-0 defeat to Russia (Gabriella Taylor losing in 2 tight sets, Maia Lumsden losing 14-12 in the third (!), and the doubles being lost 10-6 in the tiebreak)
Unfortunately the girls lost 2-1 to Germany ending their chances of making the finals - disappointing considering the strength of the team, but the draw was very unlucky.
The finals are underway in Italy with the boys in a round robin group of 4 with France, Poland and Ukraine. They lost their opener 2-1 to Ukraine (winning the doubles) but responded by beating Poland 3-0 (straight sets wins for Daniel Bennett and Sam Ferguson). To win the group they will have to beat the French today by 3-0, or 2-1 with a better sets record than France/Ukraine
