In the first of the age related summer cups our boys under 14 team of Max Stewart, Finn Bass and Dominic West finished fourth, ensuring qualification for the World Junior Team Finals in the Czech Republic next month.
In qualifying the team beat Slovakia 3-0, Poland 2-1 and Romania 2-1 to ensure seeding in the finals. They took advantage of their seeding, crushing Switzerland before losing to Italy and France.
A strong showing from the under 12s who won all 4 of their qualifying matches to move smoothly into the finals, to be held from August 8th in Turkey. The team of Jack Draper, Jacob Fearnley and Matthew Hollingworth beat Finland 3-0, Serbia 2-1, Germany 2-1 and Belgium 3-0
The under 18 team start their quest for the Valerio/Galea Cup tomorrow in the Czech Republic against the host nation, needing to win their first two matches to make the finals. Originally GBR were scheduled to play in a group based in Russia, but were unable to obtain visas, so have been switched. The team (Peter Ashley, Alex Sendegeya and Joshua Sapwell) are nominally seeded 4 but will do well to get past the Czechs.
The under 16 team of Jay Clarke, Joel Cannell and Marcus Walters are in Italy but face a very tough task to qualify for the Borotra Cup finals (and thus have the chance to qualify for the Davis Cup), starting with the perennially tough Italians
Unfortunately Josh was sick overnight, which weakened the under 18 team, who went down 2-1 despite a fine win by Alex over a top 100 player. That ends their hopes of qualifying for the final
U18 QR1
Czech Republic 2 (4)GBR 1
Pete lost 2-6 3-6
Alex won 1-6 6-3 6-3
Alex/Pete lost 2-6 4-6
The under 16s are on court at the moment, and Jay has claimed a good three set win over the Italian number 2
In the under 18s Josh returned to help the team to 2 easy 3-0 wins against Greece and Bulgaria to claim 5th place in the group.
The under 16s lost 2-1 to Croatia but beat Bulgaria 3-0 to finish 7th.
The under 14s start their campaign in the World Juniors on Monday
The under 12 finals start tomorrow in Turkey, and we have been placed in Group A. There are 2 round robin groups of 4 with the team placed nth in Group A playing the team placed nth in Group B to decide final placings. We open against Romania with the Czech Republic and Italy the other teams in Group A
They changed the oop and we played Italy today losing 2-1 - a win in 3 for Jacob (Fearnley) but a straight sets loss for Jack (Draper) and in the doubles (Jack/Jacob)
The boys retained their chance of the trophy with a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic (Jacob winning in 2, Jack losing in 3 and the pair combining to win in 3). To have a chance of finishing top of the group they need to beat Romania and hope that the Czech Republic beat Italy, so all three nations have 2 wins
Their outside chance has been extinguished this morning as they lost to Romania (currently 0-2 with straight set defeats for Matthew and Jacob) whilst Italy are leading the Czech Republic 2-0. Hence depending on sets etc. they will be playing off tomorrow for one of the lower positions.