The same fate befell the under 14 girls (Francesca jones, Eliz Maloney and Ali Collins) as the boys. A worst possible draw of underranked Spain on clay kiboshed their hopes of reaching the World Junior finals . A 2-1 defeat was followed by an easy 2-0 win over Denmark to finish third in their group.
Good news from Riga, where the under 12s have qualified for the finals. The team of Holly Fischer, Emma Raducanu and Indianna Spink lost their opening match to Ukraine, but rallied to finish second in their round robin group. Qualification depended on beating the top team in the other group, host nation Latvia, who had ominously won all three rubbers in their group for the loss of just 1 set. Nevertheless a 6-4 7-6(9) victory for Indianna was followed by a 6-3 6-4 win for Holly to secure a final place, and the doubles was added for good measure. The finals are in Ajaccio, France in 2 weeks time
The U16 and U18 Tennis Europe Junior Tour European Summer Cups qualifying rounds have been taking place this week:
Good news for the girls:
U16 - In Zone B, the British girls have qualified, as runners-up to France, as follows:
QR1: Ukraine v GB - Katie Swan and Maia Lumsden won their singles and lost the doubles. 2-1
QSF: Netherlands v GB - Katie won, Maia lost and they won their doubles 2-1
QFinal : France v GB - Katie won, Maia lost in three tight sets and they lost the doubles 1-2
U18 - In Zone D, the girls failed to qualify. They had a BYE in R1, then:
QSF: Hungary v GB - Anna Brogan and Emily Arbithnott both lost their singles. Freya Christie and Emily won the doubles 1-2
Play-off for third and fourth: Slovenia v GB - Freya had to retire, Emily won, and Freya and Emily won the doulbes 2-1
The under 16 finals, which double as a Fed Cup qualifier start tomorrow in Budapest. As we lost to France we are unseeded and have to take on the host nation first. Hungary's top two Fanny Stollar and Dalma Galfi outrank Katie and Maia, and are more accomplished on clay, so it looks a tough assignment
Swan d. Galfi 6-3 6-2
Stollar d. Lumsden 6-2 6-3
Galfi/Stollar d. Lumsden/Swan 6-3 2-6 7-6(3)
It means that we must beat Slovakia (Kuzmova/Mihalikova, so tricky again - essentially the team that beat Maia et al in the World Juniors final 2 years ago) to retain hope of making the Fed Cup
We came closer than anyone against Hungary, who comfortably beat France in the final. In the 7th/8th place match Eden Richardson made a fine debut, winning in 3 before Maia lost comfortably to the Italian number 1. Maia and Eden are leading 7-6(5) 1-4, and it looks like they have abandoned the match at that point
The final summer cups have taken place over the past 4 days with the under 12s concluding the Nations Challenge event in Ajaccio, France. The eight finalists were split into round robin groups of 4. The team of Holly Fischer, Emma Raducanu and Indianna Spink narrowly lost to Poland, thumped Belgium, and lost narrowly to eventual winners Russia (Indianna being the only player to win a singles rubber against Russia all week). That meant a 5th-6th play-off against the Caech Republic today, which they won 2-1 thanks to a singles win from Emma and doubles success for Emma/Holly.
