I've been down to watch final qualifying today as it is only 5 mins down the road.
The standard was higher than I expected in general.
In the girls Georgie Walker was very impressive and probably the best mover on court, I've seen for a while. Nell Miller is only 14, but qualified comfortably and hit some classy backhand winners.
In the boys 15 yr old Damian Rodriquez qualified, but was really pushed by Tommy Cartledge. A shout out for 14 yr old Aidan McHugh who made it to final qualifier.
Marcus Walters is top seed after the late withdrawal of Dan Little. Katy Weymouth is the top seed in the girls.
I'm hoping to get down on Thursday as I cannot make the finals on Saturday.
-- Edited by paulisi on Sunday 16th of November 2014 06:55:04 PM
Some girls results in now - Florence Abbott took out the Austrian third seed, second seed Megan Davies was pushed to 6-4 in the third by one of our top under 14s Ali Collins, while another (Eliz Maloney) won her first ITF match
Florence lost to Georgie in the qualifiers, but got in as a LL. I thought she had a decent game. She hits the ball very hard and got some quality winners, but also the ball kept coming back and she tried to force it and made mistakes.
With just 1 girls singles match to go to complete all the first round matches - we only have 3 overseas players left on each of the boys and girls draws and half of those are Irish.
The last game - Holly Horsfall v Georgie Walker could be very interesting.
Will be interesting to see how Nell does against Donia.
It seems to me that Donia has been getting stronger and stronger - I haven't seen her for ages - wonder if she's grown a little - she was always very slight and it seemed to hinder her a tad.
In the boys, wins for Simon Carr, Matt Storey, Ben Draper and Luke Oakley.
Simon Carr was the star player and he seemed to have gears when needed. That was a high quality match. The others were fairly straight forward wins although Luke was pushed a bit in the second set.
As for the girls, I watched the first set of Eliz and she was far too consistent for Joely.
Donia seemed quite a nice player, great defences and very good approaching and at the net and poor Nell just got more and more frustrated and even that fantastic backhand couldn't breach Donia's defences.
Match of the day was Ellie v Megan. Good long powerful rallies with some terrific winners. Megan, especially in the first set, was finding fantastic angles and winners from all over the place. That match would have graced the final.
Simon Carr will probably win the boys event.
I'm expecting a Megan v Donia final and Megan should be too strong.
Some nice doubles matches, with the Scottish girls coming back from 7-9 down in the MTB(Ali Collins star player) and Will and Joe looked a well organised pairing.
Thanks for the reports. Ellie-Rose looked a bright prospect last year as an under 14, but has struggled this, so good that you reckoned her match to be a highlight.
Boys QF
Simon Carr (IRL) d. (7) Lucas Taylor 7-6(5) 6-3
Matthew Story d. (Q)Damian Rodriguez 6-1 6-2
(6) Ben Draper d. Iuca Prevosto (ITA) 6-3 6-4
(2) Luke Oakley d. Joe Tyler 6-2 7-5
SF
Simon Carr (IRL) v Matthew Story
(6) Ben Draper v (2) Luke Oakley
Doubles F
(1) McGeehan/Taylor v Davies/Tyler
Girls QF
(4) Donia Abdel-Aziz d. (Q) Nell Miller 6-1 6-4
(WC) Eliz Maloney d. Joely Lomas 6-2 6-1
(2) Megan Davies d. Ellie-Rose Griffiths 6-2 7-5
SF
Jennifer Timotin (IRL) v (4) Donia Abdel-Aziz
(WC) Eliz Maloney v (2) Megan Davies