The season of Winter Cups is underway with our under 12s qualifying today for their final in 2 weeks time. The team of Derrick Chen, Jack Pinnington-Jones and William Nolan beat Turkey 3-0 and Ukraine 2-1, so play Denmark tomorrow for seeding rights in the final in 2 weeks time. The under 14/under 16 qualifying is next weekend.
The under 14 and under 16 teams both made successful starts to their qualifying campaigns. The under 14 team (Jack Draper, Jacob Fearnley and Harry Wendelken) comfortably accounted for Norway (Jack and Jacob winning singles and Jacob/Harry the doubles ) and now need to beat second seeds Belarus to progress to the finals
The under 16s beat Croatia 2-1 thanks to wins for Aidan McHugh and doubles success with Jake Hersey, who lost his singles. They must overcome Hungary tomorrow to qualify. Emile Hudd is the third player in the team.
Looks like the U14 British lads have taken out the number two seeds, Belarus. Wins for Jack Draper and Jacob Fearnley in the singles. Will play Romania (top seeds) or France in the final (France currently 1-0 up)
But we've lost the Boys U16 semi, against Hungary, with single losses for Jake and Aidan.
In the under 14s we completed a 3-0 win (Jacob and Harry combining for a third straight sets win) , as did France so that is the match-up to win the qualifying group
Emile and Aidan won the doubles so the under 16s lost 2-1 to Hungary and play Switzerland for third
Jack was rested from singles but the under 14s still won their group after Harry nicked a 7-5 in the third win with Jacob and Jack combining to win the decisive doubles against France
The under 16s finished third after a comfortable 3-0 win against Switzerland - Aidan and Emile winning in singles before Jake and Emile combined for a third straight sets victory
Derrick won 6-3 2-6 6-3 to ensure victory and give the team the opportunity to emulate the success of 2013, when Jack Draper, Jacob Fearnley and George Loffhagen came away with the trophy.
The under 14s got off to a good start in the finals with a convincing win over Spain, despite Spain having a top 10 ranked player. Next up is the top seeds, including the TE1 Timofey Skatov (taken over from Jack)
U14 QF
(3)GBR 3 Spain 0
Jacob won 6-1 6-2
Jack won 6-3 6-0
Jacob/Harry won 1-6 7-5 6-0
Like the girls it is a deciding doubles here. Jacob lost narrowly 6-4 in the third before Jack triumphed 2-6 7-6(2) 6-1 in the battle of the two top ranked Europeans.
