Girls: Nike Junior Nationals (U18/U16/U14/U12) - Week 33

Kenneth · Lower Club Player

Girls: Nike Junior Nationals (U18/U16/U14/U12) - Week 33

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

U12s

Semis:

Leah Gonzales-Edwards [3] def. Hannah Smith [1] 6-0 6-4

Savannah Dada-Mascoll def. Eva Shaw 6-4 6-4

FINAL:

Savannah Dada-Mascoll def. Leah Gonzales-Edwards [3] 0-6 6-3 6-1

Big congrats to Savannah

, and to Leah too.

It's great to see the increase in the number of black players, and other ethnic minority players, who are now part of the top level in GB tennis. Seems to be particularly so in girls' tennis. Great step in the right direction.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

To add to Savannah as U12 champion, and Megan Davies as U18 champion, we have:

U14 FINAL

(6) Holly Staff def. (4) Tiegan Aitken 6-4 3-6 6-4

Well done, Holly

For some daft reason, Tiegan also played all the way through in the Consolation draw for the U16 - completely at a loss as to why she would do that (and, yes, she won it, today in the final, but why????? and this is as well as playing some doubles too - really bizarre).

The U16 semis went:

(4) Olivia Peet def. (7) Jodie Lawrence Taylor 6-1 4-6 6-1

(2) Gemma Heath def. Alex Hunter 7-5 7-5

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
I think I saw a tweet suggesting Holly Staff had won. Never seen her before. I wonder if she will play Liverpool G5?

There's Holly's R2 Petits As match against Snigur (top seed) still up on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWD8p2gM9c

Also, a lovely photo of her as U14 National Champion:

She seems to just have started playing ITFs - hence her recent pretty amazing run to the final in Ireland - so a good chance she might be at Liverpool (especially as she's based in Manchester)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Congrats to Gemma Heath, U16 National Champion

Final U16

(2) Gemma Heath def. (4) Olivia Peet 6-1 6-3

paulisi · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
paulisi wrote:
I think I saw a tweet suggesting Holly Staff had won. Never seen her before. I wonder if she will play Liverpool G5?

There's Holly's R2 Petits As match against Snigur (top seed) still up on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWD8p2gM9c

Also, a lovely photo of her as U14 National Champion:

She seems to just have started playing ITFs - hence her recent pretty amazing run to the final in Ireland - so a good chance she might be at Liverpool (especially as she's based in Manchester)

Cheers for that. Now at Manchester High school for girls.(one of the better fee paying schools)

I didn't realise she was from Manchester and not the wealthy suburbs of South Manchester.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

If anyone's interested, Megan Davies (who won the U18 National Championships very easily) has her US College 2017 application video available at:

www.youtube.com/watch

Have to say, it's miles better than many of the others I've watched (imho)

I understand, too, that there were quite a few US college coaches over, talent spotting, at the nationals. Hope they were pleased with what they saw

(and at least the event got SOME outside attention, even if not from the LTA and the press)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Good video - gives a real sense of energy. Courts look like Bath Uni - is that her base?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
Good video - gives a real sense of energy. Courts look like Bath Uni - is that her base?

Wow - that's a SERIOUS level of knowledge smile

I wouldn't recognise one court from another but, yes, I believe she's at Bath (because Mel South tweets about her, as do teambath)

And, yes, good description - I like the video too, for the same reason - she certainly looks very fit, keen, and decent technique.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Megan is based in Staffordshire, but does some training at Bath.

Kenneth · Lower Club Player

Yes there were quite a number of USA college coaches there, along with Stars and Stripes, Tennis Smart and CSUSA representatives.
Quality of play was good and those that didn't play for whatever reason did miss the best uk event of the year. Why players would play a grade 4/5 ITF in the UK but then not bother with Nationals is beyond me. What was a real shame was the low entry level for the doubles.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Megan's video looks great and being national U18 champion and very close to top 200, I am sure will deliver offers of scholarships at some of the top colleges that will suit her.

Obviously the colleges are at nationals for a reason, to strength their programmes and build their brands as sporting powerhouses and in this respect a lot of the youngsters playing are valuable commodities with the pedigree to play at 1 or 2 in a number of programs in the best conferences.

Danielle Collins (22 y/o) beat Hayley Carter (21y/o) JCH's 430 and 540 respectively in the women's NCAA final.

Looking at the seeded players and those that progressed to the QF, one player had no ITF rank, the stand out junior players being two of the three freshman on show both overseas players and in single figures (10,11 and 517) the average was 281.85 and the range 10-1388, excluding the player with no rank.

Interestingly the player with the highest rank is at Pepperdine a very conservative school in Malibu play in the WCC a conference exclusively for religiously affiliated schools who as recently as dec 14 was sued by two Basketball players alleging discrimination because of their sexual orientation. So obviously it is really important to choose a school that is a good fit for the student.