Junior National Tennis Championships 2021 - U16 & U18

DavidC · Tennis legend

Junior National Tennis Championships 2021 - U16 & U18

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Eva Shaw has lost 21 games in 12 sets over 6 matches in the under 16s last week and u18s this week.

She seems like a real talent, I know nothing about her - how good is she?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Went down to Surbiton yesterday - wonderful weather - all open to the general public - free - very friendly club - good tennis - what's not to love?

Random Comments

Girls:

Never seen Mimi Xu (2007) play before - VERY impressed. Obviously she is amazing tall and well built for a 13 year-old - she might have grown early in which case it'll be less marked at 18. Or she might carry on, in which case, watch this space...
But for a 13 year-old she has a very hard, flat shot, which does a lot of damage, not too many daft errors, moves quite well, has a head on her shoulders, strong serve..... Eva was too strong for her but Mimi was in the match (although she did have a major wobble when she went 3-1 up, but she is very young so maybe a little lacking in match know-how)

In contrast, watched a bit of little fave Hep (2007) in her consolation match where she was trying a whole heap of things (which is good) but it was a bit all over the place. Again, no criticism - it's a match that counted for nothing, really, great place to mix it up.

Eva was solid, great physique for tennis, plays a nice game, especially for her age (2005), stayed calm (just about) when Mimi put her under pressure in the second set. Promising.

Lovely (and interesting) to see names like Sally Pethybridge doing well - no track record whatsoever in ITF juniors. Wonder why not??? But a tall, leftie player with some excellent shots. (Kristina P played fine, but Sally was easily the better player)

Kylie v Ranah was a real humdinger of a match - just brilliant. Ranah (a slight person) has such natural acceleration and whip on her shots, they come out of nowhere, hardly any wind up. BUT she also has a major wobble when 5-3 up. And Kylie plays a smart games, uses her angles, varies the trajectory. Overall, Kylie deserved it. But there's two year's difference in age.

Alicia Dudeney (another tall player) was mainly serve. Which was very effective. And one shot. But doesn't move well. A little one-dimensional. But a decent enough game for grass. (Slightly sulky demeanour, maybe not helped by parents). Jaquelyn Ogunwale fought hard but didn't quite have what it took.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Went down to Surbiton yesterday - wonderful weather - all open to the general public - free - very friendly club - good tennis - what's not to love?

Random Comments

Boys:

Joel Pierleoni and Will Nolan was a REAL standout match - excellent grass court tennis from both. Really good spirit. Really good tennis. Both deserved to win. SHould have been a final. Hope Will's not too exhausted (or injured) to defend his chances going forward. Joel should definitely get a MD junior wilcard.

Louis Bowden played very well but was head and shoulders over Matt Rutter so it wasn't much of a match. So I didn't watch that much. However, again, interesting that Louis had never played a junior ITF match until last month. (Louis is JWR 1568 against Matt Rutter at JWR 309 and yet Louis won (deservedly) 6-0 6-1)

Derrick Chen was partly injured and partly not playing that well. Will Jansen was definitely prima-donna-ish, arguing the t*ss about everything, and with a rather OTT father/coach/team. And didn't look that impressive either. Although, again, it was an irritating match to watch so better not to. Hence, maybe I didn't see enough....

Billy Blaydes has been mentioned here before. I hope no one (by which I primarily mean Billy, or Marcus) takes it wrongly when I say that he puts you so in mind of Marcus Willis. In that, he's a large lad, who looks far more like a rugby prop. But it's great to see that tennis accommodates all shapes and sizes. And he played with a lot of spirit and fight.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Girls U18 National Championships

SF

Eva Shaw def. Alice Dudeney 6-3 6-2

Kylie Bilchev def Sally Pethybridge 7-5 6-1

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Went down to Surbiton yesterday - wonderful weather - all open to the general public - free - very friendly club - good tennis - what's not to love?

Random Comments

Boys:

Joel Pierleoni and Will Nolan was a REAL standout match - excellent grass court tennis from both. Really good spirit. Really good tennis. Both deserved to win. SHould have been a final. Hope Will's not too exhausted (or injured) to defend his chances going forward. Joel should definitely get a MD junior wilcard.

Louis Bowden played very well but was head and shoulders over Matt Rutter so it wasn't much of a match. So I didn't watch that much. However, again, interesting that Louis had never played a junior ITF match until last month. (Louis is JWR 1568 against Matt Rutter at JWR 309 and yet Louis won (deservedly) 6-0 6-1)

Derrick Chen was partly injured and partly not playing that well. Will Jansen was definitely prima-donna-ish, arguing the t*ss about everything, and with a rather OTT father/coach/team. And didn't look that impressive either. Although, again, it was an irritating match to watch so better not to. Hence, maybe I didn't see enough....

Billy Blaydes has been mentioned here before. I hope no one (by which I primarily mean Billy, or Marcus) takes it wrongly when I say that he puts you so in mind of Marcus Willis. In that, he's a large lad, who looks far more like a rugby prop. But it's great to see that tennis accommodates all shapes and sizes. And he played with a lot of spirit and fight.

thannks coup - one thing i have realised from this event, is players like louis bowden or phoenix weir, others in the girls, dont appear in the itf rankings but are in fact better than many that do. it is great to get that insight, i have never followed juniors really and had no appreciation that some of the best arent out there playing itf events...

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Boys U18 National Championships

SF

Will Nolan def. Louis Bowden 6-1 6-2

Will Jansen def. Billy Blaydes 6-4 6-4

In terms of level, neither match was a patch on the Nolan v Pierleoni match yesterday. But the right players won based on their performances today.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Doubles U18 Champions 2021

GIRLS: Alicia Dudeney & Jessica Dawson

twitter.com/i/status/1403015074705518594

BOYS: Derrick Chen & Will Nolan

twitter.com/i/status/1403046260110733324

Congrats to all !

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Big days with Wimbledon qualies places on the line for the two Wills and Eva and Kylie.

Good luck to all of them.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, absolutely - a real biggie today.

My guess is that the LTA would be far more pleased if Will Nolan and Eva Shaw won.

Will Jansen (2004) is a year younger and my prediction is that Will Nolan (2003) will win easily.

Eva and Kylie, though, could be very close. Kylie (2003) plays a smart game, moves really well. Eva (2005) has big shots and is very promising for her age.

Add: all four of them now have main draw wildcards for juniors (which - on rankings - might not have been a given for Jansen, I don't know how 'favoured' he is). Eva had one already, of course, from her U16 win. And Will must be a slamdunk. But it'll still be nice for that to be sorted for all of them.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 11th of June 2021 08:47:21 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, my 'very close' prediction turned out to be more true than I'd thought:

U18 National Champion:

Eva Shaw def. Kylie Bilchev 2-6 7-5 7-6(3)

So, Eva (age 16) will get to play in the Wimbly qualis

Kylie served for the match at 5-4 in the second. She had her chance.

I didn't see any of the third set.

The first two were good tennis (the first closer than the score shows). Kylie was making Eva do the running, and forcing the error, and distributing the ball well. And then Eva's shots began to tell. And she was quite brave.

It's been a good girls draw. Well done to both (and Mimi and Ranah in the semis).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And I got the boys utterly wrong.

Will Nolan completely bottled his match and Jansen played a very smart, far more aggressive, entrepreneurial match and thoroughly deserved to win. Well done to him !

U18 National Champion

Will Jansen def. Will Nolan 7-6(4) 6-4

Spireman · Club Coach

Coup Droit wrote:
Well, my 'very close' prediction turned out to be more true than I'd thought:

U18 National Champion:

Eva Shaw def. Kylie Bilchev 2-6 7-5 7-6(3)

So, Eva (age 16) will get to play in the Wimbly qualis

Kylie served for the match at 5-4 in the second. She had her chance.

I didn't see any of the third set.

The first two were good tennis (the first closer than the score shows). Kylie was making Eva do the running, and forcing the error, and distributing the ball well. And then Eva's shots began to tell. And she was quite brave.

It's been a good girls draw. Well done to both (and Mimi and Ranah in the semis).

Just one correction, it was sally p and Alicia d in the semis with kylie and eva respectively.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Sorry, you're right, I meant in the quarters (for Mimi and Ranah) as they played extremely well, against the two who went on to make the final (better matches than the semis, in my view).

But, yes, well done to Sally and Alicia D in the semis too.

(And, indeed, Kristina P and Jaquie O, the other two quarter-finalists - it was a good draw, all told)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Well, my 'very close' prediction turned out to be more true than I'd thought:

U18 National Champion:

Eva Shaw def. Kylie Bilchev 2-6 7-5 7-6(3)

So, Eva (age 16) will get to play in the Wimbly qualis

Kylie served for the match at 5-4 in the second. She had her chance.

I didn't see any of the third set.

The first two were good tennis (the first closer than the score shows). Kylie was making Eva do the running, and forcing the error, and distributing the ball well. And then Eva's shots began to tell. And she was quite brave.

It's been a good girls draw. Well done to both (and Mimi and Ranah in the semis).

I saw the last few games in the third set. Eva is a feisty competitor and that stood her in good stead. Kylie served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 but never looked like she would get the win, whereas Eva stepped up at the crucial moments.